Hey guys, I've been thinking about the calico bass/kayak situation. A problem arises in that kayakers can't really have livewells aboard, or hanging in the water for that matter, in order to keep calico bass alive for a live release at the end of the day. Quite frankly, I don't want to participate in a slaughter of a bunch of bass, so a solution needs to be made. Unless somebody can think of something that I've overlooked, I don't see any way that a kayaker can keep 5 calico bass alive for 6 hours or whatever. Stringer leads to holes in fish which leads to infection, etc. Floating livewells impares the kayakers' ability to paddle, out of water livewells lead to kayakers paddling a little lower in the water column than desirable. So, my idea is this- I would take the skiff and load it with tubs and the bait tank, and run around and collect people's bass. I'd mark em with culling floats or whatever, for each angler, and put the fish in a "holding tank" until the end of the day. Depending on where the tournament is to be held, we'd have to plan how far in advance I should leave the launch ramp so that I get to the tournament site on time. Once I get there, the kayakers/tubers/small crafters can go for it. Maybe if a few people bring cell phones or radios or whatever, they could call the skiff over, and I'd come pick up fish. If nobody's hollerin at me, I'd just make the rounds and check on people, in case they don't have a phone or whatever. Most of the anglers, I'd imagine, would be fishing in groups anyway, so if somebody nearby has a phone, that'll work. Whaddya think? I know it sounds like a lot of trouble to go through to keep some slimy green buggers alive, but I don't want to see 20 limits taken off of carp reef, or leadbetter, or goleta etc. The one problem I can see with this is culling. What we may do is, once the fish is handed to the skiff, it will be measured, exactly. The angler will record the length (or remember it) and then he can measure any additional fish he catches, and know what to cull and what to throw back. Then we have another option- mandatory release, and penalty for dead fish (that gets my vote), or individual angler decision (which will undoubtedly lead to more dead fish as they'll not even want to bother calling the skiff over even if they were avid C&Rers). If nobody can come up with a better idea, this seems pretty logical to me. I'm totally willing to run the boat around, don't worry about me not fishing (I'd take your money anyway, :-))
-Brian

How about this? You can be in the skiff with a GOOD QUALITY digital scale that preferably measures to atleast the nearest ounce. Let each angler weigh up to 10 to allow for culling and base the winnings off each persons top 5. A dead fish will only be worth 1/2 its weight and will automatically be 1 of the 5 for final weight. That should provide for some incentive to keep them alive. Furthermore have each angler have to stay within 2 casts of a pre-chosen cell phone carrier for safety and to make sure the catch gets weighed and released in a timely manner.
Think about it.

Tight lines,
Wade

Tight lines,
Wade

I LIKE IT!!!! Thanks for the input. Maybe instead of limiting the range of yakers (2 casting distances to somebody with a phone) we just let em on their own. If they want to go 2 miles away from somebody with a phone and kill fish, they take the penalty. I'd hate for somebody to have that attitude, and kill those fish though. We'll figure something out. I'd hate to limtit people's range, but if that's what we have to do, that's what we have to do. I do like your 10 fish "temporary limit" deal. ooooo I just thought of a problem- DFG probably won't like me driving around with 30 calico bass in my boat. I wonder if I could talk to them and see if they'd allow it for conservation purposes. Maybe I could get a permit or something. I'm sure they'd understand as it's for the best interest of the fishery (but, you never know...). We'll see. I'll try to talk to em as soon as I can and see what's up. If that doesn't work out, I don't know what we'll do. Something kinda crude, that probably isn't much better, would be to set up some floating livewells, anchor them to the bottom, mark it on the gps (and have it in an easily findable location, maybe with a flag or something) and then once I get 10 fish on the skiff, go dump em in the "pens" and shuttle em to shore 10 at a time. I think the regs say you can't have more than 10 fish in your possession, right, so I wonder if there's anything about penning fish up. I'm sure there must be. We'll see.
-Brian

Good Idea, I think they did something like that at the Mission Bay Bass Tourney. The only difference in that tourney is they had a boat that came around and took the fish and the angler's name and weighed and released it on the water. Maybe you could just do that if the DFG wont let you take them to the check-in.
My .02
Tom Cod

Tom,
Thanks, I hadn't thought of that. That's a really good idea. So, if plan #1 doesn't work out, that sounds like the way to go.
-Brian

Hey, i like the idea of the digital scale on the boat, but what i think you do is release the fish once you weighed it in, and then write down the weight of the fish. Just have a clip board or something with each persons name on it, and then they can weigh in fish and if the fish is bigger than one of the five that you have recorded then you cross out the lowest weight and add the new weight in and then release the Calico(big run on sentence there!). That way you dont have to worry about having a bunch of fish to deal with and you can cull a little bit easily. It may not have an "exciting" weigh in but at the end of the tourney you could anounce the winning weights and that would be the end of it. One of the good things about doing the tourney this way is then you dont have fish sitting in livewells, or in tubs on a boat, the fish are caught and released in a matter of minutes. This helps insure the survival rate of every fish caught. Well, there's my $ .02 worth.

The infamous #2

I like the way you think Brian#2. This sounds like the best idea yet. Brian#1, I will help out on the boat if you think it will be easier with two people(and i have a cell phone).

I think that's the way it's leanin. Sounds good to me.
-Brian

Added Bonus: If fish are released after an immediate wiegh in they might be caught again in the same tourney. I doubt it but, stranger things have happened.
Also two guys in the weigh boat would stop any arguments about whose fish weighed what.
Just my 2 cents.

Tight lines,
Wade

Tight lines,
Wade

Good point about the 2 guys in the boat. I was planning on just clearing it with the angler before I marked it, but 2 guys in the boat is a good idea since he'll have a better view of the scale.
-Brian

Hey Brian! I might be able to help you guys with this thing,I would be willing to help with the weigh in thing with my boat as well, give me a call Ive got an idea....Larry

p.s. e-mail me if you lost my phone number