Has anyone ever fished a tournament where someone could weigh a dead fish for big fish?got knocked out of big fish by a guy that weighed 5 dead fish today. This is a nationwide bass trail that has local divisions. I don't think I've ever even fished a $25 wildcat that would let you weigh a dead fish for big fish

All 5 were dead? Sounds….fishy…

This sounds like the ABA (American Bass Anglers). I know they allow you to weigh in mulitple dead fish (not sure why) and they allow you to weigh in a dead big fish (again, not sure why) with a 1/2 lb penalty

I fished some pretty big bass tournaments in the early 80s and they would allow you to weigh in dead fish but you were deducted weight from each dead fish weighed. I don’t agree with it now because live well systems are so much better. They did have a torry meter that they would apply to the dead fish that could tell how long the fish had been dead.

Never understood why bass had to be weighed alive. Other than some pro redfish tours, all saltwater tourneys weigh dead fish almost exclusively.

Ah the great ABA. I dont fool with them anymore cause they pay terrible.

I had an 8lber one night and 23 lbs at lay and a dude rolled in with a dead 9 and 10lber and 27 lbs to beat me once that was mighty odd to me. Two biggest I have ever seen weighed in at lay

Killing all the bass caught in tourneys would put a hurting on a lake pretty dang quick. A lot of saltwater fish are harder to keep alive and people don't have livewells (plus most taste better). A lot of those have been shifting to live weigh-ins as well. Most of the major speck tournaments are live weigh-ins with dead fish penalties now, and most of the big rodeos have a live fish weigh-in with bonuses.

Specks are ridiculously hard to keep alive. None of the south AL tournaments require live weigh in. They usually have a live category that’s separate, but I’ve yet to see a speck tournament that’s strictly live weigh in.

You can over fish a lake if you are consistently weighing in dead fish. Redfish are easily kept alive but other fish such as king mackerel, AJs, cobia, big mahi, tuna, etc…would be too hard to keep alive. It’s hard to overfish the Gulf of Mexico unless you are setting huge nets and longlines.

All team tournaments I've ever fished allowed dead fish to be weighed in with penalty points and weight deducts.

In a team tournament some years ago I came to the scales with my bag of bass. the weigh master dumps me and my partners bag into the basket, pulls up our biggest bass a 6lb + LM. It has a few sores on it and appeared to be near dead since it rode in the live well all day,

The director and the weigh master called it a dead fish I said but it's still flexing its gills, nope they both said dead fish. Asses a weight penalty and points deducts. the bass flipped in the tub it was dumped in and I said it's still alive, they said no that kick was a dying kick. Me and my partner fell three places. A couple of dudes behind me said before I got to the scales they had just let a dude weigh in a dead bass with no deducts just because it's gills flexed one time. Go figure.

Total bs in my opinion. We were leading a night tournament on Lay and a guy comes in with all 5 dead largemouths while everyone else had mixed spots and LM. Guy let him weigh them all in with no penalty, total bs! Couple of them were turned white hell I thought they looked to have been frozen to me. Ended up quitting fishing tourneys after that due to all the drama and bs. Hell I flipped a 5 1/2 lb. LM out of the grass by the docks at paradise point when they were doing a big weigh in right in front of everybody and they guy wouldn't even weigh it for me just to see how big. Took it inside the store and it was 5 1/2 and then released it right in front of the crowd. Them guys were jealous.

All the tournaments I've ever fished you were allowed to weigh dead fish but you got penalized for each one. Never heard of weighing dead fish without any kind of penalty towards your total weight.

Man tournament fishing sounds like a blast….no drama or politics at all, it seems

Not saying much for all the high tech live well pumps, timers ,high speed picked tubes , juices to keep them alive. Someone may be explaining a few things.

Yea I’d be pretty aggravated bout it.

Are polygraphs utilized at that level?

The winter classic has 0.25 or 0.5lb bonus for weighing in live fish, which is essentially the same as penalizing for dead fish. I think the BOG events might have something similar, but I'm not certain on that. Specks can be kept alive without much trouble with a good livewell set up. You'll lose more than you would with bass or redfish, but it can be done, just many people fishing saltwater tournaments don't have that option with their boats.

Just gotta say, I've fished many of them and never ran into any of that. Not any of these smaller bass tournaments though. Sounds like it's the same guys that cause all the hunting club drama lol

It’s also a problem because most of the tournament winning lunker fish are caught wade fishing.