i fished my first tourney today 7-1:30 around 7:45 i caught a nice 3.5 lb largemouth sweet beaver c-rigged, but he was bleeding like a stuck pig, i mean my hands and boat were covered with blood and big clots to, i decided to cut most of the hook with my diaganol pliars and release him, and he swam away slowly but still alive, hoping the fishing gods would take care of me later, my partner wasnt too happy about that and after fishing another 4 hrs before my next fish neither was i, there is a 8oz penalty for a dead fish, during weigh-in 3 people brought in dead fish and you can hear the whispers in the crowd about the fish being dead, what would you have done?  

depends where i was fishing but a 3.5 is a good tournament fish proubly would have keep it.

I would not bring a dead fish to the weigh in.  You did the right thing, just my opinion.

If the fish was bleeding that bad I would have kept it figuring it was not going to make it anyway.  Then I would have had some dinner when I got home that night.

During tournaments anything goes. I don't know if it would've helped or not but you wouldn't have known it either. Its realy a personal call. How do you feel about it?

Second guessing decisions will drive us all crazy if we allow it. It is obvious that at the moment your decision was made to return it to the waters. In tourney fishing there are many choices that need to be made spontaniously. I find it best to choose and proceed with focus, rather than to choose and wonder what if?  

I don't know exactly what I would do until I am faced with these circumstances. But I do believe that gut feelings are usually the right things to do.

JMPO

You did what you felt you had to do. What other people would have done should mean nothing to you.

You are a far better man than I. I would have weighed it. What was the Big Fish of the Tourney?

You did the right thing.  What you did gave the fish its only chance of living.