Trash fish tournament

[Frank Castle]

Often the tournaments like this are legal and are monitored closely by fish/wildlife wardens.

always better safe than sorry.

I'm gonna post on this topic, just still thinking everything through. it's a little more complicated than people think, but I think there have been some great posts so far covering a lot of the big stuff

T Thekid divemaster99


Still some more opinions i'd like to see from other fishermen/naturalists/scientists - pops Oddball duanes RD. Stanzzzz7 Evz jardini

 

[skiz123]

I would alert you local Fish and Game office. Surely they would have to administer (or deny) a permit for the fish camp owner.

Thats a good idea i will look into contacting them.

 

[blindkiller85]

I'm in central Florida as well. Let me know the lake and tournament date. I have contacts in FWC.

As far as removing them, it's hard to say what it does effectively. If the lake is mainly bowfin and gar, removing them would make the largemouth population a little better. But those same fry of gar, and bowfin feed bass too. It would be my logical opinion that if you removed a chunk of those fish and stocked in some shiners/bluegill with it you would see a good population growth for the other apex fish. But it's not a miracle over night thing.

I had no qualms about taking a 12 lb largemouth out of a 10 acre pond. I haven't caught much from that lake since IMO cause there is more bait spread to the other bass and they aren't readily feeding as hard. Fished it 4 times since then and just last weekend I finally got a 3.3 and 4 lb. All the other times I fished the lake it was dink fest location me and yes I C&R 90% of my bass.

I think of it like this. In a week that 12 lb bass was probably the top and the largest or close to it in that lake. And it probably ate close to 5+ lbs of baitfish to stay healthy. All that bait now has time to spread to the other bass and population increase of baitfish. But that lake probably won't produce another bass of that size for 2-4 years. Which is what a nosey neighbor said. That he sees a routine of bass that size in that time span.

 

[blindkiller85]

Have to remember too that the FWC regulation changes just took effect today for largemouth bass. Your limit is the same 5 bass. But you can only keep one above 16" with no minimum size limit.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

I don't get the people who say gar or drum will out compete gamefish its ignorance not truth speaking most major u. S lakes r overfished that's why they aren't seeing as many bass and such

 

[skiz123]

Hey I just wanted to update you all. I ended up calling fwc and they said there wasn't enough info to say what the target fish would be other than trash fish and its not illegal because the trash fish that they will be catching don't have bag limits. It still bothers me but I guess if it's legal I will just bite my tounge.

 

[divemaster99]

Hey I just wanted to update you all. I ended up calling fwc and they said there wasn't enough info to say what the target fish would be other than trash fish and its not illegal because the trash fish that they will be catching don't have bag limits. It still bothers me but I guess if it's legal I will just bite my tounge.

It's sad that local wildlife management doesn't even care enough about our amazing roughfish to protect them from mass waste by ignorant people. I can guarantee that if the same people were trying to kill Largemouth Bass that FWC would be all over it and have it shut down weeks in advance.

 

[krichardson]

It's sad that local wildlife management doesn't even care enough about our amazing roughfish to protect them from mass waste by ignorant people. I can guarantee that if the same people were trying to kill Largemouth Bass that FWC would be all over it and have it shut down weeks in advance.

Yeah,that's pretty messed up.They will fine and possibly arrest a person over one species yet turn a blind eye to another...

 

[JasonsPlecosCichlids]

In my eyes there are no trash fish, that's just a useless term that has spread to fish that certain folks don't like or are ugly such as Carp, Bowfin, etc. One persons "sport fish" is another persons "trash fish". These are all just words that to me describe how popular certain fish are in a particular area. Bass are the #1 sport fish in America, more people fish for bass than any other fish, possibly many others combined. There have been talks of states changing these "words" to make certain catfish "sport fish" such as Blues. In the end it all mostly comes down to money. Folks will come to certain states where the fishery for bass is top notch, if that bass fishery were to decline and another fish take its spot, the state would shift focus to that fish, to keep the money flowing. Look at Florida who released the peas, you don't hear about how invasive they are, how they out compete natives, why? because of the money that pours into that state from folks that want to catch these fish, why fly to SA when you can drive to FL and catch the same peas? FL may not have the biggest or all the species but they have them. Only reason why I went to FL was because of all the exotics, they got my money.There are a lot of lakes, ponds and streams that some fish need to be managed. You can educate the public, but not everyone will follow. Even if one person follows and 100 don't, that's something. You will always have those certain folks that are set in their ways, whether they are right or wrong and some just do it out of spite and some just don't care. You can't change the minds of everyone but you can change the minds of a few, through education. This post points back to a discussion I had with another member on here about that "trash fish" term. When you use that term out in public, amongst your friends, on an open forum, people take notice, start using that term, start killing these fish when it's not needed and then the cycle start all over and never ends. It just goes on to further prove my point that I have said many times, there is no such this as trash fish.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

I hate it when people take fish out of a population because it eats to much or kills gamefish, most of the time it's unscientific nonsense, I also see a lot of people take trophy bass out of a body of water filled with dinky fish claiming they ate all the food, a little logical thinking will lead u to the fact that u should remove the dinks and leave the linkers, a 12 inch bass can move roughly 80 times faster than the average 24 inch bass, smaller bass can often outcompete much larger bass, especially if there r a bunch of smaller bass. I have managed many ponds and know how to get exceptional results.