Outdoor Matters
'Live-release'Walleye Fishing Tournaments Raise Concerns
A column from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources

One of the walleye tournament fishing impact study sites selected in 2006 was at the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League Wisconsin Division Super Tournament on Green Bay. The weigh-in was held at Great Lakes Marina Park in Menominee. The winner of the two-day tournament, July 29 and 30, caught 10 walleyes weighing 68 pounds, 15 ounces. (DNR photograph by Dave Fielder)

With big fish, big prizes, and big business, modern walleye fishing tournaments have become the NASCAR of the fishing world.

But do they also have a big impact on our walleye populations?

The "live-release" tournament format developed by organizers over the past several years requires contestants to use a properly aerated live well and make every effort to keep the walleyes alive for release after the weigh-in. A weight deduction is taken for any fish that is unable to swim upright in the official bump tank.

Do these efforts really work? How many of these fish survive once released?

This is the topic of a multistate research project being conducted in cooperation with FLW Outdoors, one of the premier walleye tournament organizers in North America. The impact study is being conducted by graduate students at the University of Minnesota, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is one of five state partners.

Researchers visited several FLW Outdoors walleye tournament sites in Michigan last year and have been going out again this year to gather more data, reported Dave Fielder, DNR fisheries research biologist at the Alpena Great Lakes Fisheries Research Station, who is Michigan's liaison on the project.

"The researchers collect reference fish¿ in advance by electrofishing, which temporarily stuns the fish, allowing for their capture without the stress of hook and line techniques," Mr. Fielder said. "These fish are marked and then put in floating net pens right alongside some of the tournamentcaught fish."

The primary goal of the impact study, he said, is to compare survival between the control fish and the caught fish after five days.

Other elements of the research project include a laboratory analysis to determine indicators of how successful the release of a fish will be, Mr. Fielder said. A study has been designed to assess the attitudes of the angling community on its views of competitive fishing on public waters.

"The inclusion of the angler attitudes portion of the study is to provide a complete look at the issue of tournament impacts," Mr. Fielder said, "so it is not just limited to the biological implications, if any."

In Michigan, project researchers gathered data from four walleye tournaments, including one in the Michigan waters of Green Bay out of Menominee, one in the Bays de Noc out of Escanaba, one in the Detroit River out of Trenton, and the last one, which will be July 11 to 14, again at the Bays de Noc.

Similar tournaments have been monitored in other participating states, including Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North Dakota. Funding for the study comes from the participating states and FLWOutdoors.

"The power of this study is the large sample size, that is the geographic coverage and large number of tournaments being monitored to determine the range of response," Mr. Fielder said.

As many as 24 walleye tournaments are expected to contribute data to the analysis.

Although not complete, results thus far indicate that survival of released tournament fish depends on a variety of factors, Mr. Fielder said, including how warm the water is and how rough the water was during the fishing day.

Other factors may include the distance traveled to get back to the weigh-in and the conditions in the boat's live well.

"Some tournaments experienced a very high survival of the anglercaught fish, while nearly all fish in other tournaments didn't survive," Mr. Fielder said. "In most tournaments, an intermediate loss of about 30% was common."

When the impact study is completed, each participating state will decide how best to apply the information to its own situation.

Some states may develop policies and regulations concerning liverelease walleye tournaments, and others may use the information to develop educational materials for tournament organizers and contestants, said Lake Huron Basin Coordinator Tammy Newcomb, who, along with Mr. Fielder, initiated Michigan's participation in the project.

"Here in Michigan, our current understanding is that most anglers don't have a big problem with tournament fishing if they can be assured the fish aren't being killed," Ms. Newcomb said.

Some tournament sites, such as Saginaw Bay, which hosted a FLW Outdoors fishing event June 30 but was not part of the study, may continue to offer catch-and-keep tournaments because the water in the bay is usually too warm and shallow for good live release, she said.

"In each case," Ms. Newcomb added, "the goal will be to find ways to accommodate competitive fishing opportunities and yet ensure protective measures for the fish population."