AOTY

Hey guys, I was looking at doing the AOTY next year, when I don't have six month handicap. THEN I noticed that fish caught in Alaska don't count - that's going to work against me somewhat. I know you don't want anyone coming up here and slaying oh, say Salmon Sharks, but I ain't driving to Oregon just to fish.

Any chance of including AK next year?

Hey guys, I was looking at doing the AOTY next year, when I don't have six month handicap. THEN I noticed that fish caught in Alaska don't count - that's going to work against me somewhat. I know you don't want anyone coming up here and slaying oh, say Salmon Sharks, but I ain't driving to Oregon just to fish.

Any chance of including AK next year?

Working on it for next year.  Gotta come up with something equitable.  For instance, you'll kill on grayling.  But how's your largemouth bass fishing?  And your shot at a decent halibut all but wipes us out down here.

It would help to have a little more representation from up in AK as well.  Know any other kayak anglers up there?

-Allen

I'm working on it, Allen. I'll try putting out the word on the Alaska Outdoors Forums.
I know guys who fish, I know guys who kayak, but few do both.
How about your buddy from Ketchikan?

I was just thinking about ways to include BC and AK next year. 

One option would be to increase the number of potential species (i.e. catfish, grayling, sockeye) but only count say the top 5 species for each person.  Folks in Alaska would probably end up with the halibut, chinook, coho, sockeye, ling combo while down here in Oregon I'd more likely end up with Sturgeon, Walleye, Smallmouth, Largemouth, Coho or something.

Another option would be a state specific points system.  For example, halibut in AK might be 2.5 pts per inch and 3.5 pts per inch in OR and WA.  This might be more difficult to enact fairly.

Finally, just do State level rankings and skip the big prize.  Prizes by state equitable to the number of entries by state.  Maybe make this regional.. OR/WA and BC/AK regions.

Brian

CKA has been brainstorming on a Canada wide AOTY and have been discussing some of the points you're bringing up Brian.  There is no easy answer to this.  Perhaps state prizes are good, but that just means that all 4 of the kayak anglers in AK will have a small prize or just bragging rights.     More participants means we can do more with this.

I'd like to keep Oregon and Washington together even though you OR boys are currently kicking out butts.   Well, I am ahead of bsteves at least.   

And I'd like nothing more than to include BC and AK.  Heck, I'm heading up to AK this weekend for the first of 2 trips.  Then have 2 BC trips planned as well.  I should keep track of big big fish on those trips and see how they would have scored in the AOTY.

It's probably not something that can be fixed right away. I know from experience that finding an equitable way of scoring anything with a lot of variables is a pain. I'd be cool with it being an exhibition event (I'm feeling very Olympic, apparently) next year, just for bragging rights. That way we could run it for a year and see what data we generate.
Maybe we could make it AK and BC together so we can just cut it up by regions, instead of individual states/ countries.
What do you think of just tracking numbers for AK next year, without a prize (and maybe a slightly smaller entry fee, since no prize)?

Where you going on your trip to the Great Land, Allen? Or, is it top secret again?

It's probably not something that can be fixed right away. I know from experience that finding an equitable way of scoring anything with a lot of variables is a pain. I'd be cool with it being an exhibition event (I'm feeling very Olympic, apparently) next year, just for bragging rights. That way we could run it for a year and see what data we generate.
Maybe we could make it AK and BC together so we can just cut it up by regions, instead of individual states/ countries.
What do you think of just tracking numbers for AK next year, without a prize (and maybe a slightly smaller entry fee, since no prize)?

Where you going on your trip to the Great Land, Allen? Or, is it top secret again?

Yeah, but I'm sure we can come up with something by Jan 1.

I'm headed to Seward with the girlfriend and another couple and we're going on a kayaking trip to the glaciers with Chris Mautino at Liquid Adventures.  This is strictly NOT a kayak fishing trip, but you know I'll have a pack rod and some jigs along to catch some dinner with (yeah that's it, I'm providing dinner).

Then we're heading up to Denali for a few days.

What do you think of just tracking numbers for AK next year, without a prize (and maybe a slightly smaller entry fee, since no prize)?

There's no reason you can't use the AOTY site right now to track your fishing.  You won't get any points, but you can still sign up and enter fish.  We all like seeing a bit of fish porn now and then.

Brian