**ATTENTION** CFF#4 UPDATE

[AThornton]

Yea I had absolutely no idea we were weighing over there. I trailered the boat and parked in the lot, dumped my well and put my fish in the bag and headed towards the dock. Thankfully I heard my name yelled and "Hey, they're weighing on the other side of the park...." emoBang

So got back in the truck and headed that way. Last in line, no more water in the live well, so I had to just stand there and watch one of my fish die. Tried adding some more water to my bag, but it didn't help. That is my only complaint of the day. Had a great time and glad we could hook up with the CATCH guys for this one.

 

[Dropshot]

Dropshot - 5/11/2009 10:38 AM How are the weigh-ins to be conducted? In a specific numeric order? With CATCH calling for 100 boats, how will the CFF guys fit into the weigh-in? Will we weigh in before, after, or in the middle? Never fished CATCH, so I am just curious. It is a great cause. I know for a fact, as I lost Mom to cancer 19 months ago.

</p>

That is why I had asked about the weigh-in process. After standing in line to weigh-in, I then ended up in the water working to save the big post-spawner we caught. When a fish has been through the spawn and is already stressed, the last thing it needs is to be couped up in a bag of little oxygen.</p>

 

[Ericb]

do not mean to complain cause it was all for a good cause but do agree that was not communicated well because we were having trouble with live well and thought it would be better to take out early and lose a little fishing time and weigh in early for the sake of the fish, but by the time we figured everything out , we were one of the last to weigh in and had 1 dead fish where that fish should not have died.put stuff in water to help but like others said was in bags to long without oxygen.

 

[high2425]

It was very frustrating trying to weigh in, not knowing where it was, and standing in line for over 30 min. caused a fish to die, no tanks to keep them alive.Will probably not fish a combo TX again!

 

[FishinMagician]

Without any aeration fish will deplete the oxygen in a weigh-in bag in a matter of minutes. It is a shame to keep fish alive all day long to only have them die while waiting in line to get them weighed. It is the responsibility of not only the tournament director, but each contestant to watch the weigh-in line to keep the wait as short as possible.

 

[2jigs]

It wasn't the fishermens fault. You could not hear for the generator running. And we couldn't see the weigh-in line for the trees. Also I think the weigh-ins were stoped for a couple of speakers, with fish settingin the weigh-in bags, (not sure of that we had already weighed in). But they were not announcingweights if they didn't stop them.</p>

 

[FishinMagician]

I was not placing blame on anyone in particular as I was not there. I was just saying that fish in weigh-in bags will deplete the oxygen in a matter of minutes without aeration. Sorry if I have offended anyone as I was just passing along info.

 

[CATCHMAN]

I knew with a three fish limit and 60+ boats that weigh-in would be lengthy. Relay for Life wanted a couple of cancer survivors to speak and we had to have that generator for the sould system. Communication was a problem for a variety reasons. Some didn't know we were weighing-in on the point across from the ramp. You can place all that blame on me as the President of CATCH. We had too any things occurring and we failed in our responsibility to properly care for the fish.

 

[CATCHMAN]

BTW
Weigh-in continued during the speakers.

 

[AThornton]

We can't put too much blame on you Kevin given that this was all thrown together in the last week. My only complaint is lack of communication on the weigh-in site. Had I know we were weighing over there I wouldnt have drained my wells and could have kept my fish alive a little better. But given the short notice of having us CFF'rs along with your crowd, I think things went well. Of course I hate to see that many dead fish, but it is what it is. We came together for a good cause and hopefully helped you guys raise some money for cancer awareness!

 

[CATCHMAN]

About $3,000 was raised for Relay for Life/American Cancer Society. We have planned for a couple of months and adding CFF #4 was not a problem . I saw about 50lbs of dead fish at tournament in May 2008 at HBSP and it was sad. I know people take them home and eat them and that occurs everyday as well, but that's not cool when you're in charge. I don't know how many dead ones we had because Cleveland Bassmasters conducted the weigh-in and I had other responsibilities. Some campers took them from what I understand. One dead one is too many in my book.

 

[antman1331]

Next time, just make an announcement over the $3000 worth of PA equipment that was there for fishermen to hold their fish... Everyone was right there with their boats within a rocks throw of the weigh-in, and could have easily kept their fish in the livewells until the line died down... I hope some lessons were learned from this tournament... Seeing all those dead fish really sucked...

 

[gumby78]

Guys, As CATCHMAN had said the line never stopped during the time that the speakers were telling there story on how cancer has effected their lives and the announcement was made to hold the fish till the line went down. Sometimes people get to talking to others and are not listening to what anyone else has to say. Next time we will call out a series of boat numbers to come to weigh in and that should take care of the problem. I am sorry for the loss of fish and will have other measures in the future to prevent this from happening. Thank you all for the feedback to help us at CATCH to run a better tournament.