I still need to make a decision on this topic and thought you guys might have some input.
Let me explain why teams are only allowed to bring in six fish at the landing. One is that we don't want to stress out more fish then we have to. Second I want to minimize the time for weigh in and we will not weigh more than six fish per team. It's not fair to the teams, fish and the lake.
Now my question:
Should we have a rule that limits boats to six fish in the live well at all times, inlcuding during the tournament. Under legal rules each angler is allowed to have 5 fish to keep. Should we limit this to 3 per angler during the event? So basically your allowed to have a max of six fish, and if a team catches a seventh fish, they will need to release it or replace a fish in the live well and release that fish.
What do you think?
Ouitdee
I'm not fishing in the Bass league this year( well maybe as a sub hint hint). But you may want to check on the rules in MN about culling fish. I'm not sure but I don't think its legal to do that.
Ed
Hey Ouitdee, Our team agrees with only six in the boat at one time, during the entire tournament. That would be the best for the fish, and everyone. We want to catch some nice fish, but not keep them in a livewell anymore than needed.
As for culling, the rules from the DNR, we asked since this comes up all the time, is that you cannot cull down to a limit. That means that if you have a limit in the boat, you cannot target that species anymore, since when you catch one more, it puts you over the limit. So the rules are that you can cull, as long as you do not have a limit already, AND you can not cull at all for walleyes after June 12th. That's because walleyes have a very high mortality rate when in a livewell in the warm months. It makes sense. Most walleyes are in cool water deep in the system or at least with good oxygen levels, then after caught they are in a small confined space which does not replace water fast enough to provide good oxygen and it is from the warmer surface water, both are bad for walleyes. Bass are much tougher than that and usually living in the warmer portions of the water column. Nothing is for sure. But culling is legal as long as you are not culling walleyes after June 12th and you are not culling down to a limit.