Official 2012 AOTY Thread

But better then that was the fact that my little girl wanted to go with me and mentioned on the way to the lake that she needed more points for "fishy contest"... aka AOTY Youth Division.  That made my heart happy.  She had a sweet yellow perch on... but it threw the hook at the yak.  Good memories... maybe I will end up with a family member kayak fishing buddy afterall...

And just like that, Jammer busts into 1st with a MONSTER Largie!  *BAM!*  Like a boss.

Nice fish Michael!  The force is strong with you this year.   

3 months left and there's already 1700pts on the board.  Hopefully this lights a fire under the rest of the top 5!

-Spot-

I just need a few more like this!

Who wants a perch with three anuses?

Just kidding, the points would be good though.

I move up a couple more places with my first chum.

I move up a couple more places with my first chum.

Where'd you catch the Chum? What'd you use?

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1700 broken by Jammer.  Nice brother

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1700 broken by Jammer.  Nice brother

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Thanks Lee!

"its not over until the fat angler sings"

We still have just less then 3 months to go. It's still anyone's game.

While it pales to Jammer 1.7k... The rev (yes, I just referred to myself in the third person) moves up two spots.

While it pales to Jammer 1.7k... The rev (yes, I just referred to myself in the third person) moves up two spots.

Nice work. Now stop moving up

If I'd been keeping track I'd be somewhere around 23rd-27th place with 750 +-10% points.

Next year I think I'll sign up.  Hopefully I'll have the time to rack up more than the 6 species I've managed this year (lingcod, rockfish, cabezon, greenling, flounder, and trout - though the flounder and trout were more luck than anything and not very big anyway).

This reminds me.  I still do not have a hawg trough.  I've been holding out to see if NWKA logo'd ones would come available again.  Any chance of such happening in the next couple months?

My score wouldn't be so low if I had more then 5 fish posted

It's hard when most of the fish are found near the coast.  Oh well.

My score wouldn't be so low if I had more then 5 fish posted

It's hard when most of the fish are found near the coast.  Oh well.

We try.. .there are twenty species to choose from and you only need ten for a full AOTY card.   Only seven of those species are exclusively marine, another five are anadromous and the remaining eight are fresh water.

I'm not trying to bitch, I knew what fish were on the list before I entered.  I was hoping that I could spend more time on the road this summer trying to catch them but I wasn't able. 

As for where I'm located, there are really only 4 species within 1.5hrs (each way) of drive time:
14. Rainbow trout
15. Smallmouth Bass
16. Largemouth Bass (kind of rare)
17. Panfish

Everything else is 2hrs+ if I want to use a kayak.

My 2 cents on the point total is that it comes down to one question - how time do you have to put in for AOTY fish points?

There are many excellent fishermen posted on this site, but none of us should be measured by a point total alone. The designed value of the AOTY program is that it forces us to put effort into fisheries that might not be that interesting to us. Go looking for a King Salmon or catch lake perch until your arm goes numb? I'm sure everyone on the board has faced a similar question at some point this season.

I got a load of free time this summer and did a lot of fishing. I loved it, but I can't expect to have every summer free to fish on a daily basis. When my summer is 90% work/family/life and 10% fishing, I think I'll go looking for a King fight rather than try and catch every perch in the nearest lake. I hope that doesn't make me less of a fishermen, as I certainly don't measure anyone else on the leader board by that number.  All of you have my respect.