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Email conservation director: mgoetting@mnbfn.org
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Hooks In or Out? |
by Ralph Manns Those of us who try to share the findings of scientific study with non-scientists are often frustrated. It seems very difficult to get the word out. We write about some important discovery, but find anglers, particularly the influential professional and TV bass anglers, either don't read the new information or dismiss the new scientific insights because they conflict with beliefs the anglers already hold. Professional and TV anglers aren't the only ones to be slow in learning and applying the latest "word" from scientists. Biologists, particularly state fisheries workers are often too busy with their own assigned tasks to read all of the literature produced by other scientists. They continue to advise anglers to handle fish using outmoded procedures. Full Article |
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover and a Few Good Ways to Kill BassSeptember 3, 2004by Vern Wagner As a bass club member, and your Conservation Director, I seem to be spending, as much time working on bass conservation as I do fishing. And as a result I've had some opportunities to look at bass tournament mortality from a number of different perspectives. Research lab results, DNR and tournament study results, both with large and small tourneys. I'm working on tournament weigh-in guidelines for permitted events in Minnesota and to some degree B.A.S.S. tourneys such as the Classic. And with all the information out there, we are coming to believe that we need to move away from plastic bag weigh-ins or at least educate large and small tournament organizers of what not to do. The best system and one that we will likely see soon is a in-water weigh-in scale. This is a scale that can handle having a tub with 4-5 gallons of water and can be "zeroed" between each catch of fish. Fish can be then held in a oxygenated tank, in a perforated bag or basket until being weighed and transferred to the weigh-in tank, and then released. When using a plastic bag and placing a number of fish in it the water in that bag reaches a lethal oxygen level in less then two minutes. And while it will appear that most of these fish will swim away, the hypoxia effect usually results in death within a few days. So, while most of us think that the few seconds that we are bumping fish, wrapping them tight and weighing them, is with-in "safe levels", when this stress is added to an extended period in bag, hypoxia becomes fatal. It also follows that larger fish reach toxic levels quicker due to their needs for H²0. If clubs are to continue to use plastic bags, an improvement would be to instruct guys not to bag fish until instructed to do so, weigh by boat number and control the bags. Only having one bag (two if more then 5lbs of fish) so the second boat couldn't begin bagging until a bag was available. This will slow down the weigh-in, and make guys ready to roll even more impatient then normal, but it is a price and ethic that needs to be practiced by both large and small tournaments. Better for us as bass anglers to make changes, then letting government and the public impose sanctions that are illogical. One big tournament fish kill on a lake can galvanize the sentiment the entire area against tournaments. I figure it will take years to get the real hard-cores singing out of the new weigh-in song book. Please email me your snail mail address. I have a booklet titled "Keeping Bass Alive" that I'd like send you. |
Largemouth Bass Virus |
