As most of you have heard I am definitely a BIG FAN of Musky(ie) and Pike.
With the opening of the warm water hatchery and the increasing size of the Esox in the state (mainly pike) as well as the increasing popularity of the fish I think it is time to begin discussing the formation of a couple of tournaments and possibly a club.
I am looking to findout how much interest there would be in possible tournaments and also a club that would meet in the SLC area. Please let me know if you are interested via a reply or PM.
I am so down for some of that!
But I get to be the club posterboy! And I want a cool de-coder ring too!
But seriously, I'm interested either way. I was actually thinking along the same lines of a tourney. One day big fish tourney kinda thing. I was going to talk to you more about it this weekend.
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That does sound cool and I always hear about bass tournaments, so why not some muskie/pike ones also[sly] I would definitely be interested.
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Sign me up.......
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Wait wait wait. If we are doing a tourney no way Bigguy can participate! He has too much of that Jedi skill. Its a REALLY unfair advantage. Or maybe we could have handicaps for the rest of us?
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Ha Ha handicaps sound good. I suggest Bigguy casts my pole and after he hooks into a good one he kindly gives me my pole back for me to reel it in[sly] this works with my kids so I think it would work for me also....
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I would be up for that, later chuck
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1 here also. ken
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Sounds good. All of the Toothed fish included ?
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Have we still got some interest in this? I'm trying to do an initial head count of sorts.
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How would this tournament work???
C&R or kill??
If kill no I'm not, but if its C&R by lb or inches....
Or are you talking club??
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My vote is for C&R. I'm not sure where everyone else stands but heck its our club we can do whatever we please! I am talking club and C&R tourneys.
Also any kind of input on anything to do with this club would be nice.
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There are several midwest musky circuits that you could model your tournament idea after. I've fished several tournaments and all run very smoothly. Check out the PMTT as a form of tournament you could model.
One thing that would concern me is the actual catch and release portion, if you did a tournament. From my 2 years of experience fishing with people and observing people around me, here in Utah, is that very few know how to properly handle and Esox, more specifically the tigers. If you are serious about this and dont want this tournament to be a detriment to the fishery, which is already struggling with the tigers, would be to open the tournament to those willing to utilize proper release tools.
What are proper release tools you might ask? First and foremost is the landing net. None of these cheap green nets, or the bags with big knots in them. Proper handling requires big treated net bags that can act as an in water livewell. Nets should not be used to drag fish into the boat. Second the type of gear people use needs to be adequate. Spinning gear is semi acceptable, as long as a heavy rod and heavy line is used. These fish cannot handle being in extensive battles with people using 8 lb test. Yes it happens to panfish anglers, hard to avoid, but if tigers are the specific target, do it right. Third a good pair of long needlnose pliers, a knipex hook cutter or something very similar, and a jaw spreader. Hook pick's are a great tool as well and should be considered, they help getting deeply hooked fish off the hook. All hook removal should be done in the water, not while the fish is lying on the bottom of the boat, I've seen this method done over and over out here and it makes me sick.
Third you need to standardize the way people measure fish. A bumb board probably the most reliable and very easy to use. After the fish is unhooked and the camera is ready, wet the bump board to protect the slime, pull the fish out slide the nose to the end of the bump board, pinch the tail and get the measurement. Pick the fish back up, supporting the entire body (no vertical holds, they stress the vertebrae.) snap a pic and back in the water it goes. Fish shouldnt be out of the water more than 30 seconds. I would suggest using a lengh only format for tournaments. Obtaining weights of tigers or pike could be harful to the fish.
You could open your tournaments to multiple bodies of water by informing all angler the night prior to the fishing of an item they need to have in each photo. This can be as simple as a roll of toilet paper, or you could get creative and make things funny, doesnt really matter. Or you could require a time stamp on the photo, but that could be fudged easily.
Just my 2 cents.
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You mite want a duel type of fish club...Like bass and pike/tigers/walleye...
And for C&R tournament you need two people per boat as a teem that do not pick each other to fish with...
Find out how many and who and have a meeting and go from there...
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Thanks for the help and info. I'll look more into the PMTT.
And as far as the netting and releasing them this is something that would be covered in meetings. Giving help and assistance is one of the many reasons I would like to see this club succeed.
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I was mulling the idea of a multi species club over also. So I'm with you on that note. Different tourneys and different species with the same guys might get pretty interesting. And as soon as I win all the money in the tournaments I would gladly buy you guys something off the dollar menu!
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Having the proper release equipment is a must for the fish to survive. If folks are really interested in this than I'd strongly recommend the following as equipment items was mentioned before.
1. Quality knotless net
2. Quality hook pic or hook remover
3. Quality jaw spreaders 10" min
4. Quality 10" long needle nose pliers
5. Quality hook cutters
6. Bump Board for accurate measuring and seamstress tape for girth measurement
Here's a link to check out on a couple of the above mentioned items...yea these items are pricey but well worth the investment IMHO
[url "http://www.thornebros.com/muskie/lure_doctoring/luredoc_knipex.html"]http://www.thornebros.com/muskie/lure_doctoring/luredoc_knipex.html[/url]
[url "http://www.thornebros.com/muskie/releasetools/release_baker.html"]http://www.thornebros.com/muskie/releasetools/release_baker.html[/url]
[url "http://www.thornebros.com/muskie/releasetools/release_dunwright.html"]http://www.thornebros.com/muskie/releasetools/release_dunwright.html[/url]
Good Luck on your Esox tournament or club.
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handicaps huh thats fed-up how can you say such a thing????/ and i thought this site was above that crap,,,,ok sounds good ill bring my beater stick and you bring a pole or some outher object to put a hearting on the fish and im their man....sounds like this could be a cool trip.. i may go if i have the time tight lines... bigfish6
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I believe most anyone who spends time fishing for them has at least some if not all of these tools. I have most of them myself, and I still consider myself fairly new to them.
This for sure will be covered in meetings. If anyone wants to be serious about them they will need to invest a little bit of dough, not too much.
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