First bass tournament that allows culling to be held June 15

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First bass tournament that
allows culling to be held June 15
Tournaments to allow culling under legislatively authorized pilot program

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. -- The first bass fishing tournament in which participants are allowed to cull, or sort fish, in Wisconsin as part of a new pilot program created by the Wisconsin Legislature gets underway June 15 on Lake Wissota in Chippewa County.

That tournament, the ESPN/BASS Elite 50, will also be the first studied to determine how tournaments affect local economies, assess the fate of the fish caught and released during the tournament, and examine other issues, according to Patrick Schmalz, the state fisheries biologist coordinating the pilot program.

The legislature in 2004 adopted 2003 Wisconsin Act 249, directing the Department of Natural Resources to authorize culling for four bass tournaments each year and to study and report back on the impacts of the tournament by the end of 2006. The culling permits allow competitors in the selected tournaments to replace smaller fish with bigger fish in their live wells and to continue to fish once they reach their daily limit.

Under Wisconsin law, on most waters, anglers can only take into possession five bass in a day, and when they reach their daily bag limit of five, they’re done bass fishing for the day, and any fish not immediately released is considered “in possession” of the angler.

Act 249’s provisions requiring the culling permits responded to contentions by some bass anglers and tournament sponsors that big-time bass tournaments skip Wisconsin because of the state’s culling rules.

In addition to the ESPN/BASS Elite 50 event on Lake Wissota, the other events selected for the culling permits are the FLW Everstart Tour event Aug. 3-6 on the Mississippi River near Onalaska, and the Wisconsin State Bass Federation 4-Man Classic Sept. 24-25 on Shawano Lake in Shawano County.

The ESPN/BASS event in Wisconsin is one in a series in which 50 top national anglers compete for a total payout of $1.6 million across the series. The FLW Everstart event also draws national competitors.

A fishing tournament advisory committee established by the department reviewed applications for the pilot program and recommended specific tournaments to receive the culling permits. The final selections represented a range of tournament sizes and geographic locations to allow the study to look at a range of impacts, Schmalz says.

The research program, directed by Act 249, is being funded by a combined $20,000 in donations from sponsors of two of the tournaments and state license fees.

The agency will be working with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Department of Tourism and the Chippewa County Convention and Visitors Bureau to look at the local economic impact of the event in the area and at the sociological attitudes of other anglers to the culling rule. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will be examining the biological impacts, primarily assessing how many of the fish caught during the tournament die as a result of their handling.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Patrick Schmalz (608) 266-8170