Walleye tournament should become bass tourney for the sake of the fish

Letter to Editor:
The winner of the 2011 Rainy River Walleye Tournament for the fourth time was Jason and Oliver Gibbins.
They said the bite was really tough for both days of fishing. Another comment that was expressed by the pair considering how bad the fishing was and quote: "We got bored Walleye fishing and decided to do some Bass fishing", they added "we love Bass fishing and it is very good on the river" and also, "this river could support Bass tournaments easily."
This same subject was brought up last year, "that if it was a Bass tournament we would have won it hands down" and at the International Falls Bass tournament more Bass were caught on the river than on Rainy Lake.
Gord Pizer head of the MNR in Kenora and now retired changed the minds of the organizers that wanted a Walleye Tournament to that of the Bass because of the mortality involved.
Getting back to the Rainy River Walleye Tournament, one team came in forty minutes early because a fish was showing signs of stress. On the river stress is not a factor compared to lake water which only shows that Walleyes are vulnerable to the pounding they get in the livewell.
Fort Frances had only one Walleye Tournament because of the mortality rate.
After the tournament was over my friend and I left Rainy River in route to Lake of the Woods and on the way counted eleven places were sea gulls were feeding on dead Walleyes. To put this into respective Walleyes are more vulnerable than Bass and in comparison to the fight of these two species a two pound Bass will out perform a five pound Walleye. How long is it going to take from tournament organizers of both Emo and Rainy River to make the change from Walleye to Bass.
With the commercial fishing for Walleyes and not Bass is it not more practical to keep the tournaments to Bass instead of Walleyes?
–Michael J. Baranowski
Nestor Falls, ON