Not-So-Live Release

Sun., Aug. 27, 2000

Staff

Tournament fishing

The high mortality rate of fish caught at the In Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail tournament at Montana’s Fort Peck Reservoir two weeks ago has upset some local anglers.

But a fisheries manager says the loss of the walleye won’t hurt fishing at the lake, while others tout the economic impact of the tournament on the local economy.

About 80 percent of the walleyes caught in the tournament went belly-up because of water temperatures in the 70s and a tournament format that required walleyes to be held in live wells until a weigh-in at the end of the day.

Many other tournaments are organized so fish can be weighed on measure boats out on the lake, and released.

Overall, 1,131 fish were caught during the three-day tournament, 906 were killed and 225 were returned to the lake. The fish that died were cleaned and donated to area nursing homes and senior citizen’s centers.

Nothing illegal was done.

“Biologically, it doesn’t have a big impact,” said Bill Wiedenheft, regional fisheries manager for the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department. “But socially, people don’t like to see dead fish floating in the water,” he said. “In a release event, they expect to see fish released alive.”

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