Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Will never happen.  I put $100 into the kitty for the 2012 Tourney and only bart2puck added to it with $20.  Too many tightwads on this forum not willing spend a couple dollars for some good fun.........and besides, it appeared that no one really cared to be in it.

I did get plenty of requests to waive (break) the photo and ruler rules via email for unposted caught fish.........from many free-loaders that did not contribute to the kitty.  Even got a request to waive the rules for the BRHS tourney this past weekend.  Rules are rules.............and once set, everyone must abide..........or you might as well not have any rules...........I don't care how many witnesses you have..............follow the rules that were posted 8 months ago!

How hard is it to have a tape measure in your fishing pack...........and everyone has a cell phone with a camera.

I'm dead-set against another tourney after the complete failure of this past one.  I'm sure people would pay their $10 fee after they caught a nice fish and posted.

Count me out of any further tourneys.............besides......I should have 10 years of free tourneys at $10/tourney after putting up $100 for the last one by myself............and bart2puck sholud get 2 years worth for his $20!

Nothing made me mader................than people wanting me to break the rules for them.

I think the new format will be a more user friendly way to have a friendly tournament AND get people paid/registered before the tourny starts so there aren't any issues like the one you described.  I think Ernie is on the right track and doing a great job of trying to make a more user friendly tournament.  Easy to have a registration period for each seasonal tournament before the start.   Paypal could be a good method of entry so people could enter online and there wouldn't be any late entries or entries only after catching a big fish as you described.  If you are in and paid before the start of the tournament, great.  If not, then you can register for the next tournament in a couple months (and don't have to wait a whole year). 

Sorry you feel the way you do about all this.  I respect if you choose not to participate, but hope you do decide to participate.  You are a great challenge to beat and would be missed if you weren't a part of it.

Concerning "breaking the rules" for the current tournament - I asked that Ernie enter Tyler's bag of 5 fish from the BRHS tournament knowing it was not in the top 3 or 4 of the year long tournament you are currently winning and knowing it wouldn't change the end results.  IF it was in the top 3 (in the winning positions) and Tyler didn't have pics to prove it, I never would have suggested it be entered into the contest.  That would not be fair and would be breaking the rules (in my opinion) with specific consequences to other people.  But the reality is that this entry wouldn't have changed any of the final results.  I thought it would be good to have another name other than "Curly" on the list and at least make it look like Curly had some competition to beat.  Curly, I apologize for getting you all riled up.  That was never the intention and it was never the intention to be cheating on anything.  Happy to buy you a beer sometime soon and hopefully make this all better.  It can be the next "Beer Summit" (without Obama). HA!

OK OK..................The 2012 thread has been updated.  Tyler is now in 5th place with his catch and the bluegill catch is an honorable mention since there were no pics at all.

I would strongly suggest that anyone fishing the next tourney must have a "Hawg Trough" like in the perch tourney that Ernie talked about.  I know from experiance that a regular ruler or tape does not give an accurate pic of the fish's length......too much wiggle room......especially, if not directly under the fish.

Only $17 for a Hawg Trough and a great investment for any fisherman.

Another issue is that we really don't have many AV residents that can participate. Most of the Forum members don't live in AV. That will limit participation....

Curly wrote:

Cut the 36" trough down to 24-25" with a saw, and smooth the edges with some sand paper.

Good idea but it's 30"....I have seen some others that are a bit smaller (not as wide)...I will investigate.

HT- http://kayakfishinggear.com/hawgtrough.aspx

This one is smaller (24")- http://www.walmart.com/ip/16637404?adid … ductDetail

BillyBigMouth wrote:

I would be in!!!  Just let me know where to send the money for it or where I could drop it off.

Once we figure out what we want to do, I will post instructions.

I agree about the HT....I have one on my boat and use one for the yak. They are, by far, the easiest. Just darken the lines with a Sharpie.

But I am going to try the $5.99 one, for convenience. It should be OK for me as I don't go far in my quest for AV fish.

Couldn't we just leave the bags of fish on Ernies deck?  put our names on the bag, let him weigh em for us?


I would say you have a tourney with different divisions.  4 tourneys, 2 months each.   LMB division, BG division, whatever division.  only problem i see with your idea ernie, is that I have never fished for BG, and while this may prompt me to learn, Im basically going to have to sit out mar-apr and aug-sep.

you could have a bragging rites league and a cash league or something too.  some folks just want to out fish curly, while others like the lure of cash....

i would suggest a 1 time buy in though.  collecting cash for anything is always difficult, would want to have you have to do it 4-5 times a year.

bart2puck wrote:

.......some folks just want to out fish curly........

  Too funny!

B2B - You definately outfished me the last time we were on Cedar at the same time !

Ernie - Just break it into Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec for all species and it will be easier to handle at $10 for 6 months.

I don't get to fish much for 5 months (mid-Feb to mid-Jun) because of my BRHS Track Team and youth track club coaching duties, so there will be plenty of competition in the 1st half.  My 1st half prediction:  Big Jeff will probably take home all the bass prizes, Ernie all the bluegill, and Khanh the crappie.

I liked your original idea of:

Prizes (for each period):
1. Single Longest LMB: 25%
2. Longest Aggregate of top 5 LMB- 25%
3. Single Longest Blue Gill- 20%
4. Longest Aggregate of top 5 Blue Gill- 20%
5. Single longest Crappie- 10%

Redfish12 wrote:

What about arranging an invite tourney with a BBQ potluck after?

Yep...I would like to do this and will host it.

Time of year?

I'll be in the 3rd and 4th one..

Redfish12 wrote:

When is a good time to fish AV lakes? Fall?

April