AOTY Fish ID issue

There have been several concerns expressed by different people about the ID of different fish entered in AOTY this year.

I have very little knowledge of FW fish, and even with the combined help of the AOTY committee and resident fish nerd bsteves we have had a hard time with some of the fish that come from lakes where hybridization occurs.

In order to help with this issue, ATD has very generously volunteered to be the go to fish ID guy for AOTY 2014, and has also withdrawn from AOTY 2014 to avoid any possible conflict of interest.

Thank you Adam for your help!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

So what's the rule on hybrids?  Less point value counts?

So what's the rule on hybrids?  Less point value counts?

That is how it has worked in the past, but if you look at the actual rules it is not spelled out anywhere...

For this year if it has characteristics of the fish that it was entered as (say for example SMB), and ATD verifies that it has the characteristics of an SMB it will count as an SMB.

The only real way (from what I understand) to determine if it is a hybrid is to do a DNA test...

Changes for 2015 may occur to better address this issue, but for 2014 this is what we will be doing.

Sincerely,

Jim

Thanks Adam and Jim for keeping the game fair and flexible

Mighty generous of you Adam, I tip my hat to you sir!

I agree with this and am glad to see what will happen with a couple recent ID's.

Thanks Adam for taking lead on this and thanks AOTY committee for staying the course and making the needed adjustments next year.

I for one need to improve my fish ID skills.

If ATD can't ID it, its not a fish

Mighty generous of you Adam, I tip my hat to you sir!

+1, way to step up !!!