We had our last regular season tourney yesterday. We did not have a good day...missed more than we caught...after 5 weeks of waiting on my truck to get fixed and not being able to fish, we just could not get a rythym going yesterday.

anyhow...

one fish yesterday...

I never thought he was going to make it. I have had some fish hit light before...but this was like the lure had drifted into his mouth..not like he hit it. and when I set the hook he did not even fight. I just drug him to the boat like he was a twig or something. He was real pale...( I would have taken a picture but the camera was in the truck)...and did not produce much slime at all. He had a few sores on him and was a little ragged looking. We were going to throw him back, even thought he was the biggest fish we had caught...just to give him the best chance to survive. I actually felt sorry for him.

But i thought lets see how he does...maybe the oxy rich water in the live well will perk him up a bit...

well he was really lax in the live well but kept on swimmin...so we weighed him in. I never thought he would make it the scales but he did...

and when I dropped him back in the lake he took off like a freakin bullet...

I almost feel like the darn fish as playin me...LOL!

but at any rate...all I can wonder is if maybe he was a culled fish or a hook spitter from another boat and was just worn out when I caught him.

but if that was true I would not think he would have hit at all...

I don't know much about tourneys, but isn't that risky? Aren't you penalized if the fish dies?

LooksLikeSinbad,

  You are penalized for dead fish. The penalty varies depending on who is running the tourney, but can run from 1/4 to 1 pound.

DELee36,

  They did a study in Truman Lake here in Missouri and found several (large) bass that had been caught 3 times in one week. It seems that after they are released from a tourney at the ramp, they stick in that area for a little while.

Now all the tourneys on Truman have a rule that you can't fish in the "No Wake" zones around marinas.

I have caught "small" bass (<16") more than once in a trip. I have also had a few that got hooked and came right back to get caught. They will hit again, but they (normally) won't hit the same lure unless it is a plastic worm.