Bassmasters on the Big D!

[Lard Almighty]

I just learned some exciting news! The Bassmaster Elite Series is going to hold a tournament on the Delaware River in the Philly area in 2014. The tournament will be August 7-10.

Full tournament schedule here: http://www.bassmaster.com/bassmaster-tournament-trail-schedule

[JimmyMas]

Wow! That's pretty awesome! Can't wait, my 8 year old son is going to love this.

[NorthJerzyG]

Should be interesting to see what gets caught and how much weight will win. Larry's and smallies getting weighed in ?

[bulletbob]

Sorry, can't get excited about any bass tournament.
They are sure fire bass killers.. We have them here on cayuga lake, and the weigh in areas are covered in dead bass the day after.. Does anyone really think bass getting their heads slammed into the sides of livewells for hours is a good thing?.
Big tournaments kill hundreds of fish on each and every lake or river they go to all over the country..

It isn't just temperature related either.. Its stress.. They are caught, put in livewells and then run for miles and miles at 50+ mph, ramming into each other, and the sides of the live well, put in plastic bags and then walked around for a LONG time before they are weighed and "released"..

How would you feel if your favorite local bass lake suddenly had hundreds of dead bass floating on it, all caught by some people that lived hundreds or thousands of miles away???. It happens at tournaments all the time.. The northern end of Cayuga Lake in NY used to be a world class LMB fishery... Its nothing compared to what it was 20 years ago... Still some fish there, but the average size has dropped drastically, as have numbers..
There are dozens of tournaments there every year, but they bring money to local businesses, motels, gas stations, restaurants etc, so bass mortality is not even spoken about.. They are welcomed with open arms by local Chambers of Commerce.

The realization of how destructive they are doesn't sink in, until you see hundreds of dead bass rotting...
Its a sickening feeling... I've seen the bodies of hundreds of floating bass.

Please google these words..
Dead Bass after Tournament
It may not change your mind, but it will get you thinking about the horrendous pressure these tournys put on fragile bass populations..
In the words of a great salt water writer
"Fishing should be a contemplative sport, not a competitive one"...
Just my $.02 for the very little its worth... bob