Ok I might be out of line here but I would call this tournament a miserable failure. Out of 47 fish 7 dead that's 15% death rate & who knows how many died after the weigh in. IMO winter tournaments not  good   

I was on the water, taking pictures, and one boat called me over to say that both of their fish were not going to make it. I asked if they fizzed them, and they assured me that they had. Well, I then asked if they were floating on their side. The answer was yes. Well obviously, they had not fizzed them enough, or needed to again. I told them to do it again, and they did. Well, they had all fish alive at the weigh in, and thanked me for the advice. And the fish looked good, unlike when I had seen them before. I am sorry to here that fish were dead before it went into the livewell, but that would have happened winter fishing then anyway. There were a total of 51 fish caught, with 7 dead at weigh-in. Could some of those been avoided? Who knows. Were they big fish that were killed, mostly not. It was too bad that the percentage was 13.7 mortality, but does that mean we don't fish in the winter at all? Just trying to get some opinions on the subject, as I do value everyones opinion. At what time in the year do we say that the chances for a fish kill may be too high for a tournament? Summertime on Riffe can have the same results, as some of the fish come from very deep water, and we have seen the consequences of it before, as some of the HOT summer tournaments over at Potholes. JMO
Brian

Well, Ron and I talked today, and he felt like a smuck winning it, and ill probably sit back next year and be the official tournament director. Yes, I agree with you, he has been unseated a few times on Washington this last year, but not too many...... Glad to here you are up for the challenge!! We will top the tournament next year, hopefully with a larger big fish purse..... maybe 1500 dollars!
Brian

We didn't catch any fish, infact I only got one bite all day, but I had a great day. I fished half the day without a shirt on in February, and I was still hot.....enough said. I think evergreen did a GREAT JOB, and we will definantly fish it next year.....good job Jon, Brian H., Brian R., Ron, Tracy, and the rest of you. From my tournament experiences that was the shortest wait between weigh in and awards ceremony, which was great for a change. The raffle was great too. As for 7 dead fish, that lake holds tons and tons of smallies. I mean seriously 7 dead fish will in no way whatsoever effect the fishery. I could see it as a problem if there were tournaments there every weekend with 100+ boats with a 15% mortality rate. Evergreen handed out needles, and a flyer that showed where to deflate the bass to every angler. This to me is going above and beyond the call of duty. Once again great job!!!

Hey Brian, what were the angler problems you previously refered too???

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I never heard any names, just heard of some grumblings about certain unacceptable behavior. This needs to be protested at the tournament, during the protest period as stated in the drivers meeting. If it is not done this way, then it needs to be dropped, as it was not enough of a problem to bring out in the open. At this point, there is no need to bring it up at all really.  It just breeds animosity, and that needs to be avoided. We all just want to fish and have fun doing it.
Brian