Grand Lake — The Grand River Dam Authority is expecting new fishing tournament regulations — established just days after a Grand Lake tournament resulted in a major fish kill — to keep fish mortality rates low during tournaments in July and August.

GRDA established the regulations after the Central ProAm Association’s July 9-10 Grand Lake tournament was held at Martin Landing Resort. According to GRDA, over 470 bass died during that event because tournament officials did not take sufficient steps to protect the fish during the weigh-in procedures. That included long lines at the weigh-ins, where fish were kept too long in holding bags. Also, a release tank, where the fish were placed after weigh-in, was overfilled.

A day after the fish kill was discovered by the GRDA Lake Patrol, GRDA promised to take quick and aggressive action to prevent similar incidents from happening. Soon after, new regulations for July and August tournaments were put into place prior to a July 16-17 tourney, also held at Martin Landing on Grand Lake. That tournament, sponsored by the Heartland Tournament Association, utilized the new GRDA regulations and resulted in a fish kill of only 14 (eight on Saturday, six on Sunday).

"This is evidence that fish can be protected during the weigh-in procedures," said GRDA Ecosystems Management Superintendent Dr. Darrell Townsend, Ph.D. "I think the new procedures worked well to our advantage and brought the awareness up among all involved considerably. Our new permitting system will be very detailed and hopefully we can monitor these tournaments much more closely in the future."

Those new regulations, which are now in place for the remainder of July and August 2005 tournaments, are as follows:

• Tournaments with less than 25 boats: A limit of four (4) fish per boat for both day and night tournaments. One (1) aerated holding tank, with a three (3) bag limit. Also, documentation of dissolved oxygen and water temperature.

• Tournaments with 26 to 50 boats: A limit of four (4) fish per boat for both day and night tournaments. Three (3) aerated holding tanks, with a five (5) bag limit. Also, documentation of dissolved oxygen and water temperature.

• Tournaments with 51 to 100 boats: A limit of four (4) fish per boat for both day and night tournaments. Five (5) aerated holding tanks, two (2) of which are oxygenated, with a seven (7) bag limit are required. Also, one (1) release boat equipped with an oxygen tank, temperature and dissolved oxygen probes. No more than one (1) pound of fish per gallon of water and proper paper documentation of temperature and dissolved oxygen 15 minutes prior to the addition of fish or official check-in time and five (5) minutes prior to official release time.

• Tournaments with 100 or more boats: A limit of four (4) fish per boat for both day and night tournaments. Five (5) aerated holding tanks, two (2) of which are oxygenated, with a 10 bag limit are required. Also two (2) release boats are required, each equipped with oxygen tank, temperature and dissolved oxygen probes. No more than one (1) pound of fish per gallon of water and proper paper documentation of temperature an dissolved oxygen 15 minutes prior to the addition of fish or official check-in time and five (5) minutes prior to official release time.

• Tournament times will be as follows: Night tournaments can go from official sunset to no later than an 8 AM weigh-in. Day tournaments will go from safe light to no later than a 1 PM weigh-in.

Note:

• All events must supply every contestant with a copy of the fish care guidelines (listed below) prior to the start of the event. A full briefing on fish care must be given by the tournament organizer to contestants prior to the start of the event.

• Dissolved oxygen and/or temperature probes, and release boats, are available (some for a fee) in some areas around the lake.

• Holding tank oxygen levels must be maintained above 5mg/l and temperatures should be maintained at approximately 10°F below lake surface temperatures. Proper paper documentation of temperature and dissolved oxygen 15 minutes prior to the addition of fish or official weigh-in time and 5 minutes prior to official release time.

• Weigh-in bags must be provided by tournament director (preferably with mesh tops) and no fish can be weighed using personal bags so that tournament directors can have full control over weigh-in waiting lines.

• If at any time a tournament director suspects that mortality is eminent that fish should be harvested for consumption.

• If the applicant is unable to meet these requirements tournament directors have the option to conduct a "paper tournament". (In a paper tournament, catches are taken to a designated boat where they are measured and immediately released. No weigh-in off the water is required.)

• If these conditions cannot be met or if the applicant decides to cancel a tournament then GRDA will issue a full refund of their permit fee.

The fish care guidelines, which must be made available to all tournament fishermen, are as follows:

• Fill livewells at first fishing spot from open lake area.

• Turn on the recirculating aerators immediately.

— Set pump switch(es) on manual for continuous operation, run all day.

• Handle with care

— Handle fish as little as possible, use knotless nylon or rubber landing nets.

— Do not allow fish to touch boat carpet, attempt to remove deep hooks carefully.

— Do not keep fish out of water longer than you can hold your breath.

•Add ice & salt

— Recirculate livewell water continuously rather than pumping in hot lake water.

— Monitor water level(s) after rough water runs and only add enough water to make up for overflow.

— Add ice when you first fill livewell. Block ice melts more slowly and gives more even cooling. Leave it in the bag (don’t worry about chlorine). Cool water no more than 8-10 degrees below lake temperature. Check temp with a thermometer.

— 8-pounds cools 30 gallons 10 degrees for 2-3 hours. Adjust amount according to livewell size (6-1/2 pounds for 20 gallons, 5 pounds for 15 gallons, etc.)

— Carry sufficient ice so that you can replace the melted blocks every 3 hours.

— Add non-iodized salt at 1/3 cup per five gallons of livewell capacity unless your boat has an a commercial pure oxygen generating device. In this case do not use salt or any other commercial livewell additive.

— Drain at least half of the livewell water at mid-day, refill with fresh water to flush ammonia then add more ice & salt.

• At weigh-in

— Keep fish in livewell with recirculating aerator running until you have a bag.

— Fill your bag with livewell water, not lake water.

— Dip fresh water from waiting line tanks into bag regularly.

According to Townsend, GRDA has focused these regulations on July and August tournaments because the hot weather in those months tends to put much more stress on the fish. Though many other states and some tournament fishing circuits have banned tournaments in July and August, Townsend said GRDA intends to honor all scheduled tournaments as long as these requirements are met.