50 minutes ago, stk44 said:

Can you fish paper tournaments during the closed season? 

 

Completely closed season?  That's a hard no here.  Can't even legally target a bass during the closed season.

 

If its open for C & R only, then you can do an immediate release format.

1 hour ago, stk44 said:

 

Can you fish paper tournaments during the closed season? 

If the fishing season is catch and release only then you can definitely have a paper tournament but if it's closed then you cannot.  Another benefit is that with a paper T you can establish your own keeper size.  I just fished a tournament last weekend that had an 18" size limit on the lake but our keeper size was 14".  Catch, measure, weigh, release.  I had a limit with only of my fish being 18".  When we have kid tournament we have a 12" limit.  

 

I'm not railing against traditional weigh-ins.  As a boater, I don't like messing around with the livewell and keeping fish alive all day but I've done it often.  Plus, I've been a release boat multiple times and I fear many of the fish don't last very long after being released.  

 

Way back, when I fished in tournaments my main culling strategy was to hope and pray that I caught enough to worry about culling! Assuming that I had five in the box and caught number six, if it wasn’t obvious I’d use a balance beam.

32 minutes ago, volzfan59 said:

Way back, when I fished in tournaments my main culling strategy was to hope and pray that I caught enough to worry about culling! Assuming that I had five in the box and caught number six, if it wasn’t obvious I’d use a balance beam.

A lot of days are still like that for me 😀

12 hours ago, Junk Fisherman said:

If the fishing season is catch and release only then you can definitely have a paper tournament but if it's closed then you cannot.  Another benefit is that with a paper T you can establish your own keeper size.  I just fished a tournament last weekend that had an 18" size limit on the lake but our keeper size was 14".  Catch, measure, weigh, release.  I had a limit with only of my fish being 18".  When we have kid tournament we have a 12" limit.  

 

I'm not railing against traditional weigh-ins.  As a boater, I don't like messing around with the livewell and keeping fish alive all day but I've done it often.  Plus, I've been a release boat multiple times and I fear many of the fish don't last very long after being released.  

 

It’s a cool concept. My club has considered doing that on Erie so that we can have a tournament during the C&R period. I didn’t check closely into the legality/feasibility of it. 

15 minutes ago, stk44 said:

A lot of days are still like that for me 😀

It’s a cool concept. My club has considered doing that on Erie so that we can have a tournament during the C&R period. I didn’t check closely into the legality/feasibility of it. 

From what I saw at put in bay Lake Erie, there are no rules 😂 

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

From what I saw at put in bay Lake Erie, there are no rules 😂 

Fair enough. I’ll keep that in mind when we revisit this next year. We do a 1day Erie tourney this year and there’s always a 101% of a small craft advisory which restricts us to presque isle bay. Hopefully there is some smallmouth activity in PIB in late June but I’m not counting on it. 

4 hours ago, stk44 said:

Fair enough. I’ll keep that in mind when we revisit this next year. We do a 1day Erie tourney this year and there’s always a 101% of a small craft advisory which restricts us to presque isle bay. Hopefully there is some smallmouth activity in PIB in late June but I’m not counting on it. 

There’s always cold beer on middle bass island if all else fails 

On 5/6/2025 at 11:03 AM, JHoss said:

I use the Bubba Smart Scale. Everything gets weighed as I catch it and assigned to the color of their cull tag. Every fish after 5 gets weighed unless it's obviously not making the team. Occasionally, if I get two fish that are extremely close in weight, I just hold them side by side and eye ball them. I fish from a 1448 Jon Boat so bringing a balance beam and extra tags just takes up unnecessary space and weight. 

Jinxed myself with this daggon post. Fished a tournament a couple weeks ago and my Bubba had 15.05, but the tournament scale had me at 14.39. I thought the scale was bad until I realized I culled the wrong fish. Nothing's foolproof I suppose. 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

There’s always cold beer on middle bass island if all else fails 

True but I’m not getting there from PA in a bass boat lol. 

🎶 The minnow would be lost……. 🎶 

I use the Ardent smart cull tags as well. I weigh each fish when they come in the boat until I get 5 then I weigh them if I think they are close enough to move up. If not I toss them back and continue on my day. Usaully within 2 ounces I'll use the cull beam because I have a berkley scake which usually gets me accurate within 2 ounces but just to make sure I put em on the beam. The only difference I have modified my beam with a set of fish grips on each end instead of hanging by the cull tags.