When a pro (or any participant) in a tournament catch big bass, can they keep them after weigh ins to have mounted? Also once final weigh ins are done, like at the Classic, what happens to the bass that are held up for pictures and stuff?

No. All fish get released.

I imagine if one of the fish die while getting transported for the final weigh in of the day, the fish does not count. Does the angler get a penalty and how often do the bass die in live wells in pro tournaments?

You take a penalty against the weight for each dead fish. The bass dying depends on how well you monitor your livewell and how long you stand around with them in a bag on a 80+ degree day. Or if you do things like fizzing after cranking them out of 40' of water.

What percent would you say of bass make it through? Maybe over 90%? I always wondered that.

There's a ton of studies you can google for percentages. My club penalizes 1lb per dead fish. Mortality is higher during the hot summer months. I have weighed in 2 dead fish in 8 years. 1 was hooked in the toungue and bled out. The second died, my guess is, from heat/stress.

Cool! Thanks Sloan. :-)

If a angler wants to keep a trophy tournament bass they can, however most anglers prefer a good replica mount and release the bass. Post mortality rates vary with a lot of conditions, low dissolved oxygen being the number 1 cause of death with bass held in livewells or weigh in bags. 3% post mortality rate is a common value for tournaments and I believe it's closer to 10% over all average. The problem is perception; if the bass swims off after being weighed and released it's considered a live healthy bass and unfortunately post mortality means bass die within 24 hours after being released and that is hard to determine without holding the bass in a tank to study.

Tom

Yeah, a lot more bass die after the fact than people think. Some say as much as 40% in hot weather conditions. The best thing for the fish, is catch and immediate release.

True that Shane! Have the camera ready and the scale and make it quick. :-)

this is the reason Major League Fishing is the best, no dead fish.

Sega Bass and Rapala on my wii keep all mine alive. Lol

What happens to the bass after weigh-in in most tournaments is not very good. A truck dumps all the fish into the lake at the boat ramp, and quite a few fish die.

What happens to the bass after weigh-in in most tournaments is not very good. A truck dumps all the fish into the lake at the boat ramp, and quite a few fish die.

Not saying this never happens, but I have never seen a truck dump fish. In my small club we weigh the fish and then YOU immediately take the fish back to the water and release them. The big tournaments I fish there is usually either a boat they put the fish on then release them randomly in the lake or they put them on a slide right after the weigh in podium and they get a free ride back Into the water.

What happens to the bass after weigh-in in most tournaments is not very good. A truck dumps all the fish into the lake at the boat ramp, and quite a few fish die.

A lot of bigger tournament circles have a release boat that takes the bass away from the ramp area to prevent anglers from targeting release fish.

Justin that sounds humane and pretty cool. I can picture a bunch of bass sliding down a little water slide lol.

Since the Tidal Potomac sees so many tournaments there have been quite a few studies done on the release of Bass, i.e.

http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/bass/docs/Movement%20and%20Home%20Range%20of%20Largemouth%20Bass.pdf

http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/recreational/tidalbass/MattawomanBassKill09SFACFinalDraft.pdf

http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/bass/docs/Summary_of_2010_tournament_creel_surveys.pdf

are a sample.

The last one has great info!

There are a number of special "release boats" used at the professional level tournaments.

After the fish are weighed in, the fish are either taken in a bag to the "release boats" or placed in an oxygenated tank and then transferred to one of the "release boats."

The "release boat" has a two tanks where the bass are placed. They can hold over 400 largemouth bass without a problem.

The boats travel out onto the lake or river after the weigh-in has been completed and the fish are released into the water from a trap door under each holding tank in different places in the body of water so that no one knows where or when the fish are being released.

You cannot tell the bass are being released from the boat as all of the releases are under water.

I worked the B.A.S.S. Northern Open in Richmond on the Historic James River for two years and I know where the guys working the "release boats" released the bass. I fished those areas during one of our club tournaments this October and never got a bite.

The pros do not mount their big bass. They catch and release them and go on to the next tournament. As stated above, they can have a replica made.

Club tournaments release the fish at their weigh-in sites.

Dead fish are taken home to be consumed or thrown away in a trast bin. Dead fish are not thrown back into the water for turtle food.

As for the bass kicking the bucket after a tournament, we never have seen dead bass around release sites. In fact, we fish the various club tournament weigh-in sites to catch the retreads the week or the next day after a weigh-in.

We want the bass to have a long and happy life and hit our baits again and again and again.........

What happens to the bass after weigh-in in most tournaments is not very good. A truck dumps all the fish into the lake at the boat ramp, and quite a few fish die.

maybe sometime in the past this happened? flw and bass have a pontoon boot with large aerated tanks that they take all the bass back out and spread them around the lake/river so they aren't all released in the same area.

maybe sometime in the past this happened? flw and bass have a pontoon boot with large aerated tanks that they take all the bass back out and spread them around the lake/river so they aren't all released in the same area.

not completely sure. I saw an article on it in an In-Fisherman mag maybe 2 years ago.

maybe sometime in the past this happened? flw and bass have a pontoon boot with large aerated tanks that they take all the bass back out and spread them around the lake/river so they aren't all released in the same area.

This is true, we've come a long way in caring for the catch.

However, with that said, I attended a Walmart sponsored tournament where the weigh-in was at a local store parking lot which was some twenty five to thirty minutes from the launch. After the weigh-in the fish were placed in a DNR Fisheries truck for transport to a "not to be disclosed" release point. I spoke with the DNR staff about holding the weigh-in so far from the river. They were not all that happy about it but said "we can only do so much" and indicated they planned to release the fish at the closest accessible location, which to me meant a local marina launch ramp some 15 or so minutes away.

I have seen them releasing yearling's at a ramp before; the fish are dip netted in the tank, the net is handed to an assistant who walks it to, and places the net in, the water allowing the fish to swim off. I, myself, have never seen them just dumped from the truck to the water.

Have a happy Ho, Ho, .......

Love the new Major League Fishing fish handling

rules. Penalties for throwing fish, and letting them

drop in boat. Also quick weigh, and release.

typically the release rate is over 95%

Love the new Major League Fishing fish handling rules. Penalties for throwing fish, and letting them drop in boat. Also quick weigh, and release.

X2,

 

Anyone have the digital scale they use, how accurate is it?

 

The last show I saw I was asked to mute the sound when they showed M.I. ranting; my ten year old granddaughter says "there is something seriously wrong with that man" so she will not watch any shows that have him.