Any interest in an online BR kayak/canoe tourney?

[E. Guido Soda]

I'm pretty new here, so this may have  been done before, but I was wondering if anyone would be interested in an online kayak/canoe tournament one weekend?  In case there is interest, we use the following rules in our local tourneys:

- fishing out of a canoe / kayak / other man-powered craft (Bass Raider, etc.) - no electronic propulsion of any kind; Hobie Mirage and other pedal driven / paddle crafts are fine

- three fish stringer

- stringer is tallied by aggregate *length* of all three fish.  Fish must be pictured in a ruler, belly facing the angler, mouth snug against the left edge of the ruler. A popular ruler is the Hawg Trough:  https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=hawg+trough+fish+ruler&oq=hawg+trough&gs_l=img.1.1.0l5j0i24l5.66507.68269.0.69757.11.9.0.2.2.0.192.1064.0j8.8.0....0...1c.1.64.img..1.10.1092.Y8_l2NlCr-Q but you can use whatever.

- token-based system; the night before the tournament, a unique word or phrase is sent out to all participants - the token must be printed out and visible in full in each picture (ours are laminated and on a lanyard for safe keeping)

- the kayak / canoe / whatever must also be partially visible in the pictures

- artificial lures only & foul hooks don't count - honor system!

- one line maximum in the water at any given time and no trolling

- tournaments around here allow bank fishing as long as the kayak is within sight while fishing; I personally don't like this rule, but I'm not 100% opposed to it

- public waterways only, no private ponds / lakes

- black bass species only; LMB, SMB, spotted - though since we don't get smallies down here (Central Alabama) and some folks don't get spots, we could limit it to LMB's - whatever works

- fishing from first safe light to last safe light; locally we only do FSL to 3:00 or so, but since we won't have a captain's meeting or a "weigh-in", I say you can fish all day if you want

- pictures due in by Sunday 9:00 PM CST

- don't post pictures until after the tournament when all pictures and results will be tallied and posted

 

That's all I can think of right now, though I'm sure there is more - is anyone interested in something like this??

-EGS

[Bluebasser86]

Assuming this is just a bragging rights type thing?

How is a guy like me in Kansas going to compete with a guy in Texas or Florida where they're hoping to cull what would be a kicker here?

[Preytorien]

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Assuming this is just a bragging rights type thing?

How is a guy like me in Kansas going to compete with a guy in Texas or Florida where they're hoping to cull what would be a kicker here?

True dat....here in Indiana I've seen 10lb/5fish limits blow everyone else out of the water. Sometimes that's a single fish in the southern states.

Maybe if it were regionally specific, but like Clayton said, you can't expect size/length limits to be equally fair across the country. 

Add to that the fact that there's still a lot of us northern folks that JUST recently had ice out, some in the far north/northeast STILL have ice. Of course if you're talking May/June-ish that wouldn't be a factor. But you'll need to also factor in regional temperatures and weather patterns. 

Point is, the only way to have a level playing field is to have everyone on the same body of water.

[E. Guido Soda]

Handicap 'em,  Just something to do, I guess...

[E. Guido Soda]

6 hours ago, Preytorien said:

True dat....here in Indiana I've seen 10lb/5fish limits blow everyone else out of the water. Sometimes that's a single fish in the southern states.

Maybe if it were regionally specific, but like Clayton said, you can't expect size/length limits to be equally fair across the country. 

Add to that the fact that there's still a lot of us northern folks that JUST recently had ice out, some in the far north/northeast STILL have ice. Of course if you're talking May/June-ish that wouldn't be a factor. But you'll need to also factor in regional temperatures and weather patterns. 

Point is, the only way to have a level playing field is to have everyone on the same body of water.

I wholeheartedly disagree, we do city/county-wide tournaments all the time with fishing permitted on any public body of water - and it isn't like this is for cash or prizes, it's just a thing I thought may have garnered some interest.  However, based on the two responses, both in the negative, I guess that isn't the case.  No big deal; to quote Ty Webb, I guess I'll just have to keep beating myself.

 

[Preytorien]

Just now, E. Guido Soda said:

I wholeheartedly disagree, we do city/county-wide tournaments all the time with fishing permitted on any public body of water - and it isn't like this isn't for cash or prizes, it's just a thing I thought may have garnered some interest.  However, based on the two responses, both in the negative, I guess that isn't the case.  No big deal; to quote Ty Webb, I guess I'll just have to keep beating myself.

 

Hey everytime I fish I'm fishing a Bassmaster Classic in my head. Ha!

[Bluebasser86]

10 hours ago, E. Guido Soda said:

I wholeheartedly disagree, we do city/county-wide tournaments all the time with fishing permitted on any public body of water - and it isn't like this is for cash or prizes, it's just a thing I thought may have garnered some interest.  However, based on the two responses, both in the negative, I guess that isn't the case.  No big deal; to quote Ty Webb, I guess I'll just have to keep beating myself.

 

I wasn't trying to be negative, it sounds like a lot of fun. It was a legitimate question because it's not a level playing field by any stretch of the imagination. We've had tournaments here with 3 boats during our Thursday night tournaments so if you come up with a way to level it out, and as long as it's just for bragging rights, I'd do it. 

[lecisnith]

Maybe instead of weight or length just make it a simple numbers tournament.  I can catch 15 smallmouth in Northern Michigan just as easily as Sonny Jim can catch 15 largemouth in Alabama.  But most of them will be under 15 inches and less than three pounds.

[Bluebasser86]

4 minutes ago, lecisnith said:

Maybe instead of weight or length just make it a simple numbers tournament.  I can catch 15 smallmouth in Northern Michigan just as easily as Sonny Jim can catch 15 largemouth in Alabama.  But most of them will be under 15 inches and less than three pounds.

I have lakes by me that I can do 50+ in a half day without really trying. 

We've done the big bass contest on here where it's whoever catches the biggest fish as compared to the state record where it was caught. Example, state record is 10 pounds, you catch a 6 pounder, your fish was 60% of the state record. That's about the fairest way I could see doing it. If you wanted to do the highest average percentage of someone's top 5 fish, that might work. 

[lecisnith]

18 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I have lakes by me that I can do 50+ in a half day without really trying. 

We've done the big bass contest on here where it's whoever catches the biggest fish as compared to the state record where it was caught. Example, state record is 10 pounds, you catch a 6 pounder, your fish was 60% of the state record. That's about the fairest way I could see doing it. If you wanted to do the highest average percentage of someone's top 5 fish, that might work. 

That sounds reasonable. 

[E. Guido Soda]

The format is immaterial to me, quite frankly. I just think it would be something interesting and fun to do while you're out on the water anyway.  Though I am partial to simple length; you could give certain regions extra fish - northern regions get five, Midwest four, southern three, western regions get 1/2 a fish seeing what they're bringing out these days.  But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter - it's just something to do.

Are the other rules agreeable?

[Bluebasser86]

I think all the rest of the rules are pretty standard tournament rules, minus the getting out of the boat rule, which I really don't have an issue with. I've never done a length format tournament since I've just begun fishing from a kayak but again have no issues with it since it's just for fun. 

[buzzed bait]

most online tournaments do some weird math formula that calculates the state record and then assigns some handicap based on that....  being that i live and fish in GA (world record) i never enter those tournaments because of the ridiculous handicap they assign to this state!  

fun idea no doubt, just a lot to coordinate.  the city wide tournament isn't as big of a deal because the size and species do not vary so much as they do across the country.

[E. Guido Soda]

With all due respect, I think we are over-complicating this - I don't care how we do it, let's just do it!  There is nothing on the line except for fun fishing in your kayak or canoe.  You tell me how we should do it, and let's just do it!  

[DaileyLimit]

Sounds like fun to me.  I don't have a scale, so would have to go buy one to weigh in (and I guess photograph the weight?), but I do have a hawg trough.  

 

Like this, but with a token word?  So I can't try to count this fish from last year?

[E. Guido Soda]

Nice smallie - wish we had them where I live.  Yes, something like that, and no, no fish from last year!

[DaileyLimit]

Just for grins. . .

 

[E. Guido Soda]

^ You can use that fish...I have no problems with that.

[Caliyak]

This would be cool to do. Ive never been in a tourney. I would be using a wood ruler from school. LOL

Just keep in mind, your 8 pm is only 5, and still nice and hot, here in Cali. So you all will be up until midnight waiting on us.

[Preytorien]

It sounds fun. I've seen guys doing kayak tournaments on our local lakes, they all use the token method and use their cameras from phones, GoPro's, or whatever. 

I may pass on it for now as I literally JUST got a kayak, as in less than 7 days ago, so I'm quite a newbie at it, I'll still need some practice just maneuvering the thing. Maybe next time.

[E. Guido Soda]

8 hours ago, Caliyak said:

This would be cool to do. Ive never been in a tourney. I would be using a wood ruler from school. LOL

Just keep in mind, your 8 pm is only 5, and still nice and hot, here in Cali. So you all will be up until midnight waiting on us.

Fair enough, but Central is two hours earlier than Pacific, not three.  Regardless, good point.  How about time-stamped no later than 12:00 AM CDT and I can tally results on Monday? 

[Turtle135]

I compete in that type of tournament all the time. Was in one that ran from mid-December to mid-February and some anglers in the Mid-Atlantic Region posted 6-7 pound bass. You would not have known it was winter from looking at the leader board.

[DaileyLimit]

Are we going to go Fri-Sun or just Sat-Sun? Fri is my only available day to fish.  I would also like to see it be open to all black bass.

 

ETA:  A longer running competition would be cool too.  Maybe do anywhere from 2 weeks to a month or two, just to give people ample opportunity to get out and fish.

[LunkerFisher]

Once the rules are firmly established, count me in!

[flyfisher]

I would be in too...there is a calculator out there that semi limits the playing field and it does a decent job but i can't think of the name of it right now..