Hey folks! The Lake Country is hosting a first this month! Yes, the Lake Oconee Striper Club hosts a monthly striper tournament for its members October through June, but this month we are celebrating the fact that Lake Oconee has garnered enough attention that the Southern Bass Association is hosting its March tournament here on March 25^. Weigh-in will be at Long Shoals boat ramp that afternoon. 

Here’s the big deal with this. Lake Oconee is now getting attention from everyone! These are striper fisherman from Lanier, Hartwell, Clarks Hill, Russell and many other places. These places have long been known for striped bass and lots of them! Now, I know I have been hard on tournaments before and I will probably continue to be but here’s what I like so much about this tournament. It’s a measure and release tournament, just like the Lake Oconee Striper Club tournaments. You do not have to keep a fish alive or even keep them, period. You simply measure the fish on the accepted boards, take a picture of the fish on the board showing the whole fish, and the measurement along with your tournament number, and release the fish into the water to be caught again another day! 

The future of tournament fishing, in my opinion, will be found in the care, release and low impact on our resources. As more and more people take up fishing, not only does it impact our boat ramps and the availability of fishing goods, but it also affects the fish. Just think — the average weekend tournament or series of tournaments on Lake Oconee add 150 to 200 boats and fisherman to the water. Now, Lake Oconee is just not that big folks. It’s only 19,000 acres. That’s a lot of fishermen, and that does not count the pleasure boaters, jet skiers, and non-tournament anglers that are on the water at the same time. 

So, let’s look at those numbers. If 200 anglers catch and put in their live well, or take pictures of or weigh in five fish each — that’s 1,000 fish being transported, fooled with, etc. that day, just with that number. The BASS tournament series started way back with a catch and release motto and it has worked for the BASS community so well it spread throughout the fishing world in America and Europe. Today, it’s the standard rather than the exception unlike when I was young. However, I am asking if we shouldn’t take a closer look and adapt even more conservation methods to ensure that our resources stay healthy, thrive, and live up to their potential. How do we better protect the fish and lake that we all love so much?

Now, I am not putting all the weight on tournaments. Trust me, more fish are caught outside of them on a weekly basis on Oconee than within them. However, tournaments have traditionally been the catalyst for change both in technology and conservation for our sport. So what I am asking is how can we better protect the fish? How can we better protect our sport? After all, my mindset changed a lot when I watched my kids catch their first speckled trout. I went from keeping all I could to rarely keeping them anymore because one day I want to sit in my boat and watch my grandkids catch a gator trout! That is more important to me at this point in my life than a freezer full of fish. 

Check out southernbassassociation.com to sign up for the Lake Oconee tournament and join us out on the water! It’ll be fun and let’s show them how proud we are of our fishery! 

—Outdoors columnist James Pressley can be reached at pressleyoutdoors@gmail.com .