Has anyone heard about this? is it for real? :x
http://muskieshowdown.com/index.php
catch and kill tourney St. Clair?
Moderator: Cyberlunge
That is a sad thing. Big fish being killed. WRIF is also having a contest but I think from reading this the fish must be alive and brought in. But I Some fish i guess will be killed.
http://www.wrif.com/images/2005_01fish/ ... 202005.pdf
http://www.wrif.com/images/2005_01fish/ ... 202005.pdf
"Catch a Babe, Throw a Hoginator"
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Don Paxton
- Posts: 117
- Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:33 am
- Location: Ottawa Lake Michigan
Killing Muskies?
Killing Muskies? What a waste of a beautiful fish. Why don't they keep them alive and instead of killing them put them in other lakes. I know I would like to see them put some monsters in to Lake Hudson lol.
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Hamilton Reef
- Posts: 1156
- Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2005 9:43 am
- Location: Montague, MI on White River
ERIC SHARP: Muskie tournaments don't harm species
April 28, 2005, BY ERIC SHARP, FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Contact ERIC SHARP at 313-222-2511 or esharp@freepress.com.
Some Toronto area anglers are attacking the organizers and sponsors of the Muskie Showdown tournament scheduled for June 25-26 on Lake St. Clair, claiming that events like this threaten the muskellunge population.
My advice to them is simple: Get a grip on reality. About three or four of the big predators likely would be killed on a lake where the population is measured in the tens of thousands, and the tournament would do nothing to threaten the survival of the species on the world's finest muskie waters.
The tournament critics remind me of some trout anglers who come across as no-kill fanatics. Many are less concerned about killing fish than with assuming a self-deluded moral superiority because they don't kill fish.
Ironically, dedicated muskie anglers rarely kill muskies, just as dedicated bass anglers rarely kill bass. Muskie and bass anglers value the fish too much for that. (It's fortunate that poor old walleyes number in the millions because everybody kills them.)
Mike Momany, the organizer of the Muskie Showdown, said a couple of his sponsors pulled out after getting e-mails and calls from critics who threatened to bad-mouth the businesses.
"This is nuts," Momany said. "I've been fishing for muskies on Lake St. Clair for 24 years, and in that time I've caught over 3,000 and killed three. I used to run a fall muskie classic, and we never had more than a handful of fish killed and weighed in. Two years in a row, we offered cash for the first three places, but only two fish were brought in.
"That's because we set a minimum size and weight limit, and we do hourly radio broadcasts that tell the guys fishing the tournament what's on the board. That way they know there's no point in killing a fish if it won't beat something that we already have.
"We also have a minimum length of 50 inches and a minimum weight of 30 pounds. If you bring in a fish that doesn't meet that, you're disqualified."
Casual anglers fishing for anything that will take their bait or lure catch most muskies and bass taken home from Lake St. Clair.
Personally, I am an advocate of no-kill fishing for most species. No-kill makes sense where we are trying to establish blue-ribbon fisheries with a real chance at catching a trophy-sized fish. If anything, Michigan needs a lot more miles of no-kill trout streams and some no-kill bass and northern pike lakes.
But that doesn't mean other people should not have the right to kill a few trout, pike or bass if they want to eat them or mount them, as long as killing fish doesn't hurt the fishery. And killing a handful of big muskellunge over the course of a season on Lake St. Clair won't hurt the muskie fishing on that lake.
We know this because for decades, several tournaments a year have been held on Lake St. Clair under the same rules -- killing only a few big fish that might have a chance to win -- and the muskie fishing is better now than it was 20 years ago.
The problem with the self-appointed, holier-than-thou, would-be muskie wardens is that they don't know what they're talking about. They fish in an area where muskies are so sparse they truly are "the fish of 1,000 casts." But there are so many muskies in Lake St. Clair that trollers there often catch as many fish in a day as the Canadian casters catch in two or three seasons.
One of the critics is a Davis Battah, who identified himself in e-mails as a Toronto area muskellunge guide. I called him to try to learn what kind of science he was using to back his arguments, but he refused to talk to me and hung up. Supposedly, Battah has told others he has never fished on Lake St. Clair.
If these critics were to relieve their ignorance by spending a few days on Lake St. Clair, they would be stunned by the experience. While no one has an exact figure, every fisheries biologist I have talked to says Lake St. Clair's muskellunge population is in the tens of thousands. (The estimates most often are 30,000 to 60,000.)
Last summer and fall, Mike Pittiglio, skipper of the charter boat Muskie Mania, boated and released 754 muskies on Lake St. Clair. He didn't kill one. The season before, he caught and released more than 600 and killed one a customer wanted to mount.
Pittiglio's best day last summer was 35 fish landed of 57 that struck, and he often had days when he landed and released 10-20. Numerous other captains have enjoyed similar success.
Brad Horton, president of the Michigan-Ontario Muskie Club, the Lake St. Clair association that runs a number of muskie tournaments, said of the Canadian complainers: "They are absolutely clueless. The muskie fishermen kill so few fish that it's absolutely meaningless."
Truth to tell, what with zebra and quagga mussels threatening the base of the food chain, and ocean-going ships threatening to bring in new exotic and fish diseases, Lake St. Clair's muskies have a lot more to worry about than a handful of fishing tournaments.
April 28, 2005, BY ERIC SHARP, FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Contact ERIC SHARP at 313-222-2511 or esharp@freepress.com.
Some Toronto area anglers are attacking the organizers and sponsors of the Muskie Showdown tournament scheduled for June 25-26 on Lake St. Clair, claiming that events like this threaten the muskellunge population.
My advice to them is simple: Get a grip on reality. About three or four of the big predators likely would be killed on a lake where the population is measured in the tens of thousands, and the tournament would do nothing to threaten the survival of the species on the world's finest muskie waters.
The tournament critics remind me of some trout anglers who come across as no-kill fanatics. Many are less concerned about killing fish than with assuming a self-deluded moral superiority because they don't kill fish.
Ironically, dedicated muskie anglers rarely kill muskies, just as dedicated bass anglers rarely kill bass. Muskie and bass anglers value the fish too much for that. (It's fortunate that poor old walleyes number in the millions because everybody kills them.)
Mike Momany, the organizer of the Muskie Showdown, said a couple of his sponsors pulled out after getting e-mails and calls from critics who threatened to bad-mouth the businesses.
"This is nuts," Momany said. "I've been fishing for muskies on Lake St. Clair for 24 years, and in that time I've caught over 3,000 and killed three. I used to run a fall muskie classic, and we never had more than a handful of fish killed and weighed in. Two years in a row, we offered cash for the first three places, but only two fish were brought in.
"That's because we set a minimum size and weight limit, and we do hourly radio broadcasts that tell the guys fishing the tournament what's on the board. That way they know there's no point in killing a fish if it won't beat something that we already have.
"We also have a minimum length of 50 inches and a minimum weight of 30 pounds. If you bring in a fish that doesn't meet that, you're disqualified."
Casual anglers fishing for anything that will take their bait or lure catch most muskies and bass taken home from Lake St. Clair.
Personally, I am an advocate of no-kill fishing for most species. No-kill makes sense where we are trying to establish blue-ribbon fisheries with a real chance at catching a trophy-sized fish. If anything, Michigan needs a lot more miles of no-kill trout streams and some no-kill bass and northern pike lakes.
But that doesn't mean other people should not have the right to kill a few trout, pike or bass if they want to eat them or mount them, as long as killing fish doesn't hurt the fishery. And killing a handful of big muskellunge over the course of a season on Lake St. Clair won't hurt the muskie fishing on that lake.
We know this because for decades, several tournaments a year have been held on Lake St. Clair under the same rules -- killing only a few big fish that might have a chance to win -- and the muskie fishing is better now than it was 20 years ago.
The problem with the self-appointed, holier-than-thou, would-be muskie wardens is that they don't know what they're talking about. They fish in an area where muskies are so sparse they truly are "the fish of 1,000 casts." But there are so many muskies in Lake St. Clair that trollers there often catch as many fish in a day as the Canadian casters catch in two or three seasons.
One of the critics is a Davis Battah, who identified himself in e-mails as a Toronto area muskellunge guide. I called him to try to learn what kind of science he was using to back his arguments, but he refused to talk to me and hung up. Supposedly, Battah has told others he has never fished on Lake St. Clair.
If these critics were to relieve their ignorance by spending a few days on Lake St. Clair, they would be stunned by the experience. While no one has an exact figure, every fisheries biologist I have talked to says Lake St. Clair's muskellunge population is in the tens of thousands. (The estimates most often are 30,000 to 60,000.)
Last summer and fall, Mike Pittiglio, skipper of the charter boat Muskie Mania, boated and released 754 muskies on Lake St. Clair. He didn't kill one. The season before, he caught and released more than 600 and killed one a customer wanted to mount.
Pittiglio's best day last summer was 35 fish landed of 57 that struck, and he often had days when he landed and released 10-20. Numerous other captains have enjoyed similar success.
Brad Horton, president of the Michigan-Ontario Muskie Club, the Lake St. Clair association that runs a number of muskie tournaments, said of the Canadian complainers: "They are absolutely clueless. The muskie fishermen kill so few fish that it's absolutely meaningless."
Truth to tell, what with zebra and quagga mussels threatening the base of the food chain, and ocean-going ships threatening to bring in new exotic and fish diseases, Lake St. Clair's muskies have a lot more to worry about than a handful of fishing tournaments.
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Will Schultz
- Posts: 7662
- Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:06 pm
- Location: GR, MI
At first I started to pick up the phone to call Eric Sharp but after reading the whole article and especially the above quote I understand his perspective. HOWEVER, he fails to recognize that the promotion of a kill tournament on St Clair promotes the killing of muskies everywhere. We all know that this isn't going to effect the fishery. I've seen enough 42-47" muskies in the bottom of boats that were kept by non-tournament anglers. We all understand that MANY more muskies each year are killed by the average angler.The problem with the self-appointed, holier-than-thou, would-be muskie wardens is that they don't know what they're talking about. They fish in an area where muskies are so sparse they truly are "the fish of 1,000 casts." But there are so many muskies in Lake St. Clair that trollers there often catch as many fish in a day as the Canadian casters catch in two or three seasons.
Self interest is for the past, common interest is for the future.