AOTY 2014 #25

I don't know that you need to remove them but I think that we should consolidate the trout.

Rainbow, cutthroat, brown, Dolly/Bull.   I think they all average about the same size anyways.  Except Alaska of course.  Lucky Alaskans.

I don't know about the Lake Trout. 

Carp don't get the respect they deserve and I need points for all the pike minnow I catch.  I like the rough fish (pikeminnow/carp/sucker combination) category. 

Looking at the AOTY rules page for 2014 it says 25 groups

No it doesn't.

-Allen

and my hopes are shattered like a liquid nitrogen drenched T1000, "Hasta La Vista Baby".

Honestly I'd probably participate in AOTY whatever the rules are.  Thanks for hosting a fun game Polepole.

I don't know that you need to remove them but I think that we should consolidate the trout.

Rainbow, cutthroat, brown, Dolly/Bull.   I think they all average about the same size anyways.  Except Alaska of course.  Lucky Alaskans.

I don't know about the Lake Trout.

Fun historical fact for you ... we started with one trout category.  It was all good until someone entered a large lake trout and blew the points away.  Or something like that.

-Allen

There are more than 1 way to skin a cat, and many are somewhat arbitrary.

At the end of the day, our goal is to enable the average fisherman here a decent chance at being able to catch 10 species.  So the addition or deletion of species should be put in this context.  Does it materially affect the goal of catching 10 species?

BTW, we're not planning on doing any further additions/deletions this year.  But it's an interesting discussion anyway.

-Allen

I don't know that you need to remove them but I think that we should consolidate the trout.

Rainbow, cutthroat, brown, Dolly/Bull.   I think they all average about the same size anyways.  Except Alaska of course.

Oh noes!!

You have browns fairly near you.

Carp don't get the respect they deserve and I need points for all the pike minnow I catch.  I like the rough fish (pikeminnow/carp/sucker combination) category.

Hear hear!

I might ask a different question ... what 4 species would you take off the list to bring it back down to 20?

-Allen

Maybe consolidate Coho and Chum since they have the same point value.  By that logic, combining Rockfish and Cabezon could be done.  How many surf perch get entered?  That could eliminate 3 of the 4 categories.  Pinks are an every other year thing anyway, so eliminating them on even years is a free removal.

Mind you I'm not in favor of any of that (especially the Rockfish and Cabezon), but you asked what could be done to get it back to 20 options.

I might ask a different question ... what 4 species would you take off the list to bring it back down to 20?

-Allen

Excellent, is it time for another poll?   

If you take two away from AK I think you need to eliminate two only found in the lower 48.

Also if you take two away from fresh you should take two from salt.

HALIBUT-  Probably the fish furthest away from helping achieve this, "our goal is to enable the average fisherman here a decent chance at being able to catch 10 species"
CABEZON-Too many points.
PANFISH-Too few points.
CATFISH-EW!

Grayling could also be a contender but I think they should remain to even things out for the Alaskans.  You could change grayling to a grayling/whitefish group for the Southerners.

I think we should add dog fish since there aren't any available shark species. It is a great fish for new anglers, fights well on light tackle and are good table fare. It is better than giving points to a poor quality bycatch fish.

Sent from my Motorola Flip phone.

+1