Page 15 - Outdoor Oklahoma Magazine Mar-Apr2023

Fisheries Chief Ken Cunningham said the exemption process
ANDREA CREWS/ODWC allows bass tournaments to proceed, while potentially allowing
Department biologists to collect more and better data about
Oklahoma’s black bass resource because of a post-tournament
reporting requirement.
Only the tournament director will apply for an exemption and
will distribute a copy of the single permit (paper or electron-
ic copy) to all participating anglers. The permit must contain a
six-digit code to be a legal exemption.
Tournaments must have six or more anglers participating to secure
an exemption. Single-day and multi-day tourney exemptions are
available. Weekly series (jackpots) require a permit for each week.
Other requirements under the black bass tournament exemp-
tion include:
• Exemption applications must be made at least three days
ahead of the tournament.
• The daily bag limit allowed per angler, under the tournament
exemption, is five black bass in aggregate per day, unless
otherwise restricted by the conditions outlined in the permit.
• Each boat will have one or more functioning aerated live
well(s). A functioning live well is defined as one that has a work-
ing aeration or oxygenation system or a flow-through system
to pump fresh water into the live well. Anglers not meeting this
requirement may not participate in the tournament.
• Kept bass that later die must not be culled by a participant
and must be part of the weigh-in.
• All efforts shall be made to release fish unharmed or in a
manner that does not cause injury or death to the fish.
• The tournament director shall submit a completed tour-
BASS TOURNEYS nament activity report within 30 days following the event.
Failure to submit the report will result in denial of future
exemption applications.
ALLOWED BIGGER Tournament exemptions do not allow:
• Fishing without a valid fishing license unless otherwise
FISH VIA EXEMPTION • Exceeding the daily bag limit.
exempt by law.

• Keeping any of the fish after the weigh-in.
By Don P. Brown, Communications Specialist Instructions on how to apply for a tournament exemption are
found on the Department’s website. The exemption application
Bass fishing tournaments have been highly popular among is available on the Go Outdoors Oklahoma mobile app or at
Oklahoma anglers for more than a half-century. But the 2022 bass har- https://gooutdoorsoklahoma.com.
vest regulation changes, designed to improve the quality of the state’s
bass populations, actually weren’t very friendly to the tournaments.
Tournament winners are typically based on the combined weight WILDLIFEDEPARTMENT.COM
of a specified number of fish. Therefore, the largest fish caught during
the tournament period are retained and weighed-in at the finish.
So, to support the bass tournament community under the 2022 rule
changes, the Wildlife Department established a free Bass Tournament
Directors Exemption Permit. Any angler who possesses a tournament
exemption authorized by the Department may keep bass over 16 inch-
es until weigh-in, after which the fish must be released.
Since the new black bass limits began, 407 tournament exemp-
tion permits have been issued.

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