NorCal Kayak Tournament Angler of the Year

Thanks for the kind words guys. I am taking it easy this year. Helping someone else catch fish means more to me. Conceptually, tournament fishing is quite different than AOTY and it is interesting that the AOTY winners have not won that many tournaments. Not a dis on the A OTY winners because they are world class anglers, but tourney fishing is a 1 day Mano y Mano event. Luck plays a role in both AOTY and tourney events but some of the playing field is leveled in a tournament such as time, location and time on the water. All that said, total tourney victories makes sense within a single fish category like bass, but for different fish, not sure that makes sense.  However, yak hoppers series is great and and if I liked fishing bass or bay halibut or delta stripers, I would be all over it. So I guess I would favor leaving it as is. Allen has enough stuff to keep track of. 

Scott

Maybe including the one crabbing event is actually a good idea because that is how some kayakers probably get into kayakfishing. So including one non-hook & line event might usher in more people to the other events. I take back what I said before.

What I'm thinking about for this Overall AOTY is having every contestant's score be tracked. From first place to 100th + place. First place could be worth the total number of contestants. So with 100 people fishing first place would be worth 100 points and last place would be if someone blanked, but because they showed up, they would get one point. Smaller tourneys with less people would be worth less points as with less people it becomes easier to win or place numerically. Ties for say 50th place would all get 50 points. And the existing year long AOTY could be counted as one more tourney and scored like all the others based upon the number of contestants.

By giving points to all contestants this will encourage new kayak anglers to 'move up' as they will be able to see wherever they start and then track their position. I've seen a few signatures of people here on NCKA lamenting that they didn't win or place at any tournaments the previous year. But what if these guys could see that because they caught some fish, and didn't blank, they actually placed midpack? I can tell you after going to Elk twice and then Albion three times and never placing 1st-3rd it was more encouraging to know where I placed in a contest like at GMS rather than to have to assume I was dead last. Why not be inclusive?

Tourneys that want to be included in the Overall AOTY need only track & report the placings of all their competitors that show up & fish. Seems like more work for them but in the long run this might help bring in more people to their events. I believe people would like to know exactly where they placed. This might help them decide to enter that tournament again in the future. There can be only one 'first place' but letting people know "I didn't finish dead last in every tourney I entered" seems like a good way to promote attendance. Showing up and placing midpack throughout the years events is solid consistency and should be rewarded with a competitor knowing where they stand. Just like in the existing AOTY.

PS: And actually someone who consistently placed upper midpack could possibly win Overall AOTY if those anglers that did place higher only did so for one tournament and then didn't show up to fish the other tournaments. The existing AOTY is about catching ten big fish over 365 days. Overall AOTY should be about overall consistency.