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