Sunshine State Fishing

I wanted to display my distaste for many things I see happening to the Florida Bass Fishery as I am an avid bass fisherman. For example, within the last week or so, a large well known bass organization sponsored a tournament that was held on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes near Orlando. After the bass were released, a fish kill was seen with over a hundred dead fish!

I love fishing bass tournaments, but what happened here? Were there no aerated tanks at the weigh in? Were the fish released in a low oxygenated area like a canal? Were all the contestants allowed to bring their fish to the weigh scales at the same time? Something was definitely done wrong here as most catch and release tournaments have a less than 10% mortality. I think Florida bass clubs do a much better job than this! I hope there will be a letter of apology from the organization as well as what will be done in the future to prevent this kind of thing!

There needs to be a higher set of standards in keeping fish alive expecially for large tournaments like this! Perhaps the State of Florida will need to set harder guidelines for tournament weigh-ins! Some guidelines that could be set are: 1- Require that no more than 5 boats at a time bring there fish to the weigh in area, 2- Require aerated tanks at the weigh in site for tournaments that have more than 50 boat entries, 3- Require open water lake release no closer than 100 yards from the weigh in site. I'm not a PETA type, but I want our fishery to continue for both me and future generations!

20+ years bass fishing central and south Florida lakes in both bass tournaments and just for fun. I have several websites:
1- floridabasslakes.com

2- floridabassfishing.us

My Name: Paul Bruessow
BS in Materials Science and Engineering (Metallurgy) from University of Florida 1985.
3 time top ten champion for Bass Anglers Society of Sarasota
3 children, Tim, Tom and Tiffany

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