I did not fish this tournament but I do fish the series and if he has some info about this it would be nice to know. If he is just trying to stir the pot and has no inside knowledge or knows of any true events then that is cool, just state that and we will all move on. To say there was cheating in an event that drew 68 boats is alarming. It's not fair to the circuit and it's fisherman.Originally Posted by Jeff Hahn
So how about those conditions? Lol
2010 NITRO Z7
Lol, your thread kind of went off the rails, didn't it? To answer your question, conditions are about as bad as they can get this time of year. Been blowing all week with the exception of yesterday. Water is muddy, water temps are dropping and it is supposed to rain and blow right through the weekend. If you have the option to wait a week or two, you might want to take it.
Kevin
2009 Champion 183CX
Sorry guys, didn't mean to hijack the thread. Let me explain my comment. I work during the week in the homes, condos and trailer parks that surround east and west harbors so I see a lot of bass fishing going on. What I've noticed the last 4 or 5 years, and a lot more lately, is guys dumping big fish in the backs of marinas. This is usually done later in the afternoon up until dusk on fri or sat. Is this practice illegal? I don't know. What I do know is that I used to fish the largemouth only tourneys until I saw these shenanigans going on. I can't compete with teams doing that. After 30 years of tournament fishing one thing I have learned is if your fishing a TEAM tournament there is a very good chance someone is not playing fair.
I agree with this. With enough $, someone is cheating.
It was implied that people were bringing pond fish to the scales. It's not illegal to "stock" an area, frowned upon yes but not illegal or against the rules.
Not saying it's right or wrong to move fish but to say it's cheating is far fetched. Does that mean no one should be able to fish within 100-200 yards from any ramp that has events?
if that really happens it sounds wrong to me whether it is against the rules or not.
Sorry I was busy fishing the ram open the day before to cheat, three days on grand lake st Mary's makes you appreciate the fishing on Lake Erie, fish were still on a spot from the weekend before btw, cold weather helped, probably culled 18lbs and a bonus 4.5lb smallie
LOL.. Gotta love it when the fish play nice..
We canceled a couple weeks ago but going to try again next Wednesday. Conditions improving?
2010 NITRO Z7
I catch big ones in the backs of marinas and move them out to the middle of the bay.
Finally made it up there and my buddy and I boated between 80-90 bass in a day and a half. Hell of a fishery.
2010 NITRO Z7
Tons of little fish. The days of 50-100 3#+ largies are over due to the insane amount of pressure it gets these days. Use to maybe see handful or so boats in and around harbors 7-10 years ago. Now any given day every marina main lake wall etc has boat on it.
Spot on, John. We fish the harbors a lot, especially in early spring. Ran into an out-of-towner a few weeks ago who reported catching 75 largemouths the day before, in the back end of East Harbor. My buddy and I had fished the same general area that day, and caught a total of 2 keeper sized fish. 2 days later, my same buddy took another friend into the same area the out-of-town boat had been fishing...and also caught 75 or so largemouths--with a total of 2 keepers in the 75.
Not saying there here are no good fish in East/West Harbor these days, but way, way fewer quality fish being caught than just a few years ago. Go to the West Harbor ramp after a big tournament the previous weekend and look at the floating 3 and 4 pounders. I'm sure most everyone does their best to reduce fish mortality, but with 4 or 5 tournaments some weekends and a very limited number of key areas holding the best fish, the decimation is evident.
John Clark — Findlay, Ohio
I'd have to agree with you guys. I started fishing the harbors around 7 or 8 years ago before it got super popular. I was there yesterday and took my brother out,haven't fished it much in recent years due to the pressure and the fact I like smallies more,we had over 150 fish and only about a dozen were good sized. The amount of little fish were insane. Not to mention only a few we got didn't have hookmarks. Boated one with a shakeyhead and about 30 feet of line stuck to it and another with a 100 sammy stuck to its head. It's sad to see the pounding the fish have taken there. I'm seeing it on the eastern basin as well now.
I'm guessing that all those "little" fish may actually grow a bit more. From the tone of this thread, you'd think the fishery was full of stunted fish or something. As far as I'm concerned, the high number of small bass is a good sign of things to come. Am I missing something?
Too frequently in Ohio waters, when the bigger fish are removed from the food chain smaller ones (in great numbers) take their place. The ecosystem is very complex, and no one knows for sure what happens or how it happens, but one possibility is that when bigger fish with superior genetics are not present, much smaller fish with inferior genetics get to spawn, and also get to inhabit the prime feeding areas where they used to get muscled out by the big girls. Some evidence suggests that lots of little bass leads to...lots of little bass.
John Clark — Findlay, Ohio
These harbors and estuaries are far more fragile than we know.
After decades of non-existent to poor bass fishing, everything came together and the population and size exploded. We were blessed with a decade of the best bass fishing Ohio has had. But we may be on the verge of collapse.
I have talked to several fishery experts, tournament directors, and locals. The one thing I keep hearing is that the biggest bass cannot continually be relocated.
There is talk at the state about limiting the relocation of largemouths from these harbors.
I agree with it. If you catch them in West Harbor, East Harbor, Portage River, Sandusky Bay, etc., you must release them in the same waters.
We need to start respecting the fishery if we want it to last. The quantity of fish is still there, for now, but the quality of the fish has been going down hill for a number of years. We can discipline ourselves, limit our catches. Just because we can go in and catch 75, 100, 150 fish in a day, doesn't mean we have to. Or, we can keep beating the bejeezus out of them and watch it fade away.
Kevin
2009 Champion 183CX
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