Monsters on the Ohio Shines in Tournament Conservation Efforts
Most tournament directors and catfish anglers, in general, put a high value on fish care at their tournaments. Anglers can do their part by making sure they have what it takes to keep those fish alive. Adequate livewells, oxygen supply, and health care chemicals are part of what many anglers do.
Monsters on the Ohio, directed by Aaron Wheatley, has long been known for the extra mile they go to be sure the fish are taken care of. It is his own passion for taking care of the fish that led him to include catfish conservation as an important element of his tournament strategy.
Wheatley believes a big part of taking care of the fish begins with his facility. Monsters on the Ohio operates out of English Park in Owensboro, KY.
“I am blessed to have English Park for my venue,” offered Wheatley. “I have lots of room to handle boats and it’s is still comfortable. You have to have the right circumstances. You gotta’ have the right amount of room.”
His major focus is on how much time the fish spend in the weigh-in line. He does not want them out of the water more than 15 minutes for the weigh-in process. That is measured from when the boats come out of the water until they get to the stage and weigh-in. The fish will only be out of the livewell a small fraction of that time.
The Process
In order to run efficiently Wheatley’s process includes a lot of volunteers. When you consider the number of steps in his process it is easy to understand why. Consider this list of conservation-minded tasks that are performed at Monster on the Ohio.
- Choose an adequate facility to park all vehicles and navigate smoothly through the weigh-in activities.
- Schedule Fish and Wildlife biologists to measure, weigh, and check fish health. This information can be used to in scientific research.
- Keep the weigh-in line short by staging in the water on return from fishing. Competitors can keep the fresh water pumping into the livewell. Boats are brought ashore with a goal of keeping the weigh-in line at about 10 boats long.
- Supply fish baskets two boats deep in the line so small fish can be removed from the livewell before reaching the stage. All that’s left is to pull the big ones out and show them to the crowd.
- Supply volunteer drivers to take all anglers through the weigh-in line in their boat. This saves time in line by eliminating an angler/driver from getting in and out of the tow vehicle and also lets the team enjoy the experience of the crowd in front of the stage. Saving 30 seconds per boat, with 100 boats, saves 50 minutes.
- Prepare to weigh weak fish early by opening the scales.
- Provide an oxygenated tank at weigh-in for any weak fish. Monsters on the Ohio uses a 200-gallon tank to received weak fish and provide resuscitation.
- Have plenty of volunteers to return fish to the water in a timely manner.
Each of these tasks contributes to a shorter weigh-in time which contributes greatly to successful live releases and low mortality rates.
“With me being from here in Kentucky, conservation is one of the reasons I started my tournament,” revealed Wheatley. “I wanted to show the guys at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KFW) what the possibilities are with this natural resource that is right here in our waters.”
“They come up out of the water, they are weighed, and they are checked by fish and wildlife,” concluded Wheatley. “Then they are taken straight back to the water, which is only 50 feet from where they are weighed. I don’t know of anything else we could do to make the weigh-in go faster.”
As more and more tournament directors and individual anglers adopt procedures that benefit the health of the fish, the catfish community is doing their part to promote catfish conservation.
