This was just posted on the Bassmaster Blog for the current BASSFest tourney going on -

"Dave Lefebre had a hard decision to make. He has a limit but what does he do now. He has a 13" spot and a 14" Largemouth. He showed true sportsmanship by culling down and tossing the largemouth. Way to go Dave."

Can someone explain why he would cull down and why choosing one species over another is good sportsmanship?

This makes no sense to me either, but I don't tourney fish so maybe someone will chime in

Unless there was a curve given to the smaller species, that would just be nonsensical. But wouldn't weight be the deciding factor, not length?

I don't get it.

Ok glad I'm not the only one that's scratching his head on this.  If nobody has an answer I'll try to pose this question to Zona during tomorrow's Bassmaster Live show.

If he already had a limit and caught his 6th, he tossed the LM because maybe the spot was heavier and the reporter doesn't understand what he was seeing? 

 

Mike 

Muscle is heavier than fat. Spots move around alot more than a largemouth, they are more accepting to current where a large mouth is gonna camp out behind or in cover. No doubt a 13" spot is heavier than a 14" largemouth 

Was the smaller spot dead? Can't cull a dead fish. That's my best guess.

 if the spot was heavier why does that make it better sportsmanship? That would be what anyone would of done.

My best guess is just bad wording.  The 14" largemouth weighed more but likely wasn't doing well in his livewell.  Therefore he traded it out for a smaller 13" spot to avoid a potential dead fish penalty.  The sportsmanship part could refer to the largemouth's best chance is to be immediately placed back into the water in hopes of recovering in deeper, cooler water without the stress of the livewell.

I've had to do this a few times in tournaments. 

The only way it would make sense to let go the 14" largemouth bass and keep the 13" spotted bass is if the spotted bass was heavier.That or the author of the quote thinks it's more impressive to have a 13" spotted bass in that particular 5 bass limit than having another largemouth bass of slightly larger size than the spotted bass.

I found a picture of the blogger.

they just showed Ott Defoe on the live segment doing something kind of sort of similar it looked like.  he was saying spots had to be 12" and largemouths 14".  he was saying his largemouth was right at 14, but might be a hair short so he kept the 2 oz smaller fish (a 13" spot) because he said he wanted to be absolutely sure to have the keeper size and not end up with his largemouth being scored under 14".

Now That makes sense, done it myself. 

 

Mike