Hey brian,

I am a little bummed, as the reason that I had emailed you privately about the tournaments was that I wanted to keep it between a few people and not involve the whole internet.

I have no problem as to releasing fish, as a deckhand in the 80's, I was urging the release of calicos and other fish way before it became the "in" thing to do. I have released dozens of legal lingcod that I caught at San Miguel while dead-heading to try to help the local population. I along with a few other friends released many, many legal bass in the anchorage at certain key spots, and returned many times to fish them successfully in the late 80's and early 90's. I do believe in the merit of C&R fishing.

BUT (here comes the kicker)

I have a problem with the criminalization of keeping legal fish! I know that this is going to piss some people off, but the fact is that I, very occasionally do enjoy shooting a nice calico ( under 6 lbs) I do have some personal standards. I have on several occasions had perfect shots on BIG bass, some upwards of 8 to 10 lbs, that I have not taken. It is a great thrill to successfully stalk a great fish of this size, and not shoot it. Having said this, what I wanted to avoid, was to create a bunch of hoopla about the tournaments, some of which may be unnecessarily negative. Now that this is out here, lets talk about it.

My original idea was to have a 3 fish limit of 3 species, Bass, Halibut and WSB. I want to keep these tournaments as easy and fun as possible. The fact is that if people want to fish in the tourney and keep bass alive, great! Part of the fun of these things is the weigh in and seeing what everybody catches. If I wanted to see a number written on a board, I would read the Week Old News. I do understand that bass may die because of the tournaments that I am promoting. THIS IS A FACT THAT I CAN LIVE WITH - Provided that people will take the fish home and eat it. The fact of the matter is that I do not expect 100's of participants (though it would be great), I would like to see anywhere from 10-30 or 40 kayakers who want to go out and have fun, catch some fish, meet some new friends, and maybe learn some new techniques. I would hope that they would be honest fishermen (isn't that an ozxymoron?) that wouldn't cheat to win a little bit of prize money. Common guys, with 20 participants, at $10, that is $100 dollars for 1st place. I am not going to have lie detector tests for the winners. I hope that you can have enough integrity to not let a dead fish drop to the bottom in the hopes of winning.

Having motorboats running around, picking up fish and weighing them, is a great idea, but at this point, too much for me to think about. Just the liability of having a motorboat, sanctioned by the tourney, I can hear the lawyers smacking their lips already. At this time it will not happen. I want for us to all go out there and have fun, catch a few fish, maybe win a little $ and have a BBQ at the end. Nothing illegal or immoral.

If there were hundreds of participants, then I would definatly consider the merits of a C&R weigh boat or other ideas, but as it stands now, it will be a 3 fish limit of Calico or Sand Bass, 3 White Sea Bass and 5 halibut. 1 point per fish, 1 point per pound. I hope that we can all go out there and enjoy a day of fun competition, good fishing and comeraderie. This is a fishing tournament for not only those on this site, but many other sites, as well as local fishermen.

This is a optional tournament. If you don't want to do it, it is up to you. If you want to concentrate on halibut (where the winners will probably come from) than do that. If you want to come out and keep a couple of calicos, great! I will even help you with some killer recipies if you want. They are a very tasty fish. You will be expected to fish within the laws of the F&G, and the rules of the torunament. No culling fish, if you want to keep them alive, and release them, great! Go for it. I will do anything I can to help you. But I will not criminalize, or shun those who keep a few for personal consumption.

Having said this, our first tournament will take place at Goleta Beach, on Sunday, March 25th, weather permitting. This area holds a lot of fish, a lot of different structure and different fishing zones near the launch point. The final copy of the rules, times and places will follow by tomorrow.

Respectfully,

Marco Farrell AKA MoonDoggie


Hey brian,

I am a little bummed, as the reason that I had emailed you privately about the tournaments was that I wanted to keep it between a few people and not involve the whole internet.

I have no problem as to releasing fish, as a deckhand I was urging the release of calicos and other fish way before it became the "in" thing to do. I have released dozens of legal lingcod that I caught at San Miguel while dead-heading to try to help the local population. I along with a few other friends released many, many legal bass in the anchorage at certain key spots, and returned many times to fish them successfully in the late 80's and early 90's. I do believe in the merit of C&R fishing.

BUT (here comes the kicker)

I have a problem with the criminalization of keeping legal fish! I know that this is going to piss some people off, but the fact is that I, very occasionally do enjoy shooting a nice calico ( under 6 lbs) I do have some personal standards. I have on several occasions had perfect shots on BIG bass, some upwards of 8 to 10 lbs, that I have not taken. It is a great thrill to successfully stalk a great fish of this size, and not shoot it. Having said this, what I wanted to avoid, was to create a bunch of hoopla about the tournaments, some of which may be unnecessarily negative. Now that this is out here, lets talk about it.

My original idea was to have a 3 fish limit of 3 species, Bass, Halibut and WSB. I want to keep these tournaments as easy and fun as possible. The fact is that if people want to fish in the tourney and keep bass alive, great! Part of the fun of these things is the weigh in and seeing what everybody catches. If I wanted to see a number written on a board, I would read the Week Old News. I do understand that bass may die because of the tournaments that I am promoting. THIS IS A FACT THAT I CAN LIVE WITH - Provided that people will take the fish home and eat it. The fact of the matter is that I do not expect 100's of participants (though it would be great), I would like to see anywhere from 10-30 or 40 kayakers who want to go out and have fun, catch some fish, meet some new friends, and maybe learn some new techniques. I would hope that they would be honest fishermen (isn't that an ozxymoron?) that wouldn't cheat to win a little bit of prize money. Common guys, with 20 participants, at $10, that is $100 dollars for 1st place. (big fish %30, 1st - 30%, 2nd - %20, 3rd - 10%) I am not going to have lie detector tests for the winners. I hope that you can have enough integrity to not let a dead fish drop to the bottom in the hopes of winning.

These will be kayakers, not highly specialized speedboats with top of the line electronics for pinpointing individual stones. In reality, it is pretty much a crapshoot as to who will win.

Having motorboats running around, picking up fish and weighing them, is a great idea, but at this point, too much for me to think about. Just the liability of having a motorboat, sanctioned by the tourney, I can hear the lawyers smacking their lips already. At this time it will not happen. I want for us to all go out there and have fun, catch a few fish, maybe win a little $ and have a BBQ at the end. Nothing illegal or immoral.

If there were hundreds of participants, then I would definatly consider the merits of a C&R weigh boat or other ideas, but as it stands now, it will be a 3 fish limit of Calico or Sand Bass, 3 White Sea Bass and 5 halibut. 1 point per fish, 1 point per pound. I hope that we can all go out there and enjoy a day of fun competition, good fishing and comeraderie.

This is a optional tournament. If you don't want to do it, it is up to you. If you want to concentrate on halibut (where the winners will probably come from) than do that. If you want to come out and keep a couple of calicos, great! I will even help you with some killer recipies if you want. They are a very tasty fish. You will be expected to fish within the laws of the F&G, and the rules of the torunament. No culling fish, if you want to keep them alive, and release them, great! Go for it. I will do anything I can to help you. But I will not criminalize, or shun those who keep a few for personal consumption.

Having said this, our first tournament will take place at Goleta Beach, on Sunday 25th, weather permitting. This area holds a lot of fish, a lot of different structure and different fishing zones near the launch point. The final copy of the rules, times and places will follow by tomorrow.


Marco Farrell AKA MoonDoggie


>
> These are just thoughts, I would love to hear your
> opinions, an any
> potential problems that could come up. I don't want
> to put it out to too
> many people to discuss, we could be here for a year
> trying to please everyone.
>

March 25.... damn...during my spring break. Oh well I guess I am willing to drive up here. I wish the dorms stayed open. Is there such a thing as a cheap hotel in SB?

Jason

Marco,
Sorry about posting, but I thought it would help work out some details. I understand that you don't want to go to the trouble to organize a catch and release only tournament for the expected number of anglers that you'll have. However, even if you do get only 20 fishermen, and have a 3 fish limit, that's till 60 fish off a spot if the fishin is AVERAGE. It doesn't take much to catch 3 calico bass in a day. I don't want to say this, but if you're not going to even attempt to keep some bass alive, I don't think I want a part of it. Don't take it the wrong way, it's not about you, or anything like that. "It's not you, it's me" lol. It really would not be that big of a deal to have a catch and release policy. If people want to keep their calico bass, they either don't fish the tournament or deal with the fact that that isn't acceptable that day. I personally think it's the best way to go for the anglers, the tournaments, and the fish. Check your email (sometime, my internet's down right now).
-Brian

Brian,

No worries, and I completely understand your position. But my position still stands that if we take 60 bass, it will not impact the longterm population of the fishery. Remember that if these 20 were on a charter to the SM1, that they would most likey take many more fish than three, and then go over the channel to fill out their limit of Rockfish. So, if anything, I am keeping them from being out that day and killing many more fish. (I know that that line of reasoning is flawed and asinine, but no different than those guys wouldn't keep those fish if it wernt for the tourney.)

Think about a cattle boat, day in and day out, about how many fish they take off our reefs, and we can still go out and catch many fish. I am again, not condoning taking of fish you can't eat, but it is well within the limits that the law of the land has prescribed.

I mean, realistically, do you think that a spot like mesa lane, which is pretty small, has a long term impact by the 1/2 day boat fishing there one day??? If this were the case, you would never catch a fish on the one mile, Horseshoe, Cambys, Mohawk or Naples. Calico bass move around quite a bit and the overall impact is negligable, otherwise I would not be promoting it. If this is the way you feel, will you stop fishing the party boats because they kill fish? (you probably will because you just got a killer skiff : )

I think that we need to remember that we are out there, using a resource. I also think that the person that goes to the store and buys a hunk of fish flesh wrapped in styrofoam does a lot more to damage the resource(ocean) than I do, killing a few fish that I do eat. The fish in the store was caught by methods that have bycatch issues, spoilage issues and is probably not very fresh at all.

I would love for there to be an easy answer. I would love to say that, yes, we will have a pick up boat, and that the fish that you wish to be released, will be. But with the liability issues involved, with the posibility of someone dropping a winning fish overboard, oops, sorry bro, there goes your prize money..., it just isn't gonna happen this early in the tourneys. I would like to see someone come up with a good solution to this, but what I don't want is for someone to go to the trouble, expense and time of keeping a fish in a container, weighing it and releasing it, all banged up with all it's slime gone, for it to die of an infection. This defeats all the effort and is even more wrong in my opinion, the end result, 1 dead fish, and you didn't get to eat it. Granted, I hope that that 8 lb lobster did....

Also remember that I hope to bring a bunch of new people into the sport of kayakfishing. Kayakfishing can be challenging enough to someone who is just starting out. Trying to tow around a livewell, or finding a caged bouy.... too much. I think that the value of teaching someone how to properly fillet and use a fish, rather than them wasting a lot of the meat, has more intrinsic value. That instilling within the community that, this is how to fish, how to eat, and only eat what you can, will do more for that guy than not having him turn out to an event because he is intimadated, and having him go out on a 1/2 day where they will have him keep everything from 11 5/6 inch to 10 lbs, a full limit that will help the deckhand pay rent, but partially go to waste.

I remember being on the old Sea Hawk, man what a fun boat to fish, in the mid/late 80's and holding bigger fish that we got in the bow tank for the JP. We then got a scale so we could release the bigger fish, after weighing them. This was way before anyone starting pushing C&R.

My stand is still that the RESPONSIBLE take of calico bass is legal and moral, and alright by me. I believe that 3 fish should adequatly provide for most. I believe that the calico fishery, in our part of the channel is healthy and not under any immediate threat, and that a couple of tournaments a year will not have a long term impact on the fishery.

Now killing big spawning largemouths that you rip from shallow spawning beds is wrong, you are in an enclosed area with a smaller population of fish, less area and structure for them to hide in, many more fishermen with INFINATLY more technology and know-how. In a kayak, on the BIG pond, you would be hard pressed to fish the same rock, without a bouy marking it, and put pressure on it. You are constantly moving around, drifting, kelp grows and dies, things are always moving and changing out there.

I think that you would do much more for your cause of educating people about C&R by showing up and devising a way that is feasable for kayakers and tubers to carry fish in a healthy manner than just not showing up, and convincing others not to either.

My $.02
MoonDoggie
have2fish@yahoo.com

I my time on the water fishing. I also like the idea of a just for kicks-and-a-good-time tourneyment with following BBQ. Keeping in mind the limitations of the craft we're talking about, i.e. floattubes, kayaks, longboards, and rowboats, keeping fish alive in livewells just isn't feasible for everyone involved. To do it properly, it would be a huge pain in the arse for most of us, costing significantly more than the entry fee!!! Although the idea of a monitor who weighs fish is better, it still doesn't measure up since people won't want to wait to get each fish "officially weighed".

I respect our fishery and know that how we treat it now will affect it greatly in the not so distant future. However, I agree that we should be able to take a reasonable amount of legal sportfish for tablefare. I don't mean fatty calico bass that are of legal drinking age either. I mean normal to good sized bass. I don't care who advises me not to, unless my freezer is packed with fish, I'm keepin any legal halibut/wsb I catch and feelin' really really good about it! Conversely, when I have fish at home already, I love letting fish go. I enjoy myself either way.

C&R has a time and place. In the just for kicks tourneyment we're discussing, it sounds to me like someone who has a problem catching and keeping calicos could try to target halibut or wsb instead. Its only $10 bucks and if you feel strongly about calicos and their slow growth rate, just let them go! Nothin's on the line (pun intended) so no big whup.

I'd just like to go out and have a good time.

Said another way, I think when trying to force people to see things one way and one way only, everybody loses. Enforcing C&R on legal species is destined to fail from the start. This intuitively makes sense to me. I like the idea allowing people to C&R IF THEY HAVE ADEQUATE MEANS and the desire to, but not requiring it. It lets everyone have fun.

Chris Moody over at Floattuber.com (Rob knows about floattuber and doesn't mind me mentioning them) makes a good tubing livewell for $10 I think. Basically it is one of those water noodles that you use in a pool, this is cut to make a ring which is ziptied to the inside top of a mesh laundry bag. There is enough of the bag at the top to drawstring close it. Our tournaments usually end up w/ 100% release, and I personally have never had a fish die. And our tournaments are usually 6hrs minimum. He can give you the dimensions, mine is buried in my car waiting for next week. I don't know how it would work for yaks and skiffs, but worth a try, maybe just use a bigger bag.

Amish Ed

That does seem like a good idea for floattubes Ed. They don't move fast so towing that setup would pose no real problem.

The live bait setup you describe reminds me to ask the question, "Are natural baits allowed in the tourneyment?". The last tourneyment the answer was no. I would have a blast either way and am just curious. Maybe I missed this detail in a previous post somewhere.

(The thought of bait tanks is exciting for me 'cause I'm prolly gettin a kayak fairly soon and am going to set it up with a bait tank, fishfinder, rod holders, and maybe even GPS to re-find once found hard to beat spots on the big pond.)

For the first few tournaments, pretty much anything goes. I want people out there, having fun, trying new things. This is my main goal for this first year of events. As they grow in size, we can start to fine tune them and deal with such issues as C&R, live biat, electronics with more detail.

The last tournament, I fished spiderwire and crankbaits, something I had never put much time into. It was a blast!!! I caught a few fish here and there, but kept at it. At about 11:00, I got into a WIDE OPEN halibut bite. In 45 minutes, I put on 16 halibut, with only one being legal. I also got a nice yellowfin croaker, a FAT surfperch and a few short WSB. With a spinning outfit, and that line. MAN those strikes were HARD!

If we see a trend of success, that the one guy with a fish finder is having an unfair advantage, then I will address it then. I know that the tourney run in SD Bay allowed FF, and had a lot of opposition to them, so the will not allow them from here on out.

Personally, I learn a lot from others and how they fish. I learned this early on as a deckhand. 80% of the fish are caught by 10-20% of the guys. If one guy pulls in three bass in a row, find out what he is fishing and copy, copy, copy... If he is waiting the extra 30 seconds at the tank to get the greenback chovies, or that one brownbait, but it is getting bit, do it.

Live bait will be allowed, on the condition that it is caught legally, during the event. Dead bait will also be allowed. this may be bought before the tournament.

The floating livewell that was mantioned in the previous post is a great idea for float tubers. I am not sure how it will drag behind a kayak. This is something I would like to see someone try. You can use a mesh laundry bag with a round or square ring of PVC. Honestly, with the weather the way it has been, I think that there will be few bass caught. I know that I will be looking for a few flatties.

I am working on getting some extra kayaks there for those who don't have them, friends who want to fish, or want to try fishing them.

Other tournaments that I would like to try are a Salmon Tourney, maybe off Pismo or Avila, when they are just off the beach, maybe a freshwater tourney at Casitas?? Anyone know the regs there? Do yaks have to stay in an area, or is it unlimited to where they can go?

Marco out!
Have2fish@yahoo.com

I wrote to Dr. Milton Love regarding the subject at hand, and my plans to hold a contest. This was his response, copied with his permission, of course:



Well, calicos on the coast do seem to move around a lot. I would not be worried about cleaning an area out permanently. Also, at present, calico populations seem fairly high. So, taking 60 from one spot, one time, is probably not a big deal. However, if we have entered a cool water cycle, after 25 years of warm water, that may have a negative effect on bass reproduction. If that eventually happens, taking that many fish will have an effect down the road. Right now, though, it is probably okay.

Marco,
You're right, I don't think a tournament once a month on a different spot every month will have much effect on that spot even if you do take 100 bass off of it. However, I do think that it's sending the wrong message. We obviously have two very different goals for these tournaments. You want to promote the sport and introduce beginners to kayak fishing, while I want to provide tournaments for those who are already into the sport. Because my way would be for those who already know how to catch fish and are already familiar with kayak/float tube fishing, I'd like to make it catch and release. It is much easier for an experienced fishermen who takes his share of fish out of the water every year, to toss 3 of em back a month, than a beginner to toss back those same fish which might be his only three all summer. I realize this. So, basically, the environmental impact will probably be minimal, however, the point of the catch and release policy is to set an example and show that we are doing our part to conserve. Otherwise it's just an organized fish kill. I'd like to go out, catch some fish, and put em back in the end. No harm done. If it comes down to it, we may need to split up and hold separate tournaments. Yours for the beginners/people who don't want to go to the trouble of releasing, and mine for the rest. Another concern of mine is that a catch and kill tournament would put out a bad image. Like I said, it's an organized fish kill. No matter what impact it may or may not have on the environment, it's still an organized fish kill, and that doesn't look good. I hope it doesn't come off like Marco and I are fighting or yelling at eachother (notice, no capslocks, lol), because I really have no animosity toward him at all. Hopefully we can get it worked out. If it comes down to separate tournaments, that's the way it is. If you wanna release bass, fish mine, if you don't, fish Marco's.
-Brian