Monday, June 10, 2013

Team Tournament Culling Tips

After fishing tournaments for 15 years, I've seen everything when it comes to culling; from throwing all fish in a net in the bottom of the boat to "eyeball" 'em, to high-tech digital scales that store and add up weights for you automatically... until the batteries run out.  Even the smallest culling mistake could cost you hundreds of dollars or more in a tournament.  Speeding up your tournament culling means more fish in the boat (presuming having your line in the water more=more fish).  It also can make for healthier fish at the weigh-in.  Less stress from having to be re-weighed, balance-beamed, etc means healthier and more lively fish to be released later.

Here's a few things I am doing this year to help speed up culling, improve the health of my fish, and spend more time with my line (and my partner's line) in the water:


1)  Weigh and tag all fish under 3lbs as they come in the boat.  Do not wait for a limit.
2)  Use the two sides of the livewell to categorize the fish:
        a. Passenger-side livewell for fish you want to cull.
        b. Driver-side livewell for lunkers.
3)  Log fish weights by number or color for quick reference.  Options:
        a.  Digital scale can store weights (don't even think about using this option if you can't keep extra AA batteries in the boat!)
        b. Write the weights down with a grease pencil or on a pad of paper that you can keep out of the elements.
        c.  Ardent cull tags are OK, but you have review ALL of them at once to make sure you have the smallest fish to cull.  There’s more room for error using this method and I don’t like it…
4)  Don’t weigh or tag fish that look to be over ~4lbs.  Get the fish in the livewell as soon as possible!  Cull out the smallest fish after the upgrade fish is safe in the livewell.
5)  If 2 fish are within an ounce of each other or otherwise pretty close, use a balance beam to ensure you are throwing back the smallest fish without a doubt.

To me, its way faster to find the "red" tagged fish than to hunt around the livewell for "tag #2".  Again the Ardent cull tags require that you first check each one in the livewell before culling, all while hoping none have been bumped and changed lbs/oz.  It opens up a level of error I am uncomfortable with.

I am convinced that the best solution is to tag fish by color and to keep a little plastic chart with a grease pen in the boat to record weights.  Recording the weights by color allows you to instantly know which fish to throw back before even opening the livewell, significantly speeding up the process.

Have any other tips or advice?  Post below!


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