I just don't understand why you guys would go out of your way to make something legal that in my mind is bad for the fish. As tournament fishermen I believe that the well being of the fish should be a very important concern in any tournament and this rule signals to me that you guys care more about the competition than you do about the fish.

If you want to debate about whether running is bad for the fish or not we can talk about the tournaments that I have been to personally over the past 7 years where I saw fish brought by truck to the weigh ins and saw very clearly that these fish were more stressed, more injured, and in many cases just outright dead. If you want to turn a blind eye to the red tails and red fins, the scratched and whitened eyeballs, and the fish that "swim" away afterward with certainty of death, so be it.

I just can't justify tournament fishing when it starts to come at the expense of the fish. I just don't care that much about the money.