Area Fishing Report: Bass tournaments must follow requirements

Like many anglers, I have long enjoyed competing in bass tournaments. When you have a competitive sporting nature and you’re pretty good at catching fish, the on-the-water contests get in your blood.   

But among lovers of the sport, fishing tournaments evoke varied opinions. 

A sizable contingent feel that the tournaments must have been created in the pit of hell … and the detractors can recite a list of their perceived evils. While they pose some valid points, most of these folks are unaware of the degree to which major tournament organizations — let alone the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — are committed to protecting tournament-caught fish (most especially, black bass). To boot, tournament anglers tend to care more about their finny targets than anyone. I don’t even know a serious tournament basser who would harvest a bass for dinner. 

All of this tournament talk has arisen since last weekend, when three contests were held out of the boat ramp at Orange Lake’s Marjorie K. Rawlings Park. Wally Grant and I fished in one of the two Saturday events … the eighth qualifier in the Lochloosa Division of the Xtreme Bass Series. Catches were good, by the way, but that’s not the point today.  Another bass club (from somewhere ‘down south’) arrived with about 15 boats to launch and weigh in at the same time. That afternoon after weighing in, at least three of their teams were seen to dump their catches back into the canal at the launch site.   

As this is a big no-no, several of the Xtreme participants admonished the less-experienced club-level fishers from parts unknown. Fortunately, the fishermen in this visiting club had not caught many fish. We all shrugged it off, figuring little damage had been done. 

The bigger trouble started the next day, when yet another bass club launched at Rawlings Park. This group, too, was seen chunking their catches back in at the ramp. And this club was known. Now, FWC requires any group hosting a bass tournament to apply for and be granted a ‘Black Bass Tournament Permit’. In order to put on a legal bass tournament in Florida, a number of requirements listed thereon must be followed. One of them, Rule 13, is the strict directive that “Fish are to be live released in open water.”  

On Monday, a number of largemouth bass were seen in the Marjorie Rawlings boat ramp access canal, either struggling at the surface or dead. And that’s when the stuff hit the fan.   

Oddly, the offending club we rebuked Saturday could not be identified as no local in attendance had recognized any of its members — and, this club had evidently not even applied for a tournament permit. 

The Sunday group had a permit, but violated the open water release rule. They were located, cited and fined. The club’s Tournament Director acknowledged and apologized for the misstep.

FWC Regional Fisheries Administrator, Allen Martin noted that weather conditions couldn’t have been much worse for the terms of the permit to have been broken, and explained part of the scientific reasoning behind Rule 13.

“Dead end canals often have poorer water quality than lakes due to a lack of water flow within the canals. This is especially true in summer months as the water is really hot. Due to its physical properties, the hotter the water, the less dissolved oxygen it can hold. Therefore, in summer these canals have reduced oxygen levels to begin with.”

“When you get several days of cloudy weather like we had at the end of last week and over the weekend, algae stops producing oxygen and starts consuming oxygen. Additionally, the high amounts of algae that grew during sunny conditions are not able to survive without the intense sunlight. The algae starts dying and decomposing and the decomposition process also uses oxygen.” 

Hence, the dead bass. 

For the last 40 years, Florida bass clubs have been passionately serious about caring for their catches. This attitude needs to continue. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Black Bass Tournament Permit creates the possibility for an activity that would otherwise not be allowed. If conditions of the permit are found to be unmet many more times, we anglers with a competitive nature could lose the privilege.

Gary Simpson, a veteran tournament angler, operates Gary's Tackle Box at L & S Auto Trim.