Falcon Fish Kill Releases Are Surfacing
All of this happened just in time for me to pull my foot out of my mouth. As I had mentioned earlier in the week, the Falcon Lake fish kill rumor of hundreds of fish that were caught throughout the tournament appeared to be false. Now they appear to have some legitimacy after all.
I was doing my best to follow this thing as closely as possible. There was “here-say” here and there circulating from people who I do trust, but even with many guesses and assumptions being tossed, I stood intent on not feeding this monster without having some hard line proof.
I was able to track this article down through a second hand source. The article has quoted BASS Tournament Director, Trip Weldon as acknowledging the fish kill. You can check the article out by clicking here
This is truly sad being an angler, fan, and advocate of conservation. Regardless, I assure you that BASS feels responsible and will take this to the round table to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
On the flip side, Falcon Lake appears to be such a dynamite fishery that I have no doubts that it will be able to sustain itself and bounce back from any loses within no time. Even though 13lbrs’ aren’t easily to come by.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: BASS, BASS Elite Series, Miscellaneous
6 opinions for Falcon Fish Kill Releases Are Surfacing
roc
Apr 17, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Don,That horrible I seen some highlight on that and there were some monsters does that happen often or is very uncommen
Don Zaegel
Apr 17, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Roc,
Yeah, it’s pretty uncommon to hear of cases like this. Of course it’s also uncommon to see freakish catches like they just had also. The problem was apperantly that BASS wasn’t ready with large enough aerating systems to handle that many large bass. I think they knew that they were going to catch then good, but not that good.
ALDave
Apr 21, 2008 at 7:31 am
I have heard enough around the crowds to be tired of hearing it. I’ve heard it go many diffrent ways.No matter who is fault here Bass is committed to conservation and resource. If it was their fault i’m sure they feel regret and are taking action to correct the situation.
Jack
Apr 26, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Don, your reasoning “The problem was apperantly that BASS wasn’t ready with large enough aerating systems to handle that many large bass.” may only hent at the problem. All the air in the world would not correct the oxygen deficite under those tournament conditions. B.A.S.S. simply disregarder their handbooks recomendations in “Keeping Bass Alive.”
This nornal bass tournament behavior may violate the Texas Cruelty to Animals Code. My understanding is that the code requires transporters of wild captive animals to provide a safe transport environment. B.A.S.S. and the anglers obviously choose to disregard the code and suffocated a lot of fish in bass boat livewells. Not unlike suffocating and killing illegal Mexicans down around Victoria, Texas a few years ago licked up in a trayler.
Don Zaegel
Apr 27, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Jack,
Thanks for alerting me of the wildlife transportation law. I wasn’t aware of it. That is surely a valid point in arguing this case. Again, I am sure that BASS didn’t intentionally intend to ignore any laws if it is in fact determined to be the official finding. I will say that with many of the anglers reporting unheard of catches, BASS could probably have done something to try and help prevent it. Unless this develops into a trend with BASS on big bass factories, I will not hang this over BASS’s head and will instead consider it unfortunate for BASS and mostly the fish and residents of Falson Lake and all of Texas.
Thank You for your comment. I Hope to hear more from you on future Getting Reel posts
Don Zaegel
Editor - GettingReel.com
mike jones
Jun 3, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Don
I sent in a commment without reading this up-date. I thought I would comment further. I think once you read my previous comment you know where my opinions come from. I grew up on the texas coast and have been enjoying the south texas outdoors for 40 yrs. My grandfather was one of the first to build in PM and I grew up in a john boat running up to the north cut harvesting trout and redfish before the laws changed and I listened to many a commercial fisherman complain back then. But even as a kid it seemed odd that people made their living off of a public resource. Now that our population is booming and more and more people are lining up to use the resource, I know that it is time for a more serious approach to conservation. I have been on the RGV CCA board for 17yrs and feel that CCA has now done as much to harm the LLM as they have done good. The recruitment of anglers to the resource thru add campaigns and such harms, the STAR harms and encourages recruitment, all in the name of marketing and the dollars that follow. I asked that my TF&G magazine be cancelled because of the position on croaker and other related issues on the regional management plan. I am educated and know what I am talking about and also know that if we dont wake up and stop the commercialization we will never ever have what I grew up on and what I really want that for generations to come.
Suggestions
No More STAR
Big Fees & Catch criteria for all Tournaments
Boater Safety & Education for all boaters
Increased budget by 2x for TP&W gamewardens
Stricter Laws and ENFORCEMENT by wardens
Flounder a game fish
3 Trout 2 reds 2 flounder limits
Regional Regs if necessary Catch & relaese if Nec
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: