NWKA AOTY (angler of the year)

[bsteves]

Some of you are probably familiar with NCKA's AOTY virtual tourney.  For those that aren't you should check it out here...
http://aoty.ncka.org/user

Basically, it's a little web app that I wrote to keep track of entries and scores.  You sign up, catch fish, and upload images and measurements into the system.  There is a predetermined list of species each with it's own point per inch score and your best fish from each species category is used to determine your total score.

Anyway, the system is setup for NorCal fisheries right now, but I'm pretty sure Bill at NCKA won't mind if we adopt it for NWKA.  If that's the case we need to agree on about 10-15 species of fish and we'll also need to designate points per inch for each species.

If you're interested please let me know and feel free to list some of the fish species or species groups (i.e. all rockfish) you think should be included.   Feel free to include fresh or saltwater species, but in the end we want the list to represent the more common types of fish one could expect to catch in AK, BC, WA, OR, or ID.  It would also be helpful if you could estimate what size (in inches) for each fish type that represents a really decent sized fish.

Right now, my guess of a species list would look something like this..

Lingcod
Rockfish
Cabezon
Halibut
Coho
Chinook
Pink
Steelhead
Trout
Largemouth Bass
Smallmouth Bass
Walleye
Sturgeon


If you have any questions/ideas, please let me know.  Down at NCKA they do this for money, but if there isn't enough interest in that we can try it for just bragging rights.

Brian

[Phynix]

I'm not yet an Angler, so I can't really comment on fish specifications and such.  I probably won't get a license until January.  However, I do suggest that an attempt is made to equal out the points for freshwater and saltwater species.  Otherwise you will end up excluding people who don't fish saltwater, either because they don't want to, or can't because they don't live close enough.  My basic logic skills seem to think that Saltwater fish will often be bigger, so this may mean less points per inch for them, or simply less saltwater species.

However, I'm not sure if you want to just make it Angler of the year, or add something else, like most contributions to the community.  It's one thing to go on a board and post a few pics of the days catch with some measurements.  It's another to put some detail into the fishing report.  Perhaps a second category for Community AOTY or something.

[bsteves]

Phynix,

I guess I should explain.. each species is given a certain number of points per inch and all of that is scaled by the general size of the fish.  For example, with the current NCKA AOTY this is the point system.

Rockcod = 7 pts
Cabezon = 7 pts
Salmon = 5 pts
Halibut = 4 pts
Ling = 4 pts
Trout = 7 pts
Smallmouth = 10 pts
Largemouth = 8 pts
Sturgeon = 2.5 pts
Striper = 5 pts

As you can see, the larger a fish species gets the lower the per inch points.  Everything is scaled so that a "large" fish gets about 150 points.

For example, with this point scale a 30 inch salmon is worth the same amount of points as a 15 inch smallmouth, a 37.5 inch lingcod, or a 60 inch sturgeon.

Brian

[polepole]

Oh yeah baby!!!!

I'd take pink off the list.  It's not a pink year next year and they are not common in OR anyway.

Add yellow perch, crappie, catfish, and carp?

Hmmm ... what do we do about BC and AK?  I guess they'll kill on the halibut, lingcod, and salmon, but perhaps have a hard time at the warmer water species.  It might all equal out.  Something to work a few numbers on to make sure it is balanced.

-Allen

[bsteves]

Thanks Allen,  that's just the kind of info we need.

[polepole]

Well, second thought on the catfish ... I've never caught one in WA.  Perhaps not enough catfisheries around.  I know, there are some in the Mighty Columbia and a few bullhead catfish here and there.  Anyway, take it off the list.  If we're not going to have dogfish, might as well not have catfish.   

-Allen

[Phynix]

Catfish and Perch are the only thing I've ever caught.  Granted that was when I was a kid growing up in the middle of Kansas.

[Zee]

Hmmm ... what do we do about BC and AK?  I guess they'll kill on the halibut, lingcod, and salmon, but perhaps have a hard time at the warmer water species.  It might all equal out.  Something to work a few numbers on to make sure it is balanced.
-Allen

Yeah, no doubt. Also, what about the landlocked people in Idaho? They have a long way to come to fish the salt.

Are we going to need different divisions based on state?

Z

[bsteves]

Okay, how's this list of species and sizes (in inches) of a decent sized specimen.  My sizes are just a guess at this point, I'd appreciate some feed back on them.  These are the sizes I'll use to normalize the "per inch scores" for each species.

Species	"Decent Size"
Lingcod	36
Rockfish	20
Cabezon	20
Halibut	45
Coho	30
Chinook	35
Panfish   (yellow perch, crappie, sunfish)	15
Steelhead	30
Trout	20
Largemouth Bass	20
Smallmouth Bass	17
Walleye	25
Sturgeon	60

I think I'd also like an option to allow people the ability to enter non-target species to the system just as a journal of their catches.

As for a state by state or freshwater vs saltwater, I can slice and dice the data anyway we want.  At this point I'm open for any and all suggestions.

Brian

[Zee]

Awesome Bsteves. Glad you came to NWKA!!

Z

[polepole]

A 40 inch pacific halibut is only 29.3#.
A 44 inch pacific halibut is 39.9#.

WWQCI, what is the average halibut weight you are getting up there in the QCI's?  30-40?

A 40 inch lingcod is very big for WA and OR.  Heck, I've never caught one that big of a kayak here.  The biggest I've caught down here is 36" from Sombrio.  Of course in AK, I caught them 36-44" and they were fairly numerous.

So "trout" is any other trout/char other than a steelhead (sea run rainbow)?

A 25 inch coho is small.  I'd think 30 inches is around 10 pounds.

So the AK guys (and Jeff in QCI) can get large lingcod, butts, salmon, steelhead, but probably have it tough when it comes to bass, walleye, sturgeon (tough for all of us?).  So I'm probably OK giving up some points to them.

Not sure what all of the above means, if anything.  But something to take into account when trying to normalize things.  I don't think I want to go to the effort of having different points for different states.

-Allen

[bsteves]

Thanks Allen,

I'll bump lings down to 36, coho up to 30, and halibut up to 45?

I don't want species to have different points for different states either, but it might be good to rank anglers within states, i.e. have an OR AOTY, WA AOTY, etc... 

I think I like the multispecies approach to AOTY as it seems to promote the exploration of fisheries outside of your normal fishing holes.  That and I think the diversity of fishing in the Portland area is going to give me an advantage over you Seattle guys.

As for the trout thing..yeah that's what I was thinking (sea run rainbows vs other trout).  We could keep trout and steelhead together, but in some ways a steelhead is more like a salmon than any other trout.  I think splitting trout out gives the Idaho folks a bit of an advantage there especially with the mackinaw/lake trout they have stocked in some of their lakes.

[polepole]

I'll bump lings down to 36, coho up to 30, and halibut up to 45?

Coho up for sure.

Let me think about lings and butts.  I think we may want to give up a few points to the guys from the far north for these fish, as they're going to be giving up points for the warmwater species (LMB, SMB, walleye, perch/sunfish).  In other words, perhaps keep the assumed size low.  If lingcod is "normalized" to 36 inches, meaning I get 150 points for a 36 inch lingcod, then a 44" lingcod from AK will get 183 points.  Hmmm, that's only an extra 33 points which doesn't really make up for lack of warmwater species.   Hmmm ... perhaps we need a derating system?  Too much thinking .... uggghhh.  This discussion is best left over a pint or 2 of beer.   

BTW, where's salmon shark on this?  Just kidding ...

-Allen

[polepole]

Anyone have any input on this?  Hopefully we'll be able to make some decisions here and roll out an AOTY 2008.

-Allen

[charliefl66]

Hey Allen I think you got a winner thanks

Charlie