Below is an article reprinted from Matthew Dickerson's June 24 outdoor column in the Addison Independent (reprinted by permission).
For many fishermen, however, tournaments are a part of the sport. Vermont hosts a number of such competitions. The annual Lake Champlain International (LCI) tournament (last weekend) was a major summer event for Vermont. The annual ice fishing derby on Lake Hortonia, though not quite as famous as the LCI, also draws big crowds.
Such tournaments can be big business, too. This summer Champlain is scheduled once again to host an event in the professional Bass tour. This will bring top professional anglers from all over the country. There are also several local tournaments and derbies, including some designed especially for kids. This weekend the Middlebury American Legion Post is hosting a trout derby on the Middlebury River with an impressive list of prizes in divisions for both youth and adults. There is also an annual Lake Winona Bass Tournament in Bristol this Saturday.
In fact, anybody can sponsor a tournament in Vermont. If the contest is open to the public, has an entree fee, and awards prizes, then state law requires only that the organizer obtain pay a fee of $10 and obtain a permit from the Fish and Wildlife Dept. Permits are granted to anybody who fills out the application.
Like most things, such events have both pros and cons. Economic benefits aside, they can be lots of fun. My oldest two boys have both participated in kids' derbies which proved enjoyable for the entire family and good ways to get kids interested in the sport. However the disadvantages of fishing tournaments must be considered.
There are two categories of concerns: social and biological. Tournaments on public waters are bound to spawn some conflicts between tournament participants and other anglers who happen to be on the same waters. When the professional bass anglers are competing on Champlain this summer, locals will be warned to stay out of their way. But the local angler might well ask what gives some professional from out of state any exclusive right to fish a particular piece of water?
Of even greater concern are biological issues. Any fishing tournament puts extra fishing pressure on a body of water. The upcoming American Legion tournament on the Middlebury River is an example. Winners will be determined by weighing the creels at the end of the day, and recording the total catch as well as the largest fish in each class. In other words, all the fish will have to be killed. Now only a dozen fisherman working together could fish almost every inch of the Middlebury River in a day. The tournament organizers are expecting 50 to 100 anglers for the event, each of which will be fishing for two days--and hoping to keep their limit. That's a huge number of people on a small river. Having seen a similar river in Maine devastated by a event like that, I'm afraid of what the impact will be on the Middlebury River.
Worse yet, though the organizers are well-intentioned (and will probably succeed in organizing an enjoyable event) the very rules of the tournament encourage an unethical (and illegal) practice known as "culling" where an angler continues to fish after catching their limit. If they catch a new fish that is bigger than one in their creel, they throw out the smaller fish (now dead) and keep the larger one. Again, though the organizers may be very clear that culling is against both state law and tournament rules (and is downright despicable) it is impossible to monitor all anglers at once.
One way to decrease the negative impact of a tournament is to have it catch-and-release. In the Lake Winona Bass tournament fish are kept in live wells until tournament officials, who continually tour the lake, are able to weigh them. Once recorded, the fish are released. Furthermore the tournament is limited to 20 boats, two people per boat. Another innovative approach is taken in an annual trout tournament on the Lamoille river: anglers are matched up at random and sent out on the river in pairs. Participants must then have their catches verified by their partners (who are also their competitors).
Even catch-and-release tournaments, however, have some negative impact. One concern is the increased number of gas motors spilling toxins into the water. Another is the mortality rate of released fish.
Mortality rates of released fish are difficult to determine exactly, but according to studies of salmonids reported in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management:
Unfortunately, many participants of the Winona tournament (including past winners) haved used live bait (minnows). Consider forty bait-fishermen competing in a tournament and catching a total of 600 fish in a day. Statistics suggest that 186 of those will end up dead. The lake would be better off with just 5 fishermen each keeping 5 fish to eat.
So what is the solution? As fishing pressure continues to increase and pollution and other factors take their toll, some rethinking needs to be done. There are enough benefits of a well-run tournament that I would never recommend eliminating them. Nonetheless, tighter state restrictions on the types of bodies of water on which tournaments are allowed might be a necessary step.
However rather than more government control I'd rather see tournament organizers themselves taking the right steps. Catch-and-release tournaments are a good start. How about tournaments with no live bait? Or even with barbless hooks? For bait fishermen, the new circular hooks seem to be as successful at catching fish as the old j-shaped hooks, while avoiding the problem of gut-hooking fish. Anglers have a long history of working to protect our nations waters in ways that benefit us all. Here is another chance to do that.