Columnist Paula DelGiudice: Value of fish takes plunge

Paula DelGiudice

Thursday, July 12, 2001 | 10:18 a.m.

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears weekly. Reach her at desertdenizens@aol.com.

There is a tagged fish in Lake Mead -- part of Busch beer's "Big Jake" promotion gone awry -- only it is not worth anything.

The on-again, off-again, now-gone fishing promotion at Lake Mead was supposed to be a part of a major advertising campaign undertaken by Anheuser-Busch, parent company of Busch, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. As part of the promotion, a fish in each of 30 bodies of water would be tagged. One of the tagged fish, "Big Jake," would be worth a grand prize of $1 million to a lucky angler who caught the fish. The remaining 29 fish would be worth $1,000 each. The promotion was slated to run July 1 to July 31.

Representatives of Anheuser-Busch said they contacted the Nevada Division of Wildlife (NDOW) in May to procure the proper permits. When NDOW supervising biologist Jon Sjoberg voiced some concern about the company tagging a largemouth bass for the promotion -- because catching and tagging a largemouth, usually found in deeper water during the heat of the summer, might traumatize the fish enough that it might die, tag in tow -- Busch changed the species of fish for the contest from a largemouth bass to a striped bass.

Though the state agency does not require a permit for such a contest, the National Park Service, the federal agency that shares natural resource and boating management responsibility for Lake Mead National Recreation Area with NDOW, does require a permit. Sjoberg recommended the Busch representatives contact the National Park Service.

According to NPS public affairs officer Bert Byers, representatives of Anheuser-Busch contacted the Park Service in May requesting a permit. On June 12, the NPS denied the application.

"We denied the permit because there was a concern on the part of the rangers that this was not the way the park was set up," said Byers, who explained that NRA staff was concerned that anglers wouldn't treat the fish they caught properly, especially those that weren't tagged. He worried that anglers might catch a bunch of fish and leave them to die.

"We asked for safeguards from the company (Anheuser-Busch)," said Byers. "We didn't feel there were enough safeguards on the company's part to warrant our support (of the promotion)."

Meanwhile, Busch's representative contacted NDOW to request a list of fishing guides who might be available to assist with the tagging of the fish. NDOW staff complied by faxing a list of licensed guides. A guide was chosen and, together with another Lake Mead angler, a striped bass was caught and tagged.

Reportedly, while the pair was measuring the striper, it flopped off the boat and back into the water.

As the date for the beginning of the contest grew closer, representatives from Anheuser-Busch made queries to the offices of Nevada's governor, senators and congressional representatives, who in turn contacted the National Park Service at Lake Mead.

"Once their staffs heard the reasons for denying the permit, they concurred," said NPS's Byers.

An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said, "We originally planned to include Lake Mead in the Big Jake promotion. Due to unforeseen restrictions, we are unable to conduct the contest in and around Lake Mead. We apologize for any inconvenience and we appreciate the support of our many consumers."

So if you happen to catch a striped bass at Lake Mead with a tag containing the promotion's prize message and this toll-free number -- (800) 982-5643 -- you will just have to dream about the prize money that might have been yours.

Contest rules state, "Due to varying needs of local waters, the type of fish and the bodies of water could change."

Other lakes in the West participating in the promotion are Elephant Butte in New Mexico and Lucky Peak Lake and Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho.