Catfish Contests (Live Transport)

[Scott K]

I sent a few emails yesterday, stating my thoughts of it, I would sugguest others do as well!

[rattleL]

about fishing during the spawn south dakota has no closed season on any fish and after fishing thier for multiple seasons and multiple fish catfish included the fish do just fine, MN should look to more restrictive limites and slot sizes.....what is the flathead limit anyway i know the channel one is 5 with one over 24

[ec30_06]

5 catfish total. only two can be flats, and one fish over 24"

[Wiskers]

There are so many pros and cons for all these contests no matter what kind of fish you are catching. I have not entered the Franklin contest but I am going to this year just to see how it works. Although I am also concerned about how people are going to keep these big cats healthy until they can weigh them in.

However, The Cats Incredible contest also has an issue with live transport and no wake rules. For those of you that have not fished that one, if you fish the North end, and you catch a large cat early, and want to weigh it in right away, you have a very long drive through all the boats stopping for every boat along the way, they put them into a cooler and drive across town to the weigh station. This also concerns me. I love the contest and the challenge but sure wish they could do the "wake flag" idea and or get another scale at the north end.

I am not sure on the % of kill from these contests but I can assure you they are not even close to the kill rate of out of state fishermen I see all the time come here and take home huge cats just to show off and then toss to the hogs. Nothing drives me more over the edge than seeing an out of state boat with coolers full of large cats heading away from the river.... Now that is where I believe we should be putting our efforts to work. Promote the staffing of more DNR officers so they can keep on top of this kind of abuse. In all my years of being on the water I know I see more killing of large fish by those with no licenses or by those who come here to rob us of our breeding stock. Just my two cents worth.. ok maybe more than two cents. Sorry so windy, it just realy bothers me to see that. I feel our DNR officers have way too much area to cover for each officer in many areas.

[Gordie]

I cuaght and live transported the winning fish in franklin this weekend and the DNR is present for this contest and they thanked me for the wonderful job of keeping and caring for the fish they also said that this fish ajusted to the live tank faster than any other one. we took extreme care with this fish and the Dnr also make sure that these fish are in top shape for release. this fish went 47lbs and it will live to fight anothr battle and hopefully released next time. I just wish that the Dnr would be present at other contests. A couple of years back I asked the DNR about showing up at couple of the other contests and they said they would be glad to particapated if they were asked the the people that run the contests and apparently some of the other contest people have not asked them to be involed and I know that it was brought up to the people at the BP tourny 2yrs ago and thats why I refuse to particapate in that contest. The franklin derby is not about the money its about a good time for friends and family and the care and respect is givin to this fish that it deserves.

Hey wiskers I think I talked to you on friday in franklin standing in line in the back of the city hall nice boat.

[PierBridge]

Congrats! on all counts!

[aanderud]

Nice, Elwood. Hey do you have any pics? Living vicariously through other peoples' big fish pics is much better than just reading about them

[Ryan Becklund]

Was a awesome fish...I saw it on Saturday. I have never had anything that big in my boat. We may have to talk about location location location.....lol

[DTro]

Big Congrats to you Elwood!

I bet that was a great feeling, not only hooking and fighting that fish, but then taking first place and darn near breaking the all time weight!

Also thanks for taking great care of your fish during transport and weigh in. I’m sure if everyone treated them like this, there wouldn’t be any concern over these types of contests.

This pasttime I call fishing is something that I REALLY enjoy, and I would love to see people catching bigger and bigger fish as the years go by.

My opinion is that there is plenty of room for these contests, as long as there is some respect put forth towards the resource. These fish are not fragile, but can be decimated in the blink of an eye if not managed like any other gamefish.

[Gordie]

thanks guys and there is a pic and I just posted it on 2008 flatheads post its the only decent one that was taken with my camera waiting for coulpe of others to send me more pics