Angler of the Year 2016 - Kickoff and questions

Moving to north Idaho in the fall squashed my attempts in the AOTY tourney this year but it was still fun following it. Some impressive fish submitted by this year's leaders and I am really impressed "SurfFoots" points on fly only.

I really appreciate how much better organized the tournament was this year and I look forward to participating more aggressively next year. My goal is to place in the top 3 without any saltwater submissions in 2017.

Captain Redbeard deserves  all the credit. Thanks for all the hard work, Lauren!

Captain Redbeard deserves  all the credit. Thanks for all the hard work, Lauren!

Lots
Yes, thanks CRb!

Thank you Lauren, and judges and other helpers, for doing a great job at AOTY 2016.  It was my first year of participation, but it probably won't be my last!  Hope I can actually get out fishing more in 2017 and not forget to measure my fish.

My goal is to place in the top 3 without any saltwater submissions in 2017.

Definitely possible. Look at Snopros scores from the last few years. He won in 2014 with all freshwater. Pretty amazing.

I dont know if I am going to be able to get out on the kayak fishing any more before the end of the year.  Participating in AOTY has been really fun.  I met my goal for the year and look forward to participating again next year.

If you have never tried AOTY I would suggest you try it.  For me it was a motivation to try catching different species that I normally didn't fish for.  When someone would catch a nice fish and bump me down a place I would always look to where I could go to try to get that place back.  Considering the competition, I am happy placing where I did.

I'm not one to count eggs and call them chickens, but the Cap'n was such a great AOTY coordinator this year the he even let me stay one place ahead of him in the On the Fly side challenge.  Thank you, Lauren.

I'll do it again next year.  The proceeds are for a great cause and although I couldn't buy a second salt water species, AOTY got me out there for the first time and kept me going many more times after.

Special thanks to the Cap'n - and thanks to all who help put it together.

Yes Lauren did a spectacular job. After a year off from it I'm ready for 2017.

Hey thanks everyone for the kind words, I really appreciate it! Communication on the committee is understandably a little slow this time of year, but as far as I know we are continuing on next year in similar fashion to 2016 - I can't wait!

I'm a little bummed that I won't be in the top 10 this year but have been enjoying watching the race. I missed too many saltwater days to some other important stuff. I hope that I can crack the top 10 again in 2017, but I guess we'll have to see what opportunities life affords me. It's been really fun watching the standings and competing with my lovely wife. I can honestly say that fishing side by side with someone has taught me (counter-intuitively, perhaps) that fishing has more to do with skill than luck. Every time she's outfished me it's because she's made different choices than I did that paid off.

As far as the fly fishing, man I've got to admit, I thought that I could get 5 or 6 species "no problem" and so that has been a very humbling experience for me this year. But also something that I can invest time into in 2017 to try to improve. Catching my first on-the-fly saltwater fish - a dinky black rockfish - was one of my favorite moments of the year.

I'll start a new thread about the New Year, but just as a reminder: Per the rules you have 2 weeks to register fish, so the 2016 AOTY will officially close in mid-January after we're sure no more entries are coming in. You may start fishing for 2017 immediately on Jan 1, 2017, even if everything on the website isn't set up yet. We'll honor your catches once you're paid up, assuming that you don't want a long time to sign up.

Cheers and on to 2017!

This is the first year I've known about and followed the AOTY, and the first year I've decided to not wrench on the old Grady White and buy a kayak instead. I'll be selling the boat. Looking back at past AOTY's some of you have been at this for a long time!
Thank you to all who paved the way and all who are a part of this, you're all really inspiring! I can't wait to put some fish on the board in 2017!


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Hope everyone has a Safe and Happy New fishing year, This was a ruff year for me as my mom in Shelter cove pasted away, and many other life dealings that kept me off the water, But I will be back next year looking forward to it and some time on the water, and Congratulation to all the top Kayak Anglers.

I'm ready try AOTY finally. I'm working on getting some of our HOW TEAM and possibly some of our Vets that recently purchased their own kayaks.

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Just want to congratulate all of the AOTY participants this year. Had fun fishing with some of you and look forward to meeting the rest of you. Good luck in 2017.

Thanks to Captain Redbeard and everyone else involved in making the AOTY 2016 the great event it was.  Your hard work is greatly appreciated.  Congratulations to all of the competitors!  I had fun fishing with friends for many different species of fish that pushed me out of my comfort zone.   I caught a lot of fish with Lucky ( Jed ) and won"t forget the generosity of Nobaddays and others.  That's what I love about kayak fishing.  I was blessed to be able to fish in 3 states.  I caught a couple steelhead during the brutal cold at the end, but they couldn't be counted because they were wild.  I can't wait to try again in 2017.  If anyone  is on the fence I recommend signing up.  You will have a good time and the money goes to a good cause.

Thanks to everyone involved. As usual, it was fun to see the standings progress over the year and see all the fish everyone caught. I sucked at the salmonids this year but actually caught two species I had never caught before on the same day. I was actually targeting both.

Don't be shy about signing up. It's good clean fun. Let's get 50 folks involved this year.