It’s good to see that there are so many honest well meaning folks on this site that they do not think about what will actually happen. There seems to be a misguided acceptance of the notion that if only one fish is weighed per week instead of two, only half the number of fish will be killed for this tournament. Real life does not work that way. Prize tournaments have always brought out the worse in people and the rule changes are largely specious.
People will cull fish. Enough do it blatantly on various party boats where the only advantage is more pounds in the cooler. To think that many more folks won’t higrade when the fish could win prizes worth several hundred dollars and “prestige” is not reasonable.
It is reasonably imagined that a couple friends can go out fishing Friday night and all weekend and kill dozens of fish trying to get to the next “bigger bass” for weigh in. If fishing for a team, the pressure will be to keep at least the two biggest per person so that their team members can also have good fish to weigh in.
So in reality, the decrease in number of weighed in fish will have very little effect on the number of fished killed due to the tournament.
The real danger is in the cumulative effect on conservation. Considering that the whole point of this is to create a media event to help OTW make money, it is logical to assume that there will be plenty of well orchestrated media coverage and it will promote KILLING bass.
That is not a message of conservation. It says there are plenty of fish to the folks were not aware of the state of the fishery. There are so many that we’ll kill them, not for food, but for possible cash and prizes.
Consider that for decades fishermen, especially fly fishermen, have promoted catch and release fishing. It didn’t catch on until recently when well publicized LM bass tournaments gave prizes for only LIVE fish. That was progress. It only happened as result of regional and national media coverage.
After eons of showing off stringers of dead fish for bragging rights, that practice became frowned upon. Apparently OTW thinks that reviving this tradition will help sell magazines and increase revenues. I think they are right. But I also think it is a giant step backward for conservation. OTW is taking from a resource that many of us fought hard to rebuild.
When Mr. Megan, the publisher of OTW wrote, “I would never, knowingly, jeopardize what so many of us enjoy,” I was reminded of Michael Jackson saying, “I love all children and would never knowingly hurt them.”
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