Before you finish this month’s column, some readers may think I jumped on their breakfast table and sat down in their corn flakes — on purpose.
All I ask is to read the entire column before passing judgment.
The topic this month is saltwater tournaments and using live baits.
I like and use live baits, but there are good and bad aspects about live baits. My beef with live baits is how they’re used during tournaments — more specifically, how they’re obtained for use during tournaments.
To begin, I’m opposed to rules that allow tournament anglers to purchase and use stored live baits.
I don’t have a problem with using live baits during tournaments; I just believe anglers should have to catch their own baits the day they’ll be used.
Using purchased or stored live baits during a tournament amounts to giving some anglers an advantage. They know they have live baits and can plan accordingly, plus they also get a head start on anglers who must catch their own baits the morning of the tournament.
The use of live baits isn’t allowed, except in a few kinds of tournaments. King mackerel and striper (fresh and salt water) tournaments allow use of live baits. Some panfish and catfish tournaments allow natural-but-not-always-live baits.
How about I step out on this limb a bit farther and say I believe any professional tournament competition should be limited to artificial baits? This is already the norm at every professional bass tournament.
The growing professional redfish trails also have endorsed artificial-lures only, while pro walleye trails are mostly in agreement. This approach helps attract lure sponsors and other fishing tackle money.
I know some already are asking to check my sanity and know much of my tournament success has been at events that allowed live and/or natural baits. Remember, a few paragraphs ago I said I use them. And I’ll continue to use them until I find an artificial bait that gives me an advantage or live baits are forbidden.
I just believe (a) requiring artificial baits during pro competitions or (b) requiring tournament anglers to catch their own live baits would be good for the sport.
I raised the topic at a Southern Kingfish Association board meeting about 10 years ago, and it wasn’t received well. Members of a top team then (and now) admitted they’d never fished for king mackerel using artificial lures.
In today’s market, with more lure manufacturers appearing and some of the established companies being purchased, it might be time to consider a change.
But, it’s a hot topic and deserves to be investigated more thoroughly. Let’s first approach it from the economic and skill sides.
Economically, companies that manufacture artificial king mackerel lures have no reason to support tournaments nor tournament trails that don’t require using them. There’s no benefit for a tackle company to promote or advertise with the latest pro tournament that was won by anglers using menhaden, mullet minnow, shad or anything else that looks just like their lure — but was alive.
But if a change occurs, tackle companies will step up to the sponsorship and pro-staff plates as they did with the BASS and FLW tours.
If the last three king mackerel tournaments had been won by anglers using a Sea Striper Super Shad in electric chicken color, you wouldn’t be able to find one inside a store at the coast and well inland.
If such a change occurred, companies could advertise a lure’s success and it’d benefit them to support the tournaments and anglers.
If you don’t think this is true, try to find the hottest lure(s) after a professional bass tournament has been to an area. After the Bassmasters American tournament in Greensboro this past May, there were no shaky-head jigs to be found anywhere at local store shelves for several weeks.
The vendors at the Greensboro Coliseum weigh-in site also ran low and out of stock. Reports surfaced of top bass pros scouring local tackle shops for the hot sizes and colors of shaky heads.
When results drive sales, manufacturers become involved.
But my no-live-or-natural-baits premise is only for pros. I believe it could increase the prize money and pro-staff income to the point a small number of pros actually could make a living from the sport.
It also would force the elite competitors to learn how to use artificial baits and provide manufacturers with good information to produce better lures.
For amateurs, semi-pros or weekend warriors, I just believe if they use live bait, they should be required to catch it themselves the day of the tournament.
Many reasons drive my thoughts for this, but if you’re competing in an event of skill or abilities, it should be your skills and abilities that allow you to succeed or cause you to fail. Think how unfair it would be if someone could enter a triathalon and have Lance Armstrong ride their bike segment, Mark Spitz swim for them or Frank Shorter run the marathon for them.
Sure, they would have done most of the effort, but they would have an unfair edge by using the skills and abilities of someone else for part of the competition.
If you’re going to use live baits during a tournament, you need to develop the skills and knowledge required to catch them. Throwing a cast net and knowing where to find baits are as important as having a boat that floats and motors that run.
Economic parity also plays a role.
In king mackerel tournaments, the various ranges of boats have become so broad that most events include several prizes for competitors in smaller boats. Doesn’t it stand to reason the angler who can afford a 35- to 40-foot boat with four engines more easily can afford to buy baits from a vendor than the person with a 20-foot boat and single engine?
In North Carolina, a dozen frisky pogies usually cost $10 to $15 a dozen, with tournament prices reaching $20 a dozen. Several vendors who follow the FLW and SKA tours begin at $80 a dozen for blue runners and mullet, then rise to as much as $150 for a dozen goggle eyes.
Four-dozen baits each day can easily cost more than a slip at the marina and is difficult for many teams competing on shoestring budgets to afford.
There also have been instances when fishing teams arranged with live-bait vendors to purchase all the baitfish they can catch during the tournament. That assures a buyer his team will have baits for the tournament’s duration but also prevents other teams from buying baits from that vendor.
Don’t think this doesn’t happen — it does and far more often that you might think.
Before I end, I need to assure everyone I’m not against live- bait vendors and don’t want to put them out of work. They provide a service for those who are fun fishing and always save time and effort.
When bait is scarce, sometimes anglers can buy a few dozen baits for less than the fuel required to chase and net wild, free-swimming baitfish.
If you’d rather buy bait and immediately go fishing, do it all you want when fun fishing or pre-fishing a tournament, just not during a tournament.
If you have opinions about this topic, feel free to post your thoughts at our web site, www.northcarolinasportsman.com. Post at the “Opinions and Responses” section of the fishing and hunting reports.
If yours is a particularly good comment, it may show up in this magazine.
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