2009 Angler of the Year Feedback

i mean he is building a house over there

Now we know where your secret spot is! (ominous laugh) HA HA HA HA!!!

Z

I still think clarification of this should be done...

Change to state:  The kayaks must be launched from shore for fish to count.

Thus, for example, Polepole and my trips to remote cabins in Prince William Sound would count...  Provided we launched from the Mother Ship and landed on shore first, then launched from shore to catch the fish, and returned to shore.

The intent, I believe, is to prevent people from loading a kayak on a mothership, motoring around looking for fish and then launching kayaks from the ship to catch them...  Or worst, hooking the fish from the mother ship and jumping inot the kayak to fight and land them.  Am I right?

I can think of many Freshwater instances where having a motorboat take somekayaks to a weekend campsite, and kayak fishing from the campsite would be the same as the remote island camping trips in Prince William Sound or Puget Sound for that matter.  Say, Lake Shasta, CA or Malhuer Lake, OR, or even Riffe Lake, WA.

YotF

say it was 5 miles to a campsite by water...and you are staying for the weekend...you may be able to get to the campsite with only kayaks...but i always wonder what you do if somebody gets hurt or sick while your there?
just kinda nice to have a quick evacuation plan...but that's just my thoughts

It's not any different than backpacking 5 miles into the woods, is it?

-Allen

What ever happened to "The reward is in the journey not the destination"

Apparently adventure is officially dead....  

I still think clarification of this should be done...

Change to state:  The kayaks must be launched from shore for fish to count.

Thus, for example, Polepole and my trips to remote cabins in Prince William Sound would count...  Provided we launched from the Mother Ship and landed on shore first, then launched from shore to catch the fish, and returned to shore.

The intent, I believe, is to prevent people from loading a kayak on a mothership, motoring around looking for fish and then launching kayaks from the ship to catch them...  Or worst, hooking the fish from the mother ship and jumping inot the kayak to fight and land them.  Am I right?

I can think of many Freshwater instances where having a motorboat take somekayaks to a weekend campsite, and kayak fishing from the campsite would be the same as the remote island camping trips in Prince William Sound or Puget Sound for that matter.  Say, Lake Shasta, CA or Malhuer Lake, OR, or even Riffe Lake, WA.

YotF

OK, while we're clarifying this;  Does the fish have to be hooked, fought AND landed in the kayak? 

I think the following rule should be added:

   Anyone caught breaking the spirit of the rules of the tourney shall be
   publicly berated and verbally abused.

This rule should then be following by:

   All judges' decisions are final.

We're a small community and we can do whatever we want with the tournament.  I like the way it has evolved over time, and it will continue to evolve.  We make the rules however we see fit and fair to service the way we like to see it.  I really like how we can bend the rules for Bill to enter with his rowboat.  But let's not push it guys, by looking for loopholes in the rules.

-Allen

It's not any different than backpacking 5 miles into the woods, is it?
-Allen

faster than walking, i'd bet. i'd also guess it's easier to transport an injured person on a larger yak than carry them out. agree a pb would make a quicker emergency transport.

I think PB transport to a remote campsite should be permitted for the simple reason of permitting family to tag along & enjoy the weekend camping trip as well.  This is a friendly contest; I hope people aren't trying to undermine the spirit of this already.

I would take YOTF's suggestion and add a little more to it to read:

"The kayak must be launched from shore and remain under your own power and control (aside from Huli's) for the duration of the outing for the catch to be AOTY eligible."

 

Alright I'm in but I have one question.  Can I enter a sturgeon that is legal downiver even though they need to have a fork length of 43" here to be legal.  If I catch a 40 incher here, the way I read it I could not enter it where below The Dalles dam that same fish is legit.  I don't keep them anymore so any sturgeon I catch is catch and release.  I'm not trying to whine just want to clarify in advance.  Whatever the rule I will follow

Nope, the fish needs to be legal where you catch it.   I'm afraid if you want to count a 40 incher you'll have to catch it down river.

Deep down I knew that

Basser,

Any 40 inchers would be welcome down here. Next time you catch one, point him in the right direction, south!

I was reading through some of the older posts regarding how many fish categories we should have on the AOTY to work within.  It seemed pretty equal across the board that 10 categories was the better way to go.  But, what to do with all those other fish out there, or how far some folks have to travel to even get to some of these species? 

Here is my suggestion. (Take it with a grain of salt like most things I post here)

Create a seperate category for each game/food fish that is possible to catch in Oregon and Washington.

Sure the list will be ginormous, but here's where it gets wittled down.

Limit 10 species per person.   As an angler you choose which 10 species you are going to work on for the year during the signup, and NOT be allowed to change it once you create your profile.   This gives everyone in Washington and Oregon an equal chance of getting points for the 10 species that may be in their area, or what they like to fish for.  Of course you would not be limited to just fish for species in your area if you like to travel, so plan accordingly when you signup.   

With a larger list of critters, PPI would have to be recalculated for each fish that used to be grouped together.  Like pan fish for example, surf perch, blue gill and Walleye are clearly not going to be the same PPI anymore.   

Whatcha think for 2010 AOTY?

I like the idea of increasing the species list, or more accurately, making it less grouped.  However, I'd not want to exclude an Idaho fisherman from getting salmon points if he got lucky enough to have a salty fishing opportunity land in his lap at the end of the year.

Here is a different approach.  Base the points system on average fish size (for the Pacific Northwest, i.e. bass) and any fish measuring greater than the average would create points based on percentage greater than 100.  Each fisherman is permitted to submit 10 fish, one per category (again, more specific categories, please).  The numbers wouldn't be as big, but it would be more a more flexible system.

This creates a situation where the sum of the above-average-ness of the 10 fish determines who gets the prize, regardless of what the 10 species are.  The most difficult task would be determining the average fish size, and then coding the system.  Having a user select 10 categories doesn't seem to be built into the current AOTY database either, and I don't envy the person who would have to do it.

NWKA is covering a vast geographical region, and the fishing opportunities of the geographically greater portion of that area don't actually include salt water, while the population dispersion actually is a greater ratio of shoreline inhabitants (or at least within range of salty goodness.)  So, if we are to make the AOTY challenge more accessible to a greater proportion of fishemen, we may want to create a more flexible system.  Heck, if that's too tough, then we just create 2 competitions.  One Freshwater only, one Anything Goes.

~edit~
On a re-read, I realize that the current database automatically only calculates the highest values as the total for that fisherman.  There's no reason to change that at all.

I was thinking about AOTY just the other day (granted it was while I was bobbing around out halibut fishing )..  I enjoy a good competition and like the AOTY concept.  My idea was to create three categories.  Saltwater (west of the beach/jetty tips),  Freshwater (everywhere else) and "All Around Angler"  person with the best performance in both fresh and salt.  This would allow folks three levels of competition.  If you lived far away from or were not comfortable in the salt  you could still attack the freshwater side and have a chance of winning or if you lived on the coast you would not have to worry about where to catch that winning walleye.  If you were really "into it" you could go for all round angler..

Because of the many regions of the northwest and the varied species of fish that can be found in them many of NWKA's are left with few options but to travel great distances or give up valuable time on their home waters if they want to remain competitive in the AOTY.  Others like myself love kayak fishing but the thought of giving up limited recreation time on the salt to go fish for trout or panfish is not a hard call, the salt wins every time.   If broken into two categories perhaps the categories could be expanded  ie for salt: black rock fish, greenling, ocean coho etc etc  or fresh: rainbow, brown, crappie, perch etc etc. Entry fee would stay the same and you don't have to pick just one category, just a little computer magic for the mods would add some serious flexability to AOTY

Just an idea?  any thoughts?

Snip

I was thinking about AOTY just the other day (granted it was while I was bobbing around out halibut fishing Grin)..  I enjoy a good competition and like the AOTY concept.  My idea was to create three categories.  Saltwater (west of the beach/jetty tips),  Freshwater (everywhere else) and "All Around Angler"  person with the best performance in both fresh and salt.  This would allow folks three levels of competition.  If you lived far away from or were not comfortable in the salt  you could still attack the freshwater side and have a chance of winning or if you lived on the coast you would not have to worry about where to catch that winning walleye.  If you were really "into it" you could go for all round angler..

Where does the Puget Sound salt work into this?  And would we require a different person to win each category, or could a single person be able to win all three?


Take my above mentioned idea and lets tweak a little.  How about each angler has 10 slots to work for during the year.  7 are locked by this person as his "Go To" species.  The other 3 are wild card species.  Again we'd have to make a huge list of species, and figure out their average size and make a PPI calculator for each species.  This would still limit an angler to 10 species, but give him the flexibility of the 3 wild card species.  Say at the end of the year Spot was successful at filling only 6 of the 7 species he chose to lock into targeting.  (Lets go with: Lingcod, Cabezon, Steelhead, Sturgeon, Crappie, Large mouth and Small mouth). He misses on the Cabezon so there will be no points for this fish.  Then he got lucky and was able to make it up with a huge catfish that he pulled out of some pond up in Eastern Washington while visiting an old high school buddy.  Lets assume Spot doesn't normally angle for catfish, so this would be a golden ticket to throw in his wild card pile.  Then he lands a fat 22" Black sea bass and a 18" Greenling on the same day.  Again these are all good sized fish and will help him boost his points in the wild card species.  Oh wait!  Spot gets a last minute invite to head up to the Puget Sound where he gets chance to bag a halibut.  For the sake of point stacking, he gets a biggy that nets higher points than any of the three other wildcard species.  He can now choose to bump out one of his wildcard species, or not count the halibut, as you are only allowed 3 wildcard species in the hopper.

Now to throw a twist into the whole game, have a hidden poll setup during signup that you can vote to have one species tossed out.  Then at the end of the year, the poll is unlocked and everyone can see it.  The top 3 voted species are automatically nuked from the wild card pool.   So, if you had one or more of these species in your wildcard group, you lose them!    
You could be banging out the points in the wild card species, but run the risk of losing one or more of them based on the poll.   

It could be played like "Survivor AOTY".