WEBPAGE UPDATED Monday January 24, 2022
Made in USA
The primary concern for most tournament fishermen is WINNING THE MONEY, THE PRIZE, and the FAME, PERIOD!
SALTWATER “C&R FISHING TOURNAMENTS” and “KIILL TOURNAMENTS”
FACT: Live tournament fish presented at the scales always weigh more than dead fish iced down for hours ice chest in “kill tournaments” like the CCA STAR summer fishing tournament and many other summer kill tournaments?
There are No FISHING TOURNAMENT RULES penalizing or prohibiting fisherman from presenting live fish at any kill-tournaments in America including CCA Fishing Tournaments. You can turn in live fish or dead fish. Presenting Live fish to the weighmaster increase your chances of winning the money dramatically.
Oxygenated livewells are used to transport live saltwater fish in fishing tournaments safely and supercharged live bait fish every summer. The Oxygen Edge™ livewell oxygen-injection systems ensure safe livewell oxygenation all day for all tournament catfish, redfish, speckled trout, bonefish, snook, walleye, live bait fish and all other tournament species.
Contestants dial in the right dose of O2 on the regulator for the biomass of fish or live bait in your livewell and change livewell water several times daily and that’s all there is to insuring excellent livewell water quality and safe, continuous oxygenation for hours/days every summer.
Live high-quality baitfish is the choice for some tournament fishermen offshore, near shore, bays and estuaries. Live bait supercharged with oxygen is by far superior quality live bait unmatched by Mother Nature’s fresh caught bait fish. Fresh caught baitfish plus all the livewell pumps and mechanical aerators in the world cannot supercharge a live baitfish like fishermen using the Oxygen Edge™. Dialing-in the correct dose of pure oxygen on the O2 regulator guaranteed safe, continuous oxygenation proportional to the oxygen demand required by the stocking density every summer.
Many fishermen that use aerated livewells in the summer worry about tournament fish suffocating every summer because livewewll water is hot, low oxygen and fish’/live bait fish suffocation; constantly looking in the livewell by 10 AM to see what’s dying and dead.
Only a fisherman administering the correct dose of pure compressed oxygen into his livewell water can Supercharge a live baitfish… air, aeration, high volume water pumps or tuna tubes pumping 1,000’s of gallons of water per hour through a livewell or Tuna tube cannot, will not Supercharge live bait, but fishermen administering the “Right Dose” of pure 100% oxygen dramaticallt alters fish behavior.
Catch and Release tournaments generate and reinforce a positive public relation image for tournament sponsors, competitive angling and tournament directors.
A few saltwater tournaments practice catch and release. Many other saltwater fishing tournaments are Catch and Kill tournaments.
Keeping a live saltwater tournament fish alive and all day in your livewell to weigh-in ensures you the competitive weight edge in all Catch and Kill fishing tournament. Live fish always weigh more than dead fish, iced down fish at the end of the day. An ounce or so can make the difference between winning or losing the money and prize in saltwater fishing tournaments.
Keep a live fish: Why? Because tournament fish weigh more alive than dead. From the moment of death, dehydration and water weight loss begins immediately. Most importantly, the catch is worth more money alive than dead. The competitive edge is important when you’re tournament fishing for money and that weight edge is lost when your fish dies.
Dead fish on ice begin to dehydrate (loose water weight) immediately after death as cell membranes leak and fail (natural process of death). Cellular water is lost and total body weight falls. Dead fish also shrink in length. The more hours the fish has been dead, the more total body weight it loses and the shorter it gets. Lost body weight can mean lost tournaments.
Weighing-in dead tournament fish can be much more costly than the cost and efforts to keep it alive. With the competitive Oxygen Edge, your chances of winning become more favorable as body weight and length are conserved. The primary effect of weighing in dead dehydrated fish negatively affects your odds of winning. Every ounce count when you’re fishing competitively.
Releasing the tournament catch alive to fight in next week’s tournament gained conservation fame the past few decades, impressing sponsors and prestige due to Ray Scott’s innovative C&R marketing strategies with B.A.S.S. 50 years ago. Some say, Mr. Scott originated the concept of catch and live release bass tournament fishing. Whether for conservation or improving a more acceptable tournament marketing image, Scott’s new marketing technique proved to be innovative and very effective creating a positive public image of tournament bass fishing. Only within in the last few years has the saltwater tournament fishing industry paid attention to this type marketing. A few saltwater tournaments have adopted the C&R ethic with excellent results.
Scott advanced the evolution of tournament fish care in the early 1970’s; fish stringers were replaced with new aerated boat livewells. Live fish began to show up at weigh-in and released alive after the tournament back into the wild. Spectators and politicians saw live fish wiggle, swim away into the abyss and that created great new tournament public relations. Tournament transport fish care is dynamic and continues evolving to date for freshwater and saltwater tournaments now. Tournament fish conservation is Nobel and just looks good.
The catch and release marketing concept tremendously impacted the public’s image of competitive tournament fishing and quickly advanced to other freshwater and saltwater tournament fishing circuits. Catch and release, practiced by tournament anglers, impressed sponsors and is perceived by the public and outdoors’ writers as actively practicing wildlife conservation.
When C&R doesn’t work, it results in high summer mortality/morbidity. Then media writes about tournament mortality, delayed mortality and high tournament fish kills. In recent years, the evolution of tournament fish care has made Paradyme advancements due to new state of the art livewell oxygenating technology… administering supplemental oxygen (not mechanical aeration) to insure safe, continuous oxygenation for all the fish transported in summer livewells.
Several innovative coastal saltwater tournament circuits incorporated C&R rules. Some saltwater tournaments motivate contestants with positive incentives, FREE ADDITIONAL BOUNUS WEIGHT for each live fish weighed in. These novel saltwater tournament C&R rules encourage and reward competitive anglers who make an extra effort to keep their catch alive with positive incentives. Outdoor writers write about the great job anglers and tournament officials have done releasing the catch alive and unharmed. Proud sponsors are recognized for supporting new effective conservation. Everyone wins when C&R is successful including the star of the tournament, the fish.
Many saltwater C&R tournament circuits reward tournament fishermen with bonus points or additional ½ pound added to the fish’s weight for doing a good job keeping the catch alive all day in the boat livewell. This reward concept is completely different than the “Dead Fish Penalty” commonly seen in bass tournaments and other freshwater fishing C&R tournaments that penalizes or punishes anglers by deducting weight or points when contestants fail to ensure safe transport water quality and fail to keep their catch alive during the all-day transport in the boat livewell.
Paradoxically and unfortunately, most dead fish penalties and punishment rules primarily apply to freshwater bass tournaments, crappie tournaments and walleye tournaments. These C&R rules are powerful negative incentives that punish fishermen that fail to manage livewell water quality. Punishing all contestants that weigh-in dead fish.
THE SAD PART OF THIS STORY: Contestants and boats livewell depending on aerated livewells to ensure excellent DO water quality in the summer to keep their catch alive and healthy 7-8 hours to weigh-in are severely compromised because most aerated livewells often fail to insure minimal safe, continuous transport DO \that will support winning tournament catches (high stocking densities).
Hot summer environmental water low in dissolved oxygen = low livewell DO all day = chronic suffocation = high summer tournament fish acute and post tournament mortality/morbidity.
A few tournament fishermen choose to provide the Best Tournament Fish Care possible in 2022. Most will choose far less than the Best Fish Care Possible and worry about that dead fish punishment every summer tournament.
Tournament fishermen can choose to provide the Best Fish Care possible or less than the Best fish care possible every summer.