Thread: How many fish do you like to see weighed at a tournament? 7 or 10? Need some imput.

I take it that this discussion is about the number of fish allowed to be brought to the scales for a local tournament. As long as it is not a National Tournament and we are not a bunch of Pros, I don't see that it matters. I can work with 5, 7 or 10. I'm not releasing any as I would be there to catch some fish and make some friends. If it is a weekend ordeal, I would be glad to donate to the cause of feeding participants.
I'll even go a step further and it does not bother me if someone brings dead fish to the scales. Not everyone has a livewell.

Originally Posted by gobbler

oh and on the spiderigging, about 98% of the guys that fish tournaments around here, (the carolinas) spiderig. i have never seen a "trail of dead fish" behind anyones boat. i think the individual has more to do with that than the style.

Agree 110%

Originally Posted by arkcrappie

I'll even go a step further and it does not bother me if someone brings dead fish to the scales. Not everyone has a livewell.

Most tourneys require live fish for weigh-in, so as to insure the fish were caught during tourney hours. (pre-launch livewell checks are a general rule) The bigger the "award" for winning/placing in any tournament, the more chance someone may cheat. That was the one major factor in why I ran a "no $$ involved, prizes only" tournament trail ... and packaged the prizes so that every participating team would get "something", regardless of whether they weighed in a fish, or not. Even under those conditions, there was a incident where a team was disqualified, even though they had a livewell full of fish ... since the fish were all dead, and there was the potential for those fish to have been caught prior to the tourney. The team members stated that the livewell (pump?) had quit on them, causing the fish to die ... but were understanding & supportive of the disqualification, per the stated rule.

... cp

CP, I understand the why's of the live fish rule, but I didn't finish my own statement very well. If it is in a local club, it wouldn't bother me. A major national tournament is something different. I know what it is like to fish from a 12 or 14 foot flatbottom boat and have nothing more than a cooler or a 5 gallon bucket to put fish in. There are some mighty fine crappie fishermen out there that are set up with no livewell and if they wanted to join in the fun of a local tournament, I would not be against it. Most likely I'd be a little spooked of that fella that skulls his boat and drops those slabs in the cooler!

I have fished 20,10,7 and 5 fish weigh-ins and i prefer 5 if ya hit the right spot with 5 minutes to go you can win.