Mississauga Bassmasters

For those who fish Zone 20 (Lake Ontario) you'll be happy to see the new regulations for Bass fishing. https://www.ontario.ca//ontar/fisheries-management-zone-20

https://m.bassmaster.com/slideshow/whos-2021-classic

Here are my thoughts on recent events on the Ontario Bass Tournament scene... I have vast experience working with tournament fish care from small local tourname...nts to the Bassmasters Classic. I have a lot of professional knowledge of fish care but have acquired additional knowledge from a vast number of biologist, scientists, technicians, volunteers and others across North America. I can honestly say that events I was directly involved with had the utmost in fish care. During that time I was also overseeing fish care for two dozen events including on many fisheries including the Bay of Quinte, Ottawa River, Lake Erie and Lake Nipissing. Fish mortality was always low (< 0.05%) with worse event being ~2% for all the events I helped to coordinated. This was not possible without the efforts of many volunteers. Also, I have always been closely engaged with researchers and conservation officers at many events to make sure all permits and processes were being followed. I was assisting with the B1 organizers for a few years via Pure Fishing Canada and running their tournament fish care in Valleyfield, Port Colborne (2017) and Bay of Quinte (2017, 2018). I was pleased with our fish care and made adjustments during events and after each event to improve on fish care as fish are my first priority. One challenging tournament was the August 2017 Port Colborne B1 event. We had ~15 (fifteen) moralities occur under the hot summer conditions. Mortality data was shared directly with an onsite Conservation Officer who was pleased with our setup and quality controls. I was told by the CO that those fish moralities were a result of the tournament fish care (i.e. lack of barotrauma treatment, rough water rides) and not from the efforts of myself and my trusted team. The CO was not worried about this as the mortality rate was well below any risk levels. I’ve read the statement/report from the St. Lawrence B1 Event. https://fishb1.com/f/st-lawrence-river-report There are many unknowns as I am not familiar with their specific site plan, fish care setup, etc. Here are some of my thoughts though What were the background oxygen levels (milligrams/litre, parts per million) in the source water before fish entered holding tanks? It’s important to choose sites with adequate freshwater with appropriate oxygen levels. Some challenges I’ve faced is less than optimum water quality in marinas. This can be mitigated with using large pumps to quickly exchange/flush water through tanks and use pure oxygen to maintain and increase oxygen levels. Tanks must be filled with freshwater and a flow through system is best with pumps running constant freshwater. Pure Oxygen is then only used to mitigate a drop in oxygen levels from the baseline condition. Was pure oxygen used to manage oxygen levels? The oxygen concentration can deplete quickly in holding tanks once fish are added to a tank. Oxygen depletion occurs much like batter voltage. Slowly at first then it depletes fast. It is nearly impossible to maintain unless there are regular water changes, flow through water management or mitigated artificially with pure oxygen. No amount of oxygenators, ice, etc. can maintain, let alone increase oxygen, effectively over in tournament tanks. Oxygen levels are often a roller coaster during an event. They rise and fall with the addition and removal of fish in tanks. Tournament holding tanks must be monitored closely and managed at an industrial level like a hatchery, not like a live-well. Waste levels in water? Even if oxygen and temperature are maintained waste levels (e.g. ammonia) can become excessive in holding tanks fast! My rule is a holding tank, even with decent oxygen levels, should be flushed each hour to maintain healthy waste levels. As waste levels increase so do fish stress levels. Waste levels can be monitored but having regular water changes can mitigate this easily. Oxygen and water temperature are most important. Ice or no ice? I am on the fence on this one. Oxygen is the most important. Water temperature is secondary. Many anglers like to use ice to cool water so fish are not using up as much oxygen. This is fine but if oxygen and waste levels are not being managed by water changes ice is only a bandage over a large wound. Dead or Not Dead? I am not going to get into this tournament decision. We all know that a flicking fin or moving gill does not always mean a fish can be released alive. No amount of careful fish care can work miracles. In recent years barotrauma has taken a step to an issue in many tournaments. Managing fish that are suffering barotrauma need to be an anglers responsibility. Not a tournament organizers. I think organizers should consider having an official in their boat when bagging fish for transport to scales. This seems like a radical idea to some but on fisheries with high probability of barotrauma anglers should be treating fish for barotrauma. Fish that can’t swim upright on their own are stressed, be it barotrauma or not. It is my thoughts that these fish should not be weighed in until they are treated for barotrauma. Tournament officials should be able to tell if anglers have had to treat a fish or not. If anglers are not familiar with how to treat barotrauma with fizzing than they may want to reconsider entering tournaments where barotrauma is likely to occur. Using or not using live release boats? Whether holding tanks are shore bound or on live release boats they need to be monitored carefully. Often anglers see live release boats and think all is good and my fish are cared for. I would be careful with those thoughts. If tournament operators do not have pure oxygen tanks and large pumps on board for their fish care they are fighting a losing battle in maintaining healthy fish. I am not talking about large bilge pumps to move water. Tournament operators should have large, gas powered pumps that can move water in large volumes. Fire hoses and pumps allows operators to make quick water changes in large tanks by replacing hundreds of gallons in minutes. As anglers I would ask to see a tournament operators fish care operations including how they monitor and manage oxygen levels. You are paying for a service and part of that service is live release of the fish you have caught. The vast majority of tournament anglers I know would not like their fish, which they worked hard to keep alive, were handled poorly in the end. I chose to write this post to separate myself form this situation and take a moment to share my thoughts on tournament fish care. I chose to part ways with the B1 for reasons in mid 2018 due to changes in event sponsorship and other reasons. I hope the B1 and other tournament companies learn from recent events and do what is right for our bass fisheries. Anglers are a passionate group and situations like this are not easy to mitigate.

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