06-29-2011, 08:39 PM
It seems as though you don't believe me Ron! Please feel free to call Doug. The way they can tell the difference is, the planted fish had a dye in them. For the last 3 years, it has actually been HIGHER than the 80% that I quoted you earlier. As far as the mortality rate that exists at (our) tournament, it is far far far lower than you assume! We, with the F&G, have a less than 5% mortality rate agreement! Feel free to ask Doug about that as well! After speaking with all of the people that helped release fish this year, I can tell you, that the only way you would believe this is to come witness it yourself! The problem with releasing fish right at the dock is, if we have even one dead fish, we get criticized to death. Even though that fish will be ate by somebody! Realize that most if not all of the studies that you read are, from back east. I agree that some tournaments might have huge mortality rates. Which could be caused by numerous things such as too warm of water, too deep of water, traveling 70 miles over lake Erie in 5 foot waves, types of lures being used and maybe lots of others! There will probably be more walleye killed this Saturday by meat hunters, than our tournament has killed in 14 years. If are you involved with the F&G, I think your idea of tagging the fish caught in the tournament is an AWESOME idea. I would love to see the results on that. If the results were as you expect them to be, I would have to eat a bunch of crow and I would never fish any tournaments again, I can assure you.
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