He is not the kind of outdoor communicator who presents himself as an expert, though it is obvious he knows his way around a fishing boat, deer stand or cattail marsh. He is more inclined than some to dwell on the warm, fuzzy side of outdoor experiences, and how this enriches our lives, rather than focusing on how we can boost our catch rate, or flushes-per-hour on game birds.
I was intrigued by a Schara opinion in a recent column about fishing tournaments. He suggested that fishing tournaments move from a "pounds" to an "inches" standard. In his words, "instead of counting fish and weight, why not count inches ... the team with the most inches wins?"
The motive behind Schara's suggestion was saving fish from live wells and handling mortality. In these days of slot limits, and a general inclination of more anglers to release fish rather than to kill and eat them, many more fish are caught and returned to the water. But fighting, landing and then releasing fish is a numbers game; some do not survive. Some are injured, and later die. Others may be worn down to such an extent that they do not recover after being released.
Many fishing tournaments introduce another factor into the equation, keeping fish until they can be weighed. Many high-stakes, heavily-sponsored tournaments have a central location where fish are weighed, generally with an audience of tournament participants, the public and the media.
The weigh-in may actually be off the water, sometimes in an auditorium. For this to happen, fish may spend hours in a boat's live well before being weighed. After the weigh-in, whether on the water or elsewhere, the fish are released in the lake where they were caught. But, of course, it would be impossible to return each to the actual location where it was caught. Some think this is important, others don't.
No tournament angler wants the fish he or she catches and later releases to die. But some do. In fact, one of the reasons that there is a certain amount of public animosity toward tournaments is negative publicity when fish are found dead in unexpected numbers after tournaments. There is no way to unmistakably link a fish found dead to a tournament angler. But in those cases where numerous fish have been found dead, this circumstantial evidence has been enough to convince some that there is a connection.
Schara suggested that under a length system, fish could be photographed with a digital camera against a standardized "measuring board" for proof of length, then immediately released in the same location, with much better odds for survival. DNR officials commonly use such a measuring board when doing census sampling on rivers and lakes.
The idea of inches instead of pounds is not as revolutionary as it sounds. The latest issue of Outdoor News has reader photos of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, channel catfish and sauger, all measured in inches, not pounds. Muskie and trout anglers typically measure their fish in the same way.
This may be a great idea from a conservation standpoint, but it's unlikely that fishing boat and outboard motor manufacturers, and others who sponsor tournament anglers, will take the bait readily. The crowd appeal, and therefore advertising appeal, of an expectant angler placing a plastic bag filled with bass on a scale and waiting for a readout, might not be equaled by a digital photo of fish on a measuring board.