NWKA AOTY (angler of the year)

Allen, yeah the rules are poached from NCKA and modified for NWKA use.  I'll add them back and you can review them.

The NWKA AOTY site is now online and Allen (polepole) is now accepting entry fees via paypal.

http://aoty.northwestkayakanglers.com

Some quick psuedo-documentation..
1.) Read the rules (see the 'Home' tab on the AOTY site)
2.) You'll need to sign up for an account (username/password).  It's pretty simple to do, just look for the link under the login form on the upper right.  It would be helpful if you make your username the same as your NWKA screenname.  Oh and enter the state/province you live in.
3.) Be sure to pay Allen via Paypal before you start fishing for AOTY. Any fish caught before payment don't count towards points.
4.) Once you've payed, Allen will verify your payment on your AOTY account and you'll be able to start earning AOTY points.
5.)Go out and catch a fish, photograph it along side a measuring device and also try and get a shot of you and you fish together.
6.) Go the site and click on the "Add Fish" tab... Enter the species, size (in decimal inches), the date you caught the fish, a few photos, and some notes (like where it was caught, how you caught it etc..).
7.) The program does the rest.. calculates your points, adds up your totals, and ranks everyone.
8.) Clicking on the little fish icons in near the top will take you to all of the fish entries for that species.
9.) Clicking on the 'Overall Leader' tab will show you the overall AOTY leaderboard.  Clicking on the little magnifying glass icon near the fish icons in this list will show details of that catch.  Clicking on the username will show all of that users catches.
10.) The 'OR', 'WA', 'ID', 'BC', and 'AK' tabs do that same as the 'overall leader' tab except they limit the list to those users from that state.
11.) The 'Top 3 Fish' tab lists the three largest fish entries for each species all on one page.
12.) The 'Most Recent' tab lists all of the fish entries (most recent first).
13.) You can delete or modify your own entries by going to the 'My Fish' tab.
14.) There are two RSS feeds for this application if you're into that sort of thing...
one for the overall leaderboard  http://aoty.northwestkayakanglers.com/leaderboard/rss
and another for the most recent catches. http://aoty.northwestkayakanglers.com/catch/rss

If you have any ideas on how this site might be improved let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Oh.. and I added some fake data so that people can see what it all looks like. I'll delete it once we start having some real entries.  To see a similar AOTY site up and running check out the NCKA AOTY  http://aoty.ncka.org

Brian

Looks pretty darn sweet B. Looks to be you're more than just a fish nerd.
All signed up and ready to go!

Z

Z,

Go ahead and enter some fake fish data for now (i.e. old catches) just to get a feel for the application.  You'll have to lie about when they were caught because the program has some checks to make sure you follow all the rules.  In a few days I'll wipe things clean and we can start again in earnest.  Let me know what you think.

Brian

I posted a few and they show when I look at "my fish" or "most recent" but wont show when I choose "overall leader" "Wa" or "top 3 fish."

Z

Good, that means it's working. As soon as you pay and/or Allen notes that you paid in the program, they will show up everywhere.  The site is designed to only count your fish towards points if you've paid.

Zee, I marked you paid and now see you showing up on the leader board.

[smack_talk]Remember this day ... it might be the only day you are on the leader board.    [/smack_talk]

-Allen

[smack_talk]Just remember, you can't use your Cali fish on the NWKA AOTY Pole²![/smack_talk]

Z

Cool, guys.  This will be fun for some of us NCKA'ers to follow too.   

The Alaska entries will no doubt be awesome.

Z

I'll second the notion if registering fish by the state/province they're caught in, NOT the residency of the angler. Especially if you want me to chip in to the pot. It's hard enough that I live over here in the desert.


Oooh, I just had an idea... since Allen's in CA half the time, his fish should get half the score of a full time resident. Whatcha think?

So here's what I'm wrestling with.  Realistically we do not have enough anglers in AK, BC, or ID to make a tournament in those places worth anyones time.  That's just the way it is.  However, I don't want to discourage participation from the other areas.  Let me see what can be done here and get back to you all.

For the rest of us, how about we  have a prize for WA and OR combined.  The fisheries are similar enough so as no one really has a size advantage, and I suspect we'll have enough people fishing both sides of the boarder, especially the Portland crew.  This will be the main NWKA prize since it services the majority of our members.  This prize will most likely be an Ocean Kayak, my one prize kayak alloted for the year.  I'll confirm that shortly.

Perhaps have a second prize that is completely unrestricted by region?

Let me ask another question.  Would you rather have 2nd and 3rd place prizes?  Or would you rather have individual species prizes?  I suppose individual species prizes could be unrestricted by region and allow our BC, AK, and ID brothers to play.  Heck, the largest Chinook will probably come from Moutcha and we'll all be there anyway, right?  I know, I know, you want prizes for all of it.

I hope I've whetted your appetites with the WA/OR combined category and the thought of a kayak prize.  If so, please sign up when you can.  It'll help when I start trying to solicit secondary prizes.

-Allen

I think 1-3rd prizes are pretty standard. It makes coming in the latter places still seem worth it. The largest of each species deserves recognition but in the bigger picture, this is, after all, AOTY. Therefore I think some NWKA swag would be fine for the species record holders. Maybe we could make a simple NWKA Hall of Fame w/ all the records?

And a kayak?? Wow! Now I'm more fired up Pole²! I think the NCKA boyz might be a little jealous. Nice work on the prize gathering so far.

And the WA/OR combined cat. is spot on.

Z

I split off all the AOTY chatter from the "2008" thread and merged it here ... in case any of you are getting lost.

Zee ... a little birdie told me there is a kayak prize for NCKA AOTY as well.

I hear you on 1-2-3 for AOTY.

-Allen

Zee ... a little birdie told me there is a kayak prize for NCKA AOTY as well.

Awesome! With the way this year's NCKA AOTY went down they totally deserve it.

Z