Posted on 07/25/2006 8:03:45 AM PDT by girlangler
A fish kill involving more than 580 dead bass that coincides with a recently completed FLW Tour event in the La Crosse, Wisconsin area, has Department of Natural Resources Officials at a loss to explain. Especially since it's the second consecutive year there's been a higher-than-normal incident of dead bass following the area's largest and most lucrative tournament.
Last year, the fish autopsied following the die-off were found to have been suffering from largemouth bass virus. That disease causes death in bass, especially if they're stressed.
According to sources in Wisconsin, more than 98 percent of the bass collected from the lake area were marked with clipped tail fins. That clipping is one way FLW Bass Tournaments mark fish that have been captured and released.
That marking, however, isn't enough to lay the blame at the doorstep of the FLW event. As you might imagine, fishing tournament organizers at virtually all levels to go extreme lengths to keep their promise of catch-and-release. Both the FLW Tour and BASS go to extreme lengths to assure the safety of all caught fish, and spend considerable amounts of money on the study of catch-and-release tactics and equipment.
The marking of the 2,000 bass caught and released during the four-day FLW tournament was, in fact, part of a study being conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and fishery biology researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. A study intended to measure the mortality rates in bass-fishing tournaments.
When The Outdoor Wire contacted the FLW regarding the fish deaths, we learned that the study, although designed to accurately determine mortality rates might, in fact, have contributed to the high mortality.
"We're concerned," says Dave Washburn of FLW Outdoors, "and we all know we have a lot to learn about fish care, and that's the reason for these studies."
"The fish were healthy when they were caught, weighed-in, and released," he continued, "we're still studying this whole process - and funding other studies, including one for walleye." FLW Outdoors tournaments include the nation's largest walleye tournament circuit.
The studies of the two FLW events haven't done anything to clear up the questions of the effectiveness of catch-and-release. The first study last year pointed to fishery problems with the bass virus. This year, there are already questions regarding the ability to determine whether collected bass came from the tournament or the control fish.
All the study would be required, regardless. A 2003 Wisconsin law calls for a study of the economic, social and biological impacts of catch-and-release programs in bass tournaments. The results are expected in mid-August.
Ed Stellner, an Onalaska tournament angler, says he and other anglers are deeply concerned about the fish kill, but they also question the DNR study. "If we're killing the fish," Stellner says, "we'd definitely want to know why. But there's a bass-fishing tournament in LaCross every weekend - and when's the last time you saw this many dead bass? After last year's tournament - the first year of the study."
In effect, Stellner, and others are questioning the methods of the study. It may be, the anglers say, the study is impacting the fish, too.
For the control in the study, approximately 100 fish per day were put in 8-by-8 foot holding pens on the Black River. Those fish, however, weren't caught using hook and line; they were caught using electroshock. Anglers say the fish didn't have proper current flow in the holding pens and were kept there for up to five days.
The Outdoor Wire spoke with several experienced tournament anglers and officials yesterday afternoon regarding the LaCrosse tournament, and the pair of studies point out that the number of bass taken in tournaments represent only a tiny fraction of the fish that are actually in the fishery.
And in another fishery-related development, the Delaware River's West Branch is receiving a significant infusion of contaminated water and raw sewage from flood damage to the Deposit, New York sewage treatment plant. Consequently, the Friends of the Upper Delaware River (FUDR) is requesting release of water from New York City's watersheds in order to "flush" the West Branch.
No word yet on whether NYC officials will authorize the increased flows from six watersheds that could be used for to flush the effuse out of the West Branch.
If you'd like to be on or off this Upper Midwest (WI, IA, MN, MI, and anyone else) list, largely rural issues, please FR mail me. And ping me is you see articles of interest.
Ya know when I go fishing its to get fish to eat. I am not into catching fish to let go. If that sucker is legal he goes home with me. Perch filets are deliscious, and the cleanings go into the crab pot. Nothing wasted here.
If all these bass had been eartagged and RFID chipped we would be able to trace back this insidiousness and erradicate it!!!! Lets kill all bass within a 100 mile radius and erradicate it!!!
Now, I ask you, is a sarcasm button really necessary?
This sounds like perhaps one fish that was caught and released was diseased and the cuts made in the tail of subsequent fish infected them.
If a fishkill of this type happened in Iowa, the DNR would not post the fish to find out why they died, instead they'd go out looking for some poor farmer and pin the fishkill on him, saying his feedlot drained into a creek. Then they'd charge him $50 to $75 per fish killed.
And it would be cheaper for him to pay the fine than it would be for him to hire a lawyer to fight 'em.
I've done alot of largemouth bass fishing and I never kept one.
A friend of mine caught a large northern (which he released of course) and just from the measurements and pictures the taxidermist made an almost perfect replica of it.
Taxidermist these days do amazing work.
Somebody release 2 pair of rabbits in Australia ( I think it was Australia) sometime back in the 30's or 40's They estimate there are now over 2 billion rabbits there and they are absolutly destroying huge areas of the country. There burrows lead to horrible erosion and a host of other problems. Oops.
I fished a small lake in northern Wisconsin and fishing off the pier I caught what I believed to be the same bass twice times in one weekend. My friend caught him once also.
He was small, only 18 inches, but the cartilage on his lip was almost torn off from being caught so many times.
I think that's why he was so easy to catch is he was stressed from being caught so many times, and not only by me but by others.
He didn't have much fight in him and when I casted I hoped I didn't catch him again. He acted more like a friendly bluegill than a largemouth bass. It was weird.
I named him Lippy :)
DuPont spinners are not for catch and release.
"Somebody release 2 pair of rabbits in Australia..."
If my memory serves me right, I think Bart Simpson was the guilty party!
My son caught a 4" or so largemouth with a net in the creek behind our house. He brought him in and raised it in a 20 gallon tank for a couple of years. We had a recirculating pump to create current and a good amount of cover. It was very interesting to observe. I learned a lot about largemouth watching this one, the are clearly viscious predators. We fed him blood meal mostly, but would often get him feeder goldfish. He was one lethal eating machine. The goldfish would hide in the cover, but he would wait them out and strike as soon as they snoozed. We released him when he was ~8" long.
I posted this article because I thought it was interesting, not to whine about the fish being killed.
I have studied quite a bit and written a lot about the largemouth bass virus, and am well aware of the stress factor being suspected in its occurance.
Interestly enough, tournament fishing continues to grow but the LBV seems to have peaked in the late 1990s and a few years after, then tapered off.
I have been to many, many tournaments over the years, and have seen some fish kills in the middle of summer, but for the most part, considering how many tournaments are held, these are few and far between. In fact, I had the opportunity to see the first Shimano Release Boat work wonders during a tourny on Grand lake in Okla. many moons ago.
I think you took my posting this the wrong way.
"We released him when he was ~8" long."
I must tell you, he was mighty tasty!
LOL.
They must have heard you were bringing one of Andre Moore's Reaction Innovations baits, the Sweet Beaver or Smallie Beaver.
I've heard some great things about these baits, have you tried them on the big bass out your way?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.