Tournament Question: Seeking Input

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Scoop Sea
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Re: Tournament Question: Seeking Input

Post by Scoop Sea »

rockyg wrote: July 6th, 2022, 3:27 pm No one can tell you you can't keep a legal fish within your legal limit for the area you are fishing. So you can take a picture for the tournament, submit it, and then release that same fish right into your cooler to become tasty fish tacos if you like.

I kept and cooked the tagged Redfish I caught back in 2017. It was quite tasty. :lick:

And.....photo release would allow for the largest overall length fish to win, regardless of the slot limit.

On a side note, I'll bet Scoop Sea is getting tired of all these CPR tournament posts. Willkillya county is probably not going in that direction anytime soon. Sorry to derail your thread.

Well.....now that you mention it, the CPR issue has kind of taken away from the intent of the thread. However, Gary Droze fished the tourney and he discussed CPR and we were seeking input from those who fished it, so there's a plus there.

"Willkillya County" really doesn't come into play here as the tourney is put on by a team of volunteers not the local Government. If that notation was to indicate that it's held in Wakulla County and folks over here aren't concerned about conservation efforts, I would draw your attention to the Trout Jackpot we added this year at the request of some anglers. They wanted a Trout Jackpot, we didn't want to take the breeders out of the ecosystem for a tourney, so we incorporated a 5 fish slot bag with no overslots allowed. We allowed a bag limit each day, with the biggest bag being counted. We are considering making that a one day Jackpot as a means to ensure that too many trout aren't being taken out of the ecosystem unnecessarily. We've looked at CPR and it has its merits, but targeting those big breeding bulls has its own downsides (gotta land it, handle it, take the picture, make sure the picture accurately captures the length, etc). Given our efforts to not have big breeding bull reds targeted and the fact that folks could just snap a pic and throw the fish in the cooler with the slot aspect (so we haven't gained anything), I suspect you are right in thinking we won't go to CPR in the foreseeable future.

We have reviewed redfish breeding research and it appears redfish don't start breeding until around 26 inches (assuming that's why the slot is what it is). In turn, we may move forward next year with dropping the slot down for the tourney, i.e. to 26 as a means to limit impact on breeders, especially given that the bag limit will most likely change for most of our tourney area (I can't wait to see the comments if we go to a 4 fish bag :-D ).

Naturally, the good thing about the ol U.S.A. is we have the freedom to make choices and if folks can't support the tourney with it's format, we totally get it and there are no hard feelings. The RNR Team has nothing to gain personally out of this, it's all about helping out the next generations.
"Be Careful Not To Confuse Motion With Progress."
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SHOWBOAT
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Re: Tournament Question: Seeking Input

Post by SHOWBOAT »

I’ve fished and directed 26” tournaments. As director I liked it b/c I don’t like being handed illegal fish at the scales and so many folks seem to have trouble measuring…you don’t have to disqualify a team, just a fish, if you’re handed a 26.5” fish.

As a fisherman 7.5#s is so much more fun than 6.25#. Kind of like reducing trout to 19”. A fish that size doesn’t do much for me. Would rather they reduce limit to 3, close February again and allow the harvest of a few decent fish.

Each director has difficult choices to make and none will make everyone happy. I wish I could have fished this tournament, but we were putting a hurting on folks in the Pensacola BudLite Rodeo. Hope to participate next year.
In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. And we will understand only what we are taught.
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