Poll: Competition Format?

[PJay]

That's Joe Dennehys format for his soft bait champs comp. People still kill the bigger fish they catch in those as well as what they weigh. It also still kills fish and normally the weigh is for more than 1 of each species.

Some people still kill the bigger ones.

Last year, I put back one snapper that was well into the 80s and 2 in the 70s; this year, Nick and Rick in Team Obsolete put back one each in the high 80s/low 90s. We specifically went targeting snapper, though on the second day Nick went targeting trevally so as to win the trevally section.

I am here to tell you that catching 4 snapper as close as possible to 60cm on each of two succeeding days is not an easy task, not nearly as easy as going for one big snapper. So it's a lot more fun.

This "4 as close to 60 as possible" is actually close to what I would normally kill in a morning's fishing anyway ("home" rules are >38cm and <65cm, and I'd usually bring home only 3,4, or 5 fish).

Joe's comp is still a fish-killing comp, but I have no idea how you'd instal a livewell big enough on kayaks to do otherwise.

I do take the point that often it's the most skilful anglers - eg Pete and Ails, Rob, Stephen - that feature in the "one big fish takes all" comps, but in my observation, for snapper anyway, in the open comps of this sort the absolute top prize is more often than not taken by a lucky angler (eg Beach and Boat, repeatedly).

[MadMike]

So your saying that there's less luck involved in catching as close to 60cm fish as possible than there is in landing a big snapper? not quite sure how you target a 60cm fish over a 65 or 45 for that matter. sounds hugely like luck to me. perhaps you right the size on the bait your trying to target?

Please note I also said "SOME" people still kill the bigger ones

[PJay]

Damn right there's planning rather than luck; and experience in where to fish. (ie areas within locations, etc. This year at Joe's NZSBC Team Obsolete fished both days from a beach that was abandoned as soon as we arrived on the first day by 2 very well-known competition kayak fishers). "Experience in where to fish" is only partly already having fished locations. It's mainly types of territory and run of currents.

The results I and TO have had in Joe's comp over 2 years bear out my theory that snapper aggregate in size cohorts. It takes a lot of fishing effort, and collating and recalling of observations, to target size ranges within species; but for snapper our family does it all the time.

The other secret in this style of comp is to be able to decide when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, so you put back the out-of-your-range fish, so you don't kill too many and breach the legal limit for daily take, but still get the best fish within the comp range.

So, yes, though it's blowing my own trumpet a lot, my being on the leaderboard 4 days out of 4 in this comp was not like playing Lotto for the one big strike.

Heh heh heh - but when we target big snapper, we don't do too badly, either; plenty of prizes and pins in the household for them, too.

The "luck" aspect: that only comes in when we don't succeed

[PJay]

Please note I also said "SOME" people still kill the bigger ones

Mikey, Mikey, Mikey - I quoted you word for word.

[twistedpete]

I think it was a great idea, made it alot more interesting at weigh in time for the people with the fish on the upper limit. Also having the photo comp for the people that did catch the bigger fish. It is a pretty casual comp anyway.
What does everyone do with the big fish anyway? take a photo and then eat the buggers dont they so why not take the photo on the water, put the bigger fish back to breed and catch a couple of smaller nicer eating fish for the table. Or do "some people" need to shower and do their hair before the photo shoot on the beach??
Far to many comps these days targeting the big fish, save some for my grandkids, barstards