Are you beginning to get the picture?

Anglers should consider that even largemouth bass mortality rates on the long-term can be very high when put into a tournament situation. Take, for example, a recent tournament held on Texas bass Mecca Lake Fork.

To determine the biological impacts of the tournament, TPWD crews monitored immediate and delayed mortality of several test groups of fish. Test groups included bass caught and immediately released, bass caught and retained in live wells for extended periods (culled fish), and bass brought to weigh-in at the end of the fishing day.

Biologists also used electrofishing to collect a control group of bass. All test and control fish were marked and confined in four large holding nets for six days following the tournament.

Mortalities were documented during the holding period. Each holding net contained an equal number of control and test fish.

Mortalities varied considerably among the different groups of fish. Throughout the six-day holding period following the tournament fish caught and immediately released suffered 3.7-percent mortality, while control fish suffered a 1.25-percent mortality.

Fish held for extended periods in live wells had 14.89-percent mortality, and those brought to weigh-in had the highest mortality rate of 39.1 percent. One bass tournament held at Lake Amistad in the summer of 1998 showed a sobering 65 percent delayed mortality.

Those are bass. Can you imagine what the results would be for speckled trout under similar conditions? Probably 100 percent.

The study brings up an interesting point. And that is that fish caught and immediately released suffer very low mortality rates. While there has been no recent study of speckled trout catch-and-release mortality, there is no question immediately-released fish would certainly stand a better chance of survival than fish retained in a livewell for hours.

While it may make for a boring "weigh-in," anglers could go with the video system that many billfish and tarpon tournaments use. Anglers could have an official measuring board on hand, and rules might stipulate that the angler with the most overall inches could win. Any number of point systems could be developed. Polygraph tests, of course, would have to be part of the agreement as they are in any big-money tournament.

Despite some struggles with keeping trout alive, the TPWD's Gulf Coast Roundup profiled in last month's magazine ("Gulf Coast Roundup," page 32, Jan. 2000 TF&G) has some very good rules that could apply to possible catch-and-release specked trout tourneys. They have a short time limit and recommend anglers only put a few fish in a livewell at a time and handle fish as little as possible.

Moving on, redfish aren't as popular among saltwater tournament anglers as trout, but they hold their own in competitive circles. They don't live long in livewells, though.

Don't get me wrong. Reds are much hardier than speckled trout and stand a greater chance of survival both on the short- and long-term basis, but they present many of the same problems as trout. With even the best of current technology, conducting a true, large-scale catch-and-release redfish tourney wouldn't be a very realistic goal.

Flounder, on the other hand, may offer an unusual alternative. These fish are extremely hardy and-given proper care in livewells-can live for long periods of time. I once, in fact, conducted my own delayed mortality study on flounder.

One evening I caught six nice flounder and put them in a 400-gallon aquarium I had custom built for fish observation. I wanted to see how they would live in captivity and how they might blend in with the white sand in the bottom of the tank.

The six fish lived for more than a month, and that was with one little aerator tube designed for a 10-gallon aquarium. They also turned a very light grayish color to match their surroundings.

These fish were caught in the heat of summer and carried around in a water-filled ice chest for several hours. There was no aeration at all, but the water was changed out a few times.

With the use of oxygenation systems or good aerators, flounder could be caught and released on terms that might justify a catch-and-release flounder tournament.

Or maybe, on the other hand, there is no need for catch-and-release tournaments in saltwater. Standard tournaments are flourishing, and so are gamefish resources.

But there may be a time when that isn't so. Subsequently, saltwater tournaments could-and probably would-come under fire. And with a saltwater angling community that's becoming increasingly conservation-conscious, that's very possible.

For now it may be best to donate portions of tournament proceeds toward TPWD and groups like CCA that work directly with fish stocking programs. That could pay off in the long run.

Then again, it might pay off to consider some of these catch-and-release alternatives now. It doesn't hurt to think about it, and it might even start a new trend if some of these concepts were enacted.

Any volunteers?

Catch and Release Done Right

Anglers looking to successfully catch and release saltwater fish should consider and implement these methods recommended by the Catch and Release Foundation:

• Hook Location - It would be ideal if all fish were hooked in either the upper or lower lip. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. When fishing with small lures or live bait, the chance for hooking a fish deep in the gullet or in the gills is very high.
   
  Never pull on the line when the hook is lodged deep in the gullet. Cutting the line and returning the fish to the water as quickly as possible will give it its greatest chance for survival. The longer a fish is out of water and the more you practice your surgical techniques, the less the fish has a chance to live.
   
• Depth - When fishing depths of over 30 feet, you should slowly bring a fish up to the boat. This allows the fish to decompress (adjust to the change in water pressure). Pause while reeling the fish in, and allow the air bubbles from the fish's decompression to rise to the surface.
   
  Fish can get the "bends" almost like people. If you reel a fish in too quickly, it will die.
   
• Water Temperature - Playing a fish for an extended period of time in warm water increases its chance of dying. When the water temperature is high, fish tire much more rapidly due to the increase of lactic acid that builds in their systems.
   
  When fishing unusually warm water, get the fish to you as soon as possible. Either use a heavier line test than usual, or do not fish that day.
   
• Line test - Always use the heaviest line possible for each species of fish.
   
  Again: The longer you fight a fish, the more lactic acid is built up, the more exhausted it becomes and the greater the chance it will die. This is particularly true when fishing large saltwater species, particularly billfish.
   
  Other considerations are the use of barbless hooks and the use of circle- or Kahle-style hooks that are designed to lodge into the corner of a fish's mouth.