Ideas for AOTY

EDIT

The train got off the tracks a little bit and that was my fault. I changed the title so that people who want information for 2024 AOTY won't go down the panfish debate rabbit hole 

All,

There will be an AOTY 2024. Please hold off on entering 2024 fish until the 2023 fish are archived.

Per the rules there is a 2 week grace period for fish entries so theoretically there may still be 2023 fish to be entered.

Updates and information will be posted soon. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for the update, looking forward to 2024!

Sweet! Will enter - hoping to get more days on the water this year to put up a little more competition.

Thanks for coordinating this!

Is the site down?
I clicked on the AOTY and got:
>>
Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
>>

Is the site down?
I clicked on the AOTY and got:
>>
Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
>>

They are probably tallying finals and switching over to 2024, since the 2 week grace period just ended.

-Allen

Thanks Allen!

So are there any new changes or any new species added to AOTY for 2024? Any news?

So are there any new changes or any new species added to AOTY for 2024? Any news?

I put up a poll asking about electric motors, but no changes yet.

As far as fish there is always talk of mixing it up but there are no plans to make any changes currently. If anyone has any ideas I’d love to hear them. I’m all for getting more people involved if we have any ideas on that.

Species wise I know a few changes have been made over the years and we may need to look at some changes depending on regulation changes (sturgeon comes to mind with the changes coming)

I have a nice spotted bass from 1/7 waiting to be entered. Does the 2 week rule apply or is there a grace period for January?

On species, I could see separating crappie from other panfish and giving a little less to crappie and a little more points to other panfish. Tons of 15"/180pt crappies out there. And it would be nice to see Sac Perch, red ears or huge bluegill targeted as an alternate for panfish points.

On species, I could see separating crappie from other panfish and giving a little less to crappie and a little more points to other panfish.

I like this idea.

Echoing the crappie sentiment

I have a nice spotted bass from 1/7 waiting to be entered. Does the 2 week rule apply or is there a grace period for January?

On species, I could see separating crappie from other panfish and giving a little less to crappie and a little more points to other panfish. Tons of 15"/180pt crappies out there. And it would be nice to see Sac Perch, red ears or huge bluegill targeted as an alternate for panfish points.

I've wanted to separate the panfish category for a while. I think the largest non crappie was a 14.75" SP, so set the "trophy at 15 or 15.5" may be? 13 to 13.25 points per inch? You have to catch a toad BG to get some points and even a SP would need to be big big. I think crappie points are okay for now. There are some 180's fish, but it's been years since there's been a 190+ point fish entered and not many of those.

Largest crappie in AOTY history is 16.625 and the world record for Bluegill is apparently 15".  If there was a separate category for them i'd say the point total should be 13.25in for bluegill, so that essentially they would be the same allocation of points per inch for trophies. I'm against changing the existing allocation for Crappie, since it would diminish the prior scores for the species.

Largest crappie in AOTY history is 16.625 and the world record for Bluegill is apparently 15".  If there was a separate category for them i'd say the point total should be 13.25in for bluegill, so that essentially they would be the same allocation of points per inch for trophies. I'm against changing the existing allocation for Crappie, since it would diminish the prior scores for the species.

If the new panfish category did include Sac Perch they are a little better size than BG, so the points would probably need to be adjusted for them. I've never found any over 13.25", but a friend fishing next to me got a 14" one time and then Chris Mayes has the AOTY 14.75" beauty (miss that guy). So they do have some potential for size.

Personally I think the argument for Sac Perch is a bit harder for me to swallow.  I don't even know a body of water that has them, and I can't remember anyone posting about one so they can't be that wide spread for people to catch. It would be like letting White Bass in there crappie/panfish too, but there is only one place to fish for them that I know of.