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Old 06-17-2015, 12:57 PM   #106
Lone Star Spearo
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

Oh wow, so gamefish only on day 1 of the tournament, gotcha. So a lot of game fish were eaten at the fish fry that evening, and game fish were only to be killed on day 1, yet there were almost 400 crappie left behind. Fishy...

I'm glad to hear they had the rough fish disposal squared away, it's always nice to have that dumpster or truck there waiting.
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Old 06-17-2015, 01:33 PM   #107
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

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That must have been one HUGE bucket to hold 400 crappie yet be unnoticeable at the same time. Interesting.
The buckets look like 30 gal trash cans.



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Old 06-17-2015, 01:35 PM   #108
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

That's what we normally used too, not sure I could fit 360 fish in one though.
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Old 06-17-2015, 01:41 PM   #109
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

Also, I'd guess the weight of 360 crappie in one bucket would exceed the weight one bucket can handle and that one person could physically load and unload from a vehicle.
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Old 06-17-2015, 05:40 PM   #110
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

I checked out the comments section for the story on the Casper Star Tribune’s website. Surprisingly it wasn’t full of hate for spearos (there were only 2 comments). Can any local spearos in that area tell us if they have heard any negative feedback from locals, especially hook and line anglers?

In just my opinion, a lot of the anglers in the MT, ID, WY area are pretty die hard fly-fisherman/trout anglers so maybe this whole thing is just going under the radar?
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Old 06-17-2015, 06:46 PM   #111
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

I was there as well but I'm afraid I dont have any more answers than whats been given. Participants where required in the tournament rules to have a cooler and ice for their game fish.
After weigh ins my team and I were part of that fish cleaning party until I passed on the fillet knife and went back to camp to clean our own fish. Cant say as to what went on after we left or how many others stayed to take a turn at the fillet table.
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Old 06-18-2015, 01:54 PM   #112
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

Although some information cannot be told for obvious reason I will try to answere some of the questions listed above. This was not just a fish-killing comp. There was a lot of care and preparation that was put in to try and make sure nothing like this happend. In order to help protect the resources, state law says you can spear 50 crappie, the limit was dropped to 20. State law says you can spear 6 bass, the limit was also dropped to 3. Also state law says you can shoot 3 pike, northerns were takin completely off the list to try and help protect the resources. I can assure you the actual numbers are completely differnt from what the news paper claims also. To help try to ensure no fish were wasted at any given time. A fish fry was planned and the end of the tournament for all people who traveled out of state and in some cases out of country who could not take all fish back with them a way to utilize their catch. At the end of the first day all fish were sorted out into containers. A fish cleaning team was put together at which time there was about 15 of us down there cleaning fish for a better part of 3hours. All cleaned fish were rinsed and placed in bags on ice. All tournaments usually work in a way that each person is responsible for cleaning their own catch and taking care of them on their own. Again this was put together to try and make sure that no fish was found in a dumpster somewhere. Sadly after cleaning what we thought was all the fish their was a smaller container that was found the next day. This is all I know on the situation and as I gain more information I will be happy to answere anymore questions that may arise. I can tell you this however, never in my craziest thoughts would I have guessed that 2 days before the tournament the crappie moved up and that almost every participant would check in 20 crappie. I would assume that amongst the cleaning of an additional large number of fish and and dealing with other situations that it truly unintentionally got missed. Never would any person involved in any kind of spearfishing tournament intentionally waste even 1 edible fish. We have always prided ourselves on selective harvest. Also I am not answering any questions on behalf of RMSA. Just trying to get more facts out there
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Old 06-18-2015, 02:03 PM   #113
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

Also I don't know how big of crappie you all are use to shooting but keyhole is overwhelmed with crappie and unfortunately all crappie, for the most part, are stunted crappie. Most in fact are no bigger than a small blue gil caught at a little kids pond so it would be quite easy to fit 300 in one 30gal drum
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Old 06-19-2015, 11:57 PM   #114
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

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Also I don't know how big of crappie you all are use to shooting but keyhole is overwhelmed with crappie and unfortunately all crappie, for the most part, are stunted crappie. Most in fact are no bigger than a small blue gil caught at a little kids pond so it would be quite easy to fit 300 in one 30gal drum
The crappie in Keyhole are not stunted. They are about hand-sized, which is definitely smaller than what I care to spear, but not unusual. (Of course, if I were a moron from Lord-knows-where looking to win a contest spearing game fish I might stab a shit-ton of 'em.) What you are seeing is a very strong year class from last year. Last year there were a few medium size crappie and a fair number of average or small. Next year there will be a ton of medium and large crappie. Keyhole grows plate-sized crappie. I've brought home buckets of them (no, not for fertilizer). I've seen them just as thick as they were this year, but triple the size.

Crappie are infamous for boom-and-bust spawning. They are not overpopulated. They just spawned a boom last year.Beside all that, the hand size crappie that tournament participants wasted are exactly what grow the lunker walleye, and northern. Cut the nice fatties open, the ones that have anything in their belly at all, and what do you see? 'Bout a hand-sized crappie, perchance?

Wasting that many crappie was an act of ignorance and jackassedness by all involved. You can make whatever excuses you want. I don't buy a word of it.

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Old 06-20-2015, 03:48 AM   #115
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

Say they were all 8oz each, that'd be 180lbs of crappie plus 20-30lbs of ice to keep them fresh since they would be used later = 200-210lbs total weight. I've toted around those big rubbish cans loaded to the top with fish and there's no way one person could load and unload 200-210lbs of fish/water/ice in one of those.
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Old 06-20-2015, 10:00 AM   #116
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

[quote=Husker;2052979] This was not just a fish-killing comp.
So points were given for having the nicest gear, being the most friendly spearo, and having the best smile?

This whole thing is fishy, sad, and a black eye for all of us.
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Old 06-20-2015, 05:21 PM   #117
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Re: 2015 Fresh Water Nationals

It's easy to dog pile on the guy. God knows I have been dog piled on by both the RMSA as well as this board. Comps are fun and all but they require a team of people to make sure they run without a hitch. So more then one guy had to know about the fish as well as the dump. As the original founder of the RMSS I can tell you that you don't lose that many fish. I am sure he was tired of cleaning fish I am sure he was in over his head with what to do with all those fish. I feel for the guy I really do. I am most curious about how this will affect spearfishing in the state as well as to see if the association is going to help this kid or leave him high and dry like they did me in Utah when I was fined for not getting a special use permit for "OUR" tournament at fish lake. I don't think it's coincidence that no one from the board of the association has come to this guy's defense or made a statement regarding what happened. That's the real shame. I hope that the guys wanting to get involved in running these kind of tournaments will see that its "your ass" is what's on the line if things go bad and understand that just because a group or association says they will help you doesn't mean they will. Yeah they will talk it up and even help with prizes but forget it if legal issues come about. They are out as easy as the fast kid in dodge ball.
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