thoughts on the tourney

Saltwater Kayak Fishing
1

It was nice to see a local shop put on a kayak event, and it was good meeting some fellow yak anglers…but aside from that I think the tournament itself was pretty bad.

I’m not trying to put down Haddrell’s – this was a solid first effort, but I think future changes would be great:

Having said that…

The honor system aside, which is completely unnecessary with digital cameras and even cheap one-use disposables, the scoring method was a joke.

I mean, the way redfish, trout, and flounder were all grouped together for the overall winner was really silly, and everyone I’ve talked to agrees.

I guess they’re trying to award fishing versatility, etc…and I can see the value in that…but lets face it, in my opinion, redfish are a far greater challenge/achievement by yak than the others. They should have had each inch of redfish count as two or something like that for the overall score…

The funnest yak tourneys I fished down in FL all had category winners, and I think this format makes the most sense, since it judges apples w/ apples…and it provides for anglers that primarily target one species and are really good at what they do…

This Sat, I caught 6 redfish on the high AM and another 2 on the low tide (blew it by not going to my honey hole!)… This was one of my best sessions in SC (and it should’ve been much better!!!)…to have lost to a guy that claimed 25 trout was just really really weak…

When I turned in my sheet, I heard some guy claiming a major trout harvest, and he told me I blew it and that going after em was key … I told him jokingly, “hey buddy, I’d rather never win a tournament in my life than target trout…”

maybe harsh, but 8 redfish in 4 hrs should be enough for a prize…if anyone beat that hats off

2

Living here and fishing here, I disagree, 8 redfish in that bit of time is not that big of a deal. This tournament made me think my tactics alot stronger, which to me made this tournament more challenging. Only got 123 points to the 800 and something points I still think it was a fare and a fun tournament.

Thats fishing,… I went out this morning to mid afernoon(on foot, until the rain drove me in) and cought more point then I did yesterday

Mud and a four legged mutt

Tarpon 140

3

Buy the way livestock, this tournament was for TROUT,FLOUNDER,and REDFISH.
Pick your strategy, that’s what Kayak fishing is all about!
Don’t know who said what they did, but I’m sorry they did, As far as I’m concerned this was a really good tournament! and I hope they keep the same rules for next year!

Mud and a four legged mutt

Tarpon 140

4

First off I had a great time being in the tournament. A big thanks should go out to Dee from all of us. Don’t forget to buy your tackle, bait, and kayak gear from Haddrell’s and East of Maui, the tournament sponsors, as another way of showing our thanks and appreciation.

Dee gave me a copy of their master score sheet to post here (see the table below). In the table the columns for bait, artifical and fly are the number of catches using that bait, not added points. I looked at the data in a little more detail. Some interesting things surfaced. There was only one fly fisherman. The added points for artificial lures and fly fishing when subtracted out did not change one single ranking of placement in the 13 people who entered fish. For the most part, fish count was proportional to total inches; those who caught the most fish, scored the most points (kind of a “duh statement”). Now if you look at the average fish size in inches, things change completely as to whom would have won. Why was I interested in average fish size in inches? The answer is easy…I would have won first place!!! :smiley:. I’ll write more later on the rules and suggestions for future kayak tournaments.

Stinky Fingers (a.k.a. Bob H.)

5

putting a guy fishing for reds against a guy fishing for trout in one category is a joke.the trout guy wins 9 out of 10 times.then with these rules,if he is fishing artificial,the guy fishing for reds has 0 chance.while i also dont see the big deal in 8 reds in that amount of time…whats the big deal about 20 or 30 trout in a whole day?5 flounder over 14 inches should have beat that,because they are much harder to find and catch in numbers.as much as the concept of this looks good on paper,its not fair to the flounder or red fisherman.trout guy wins every time!

having put in my .02…ill say this…it was great that somebody put on a tourney.hats off to haddrells.i would like to see a redfish only tourney myself in the future.-keep in mind…i guess this opinion came from a trout fisherman…lol

14 ft oldtown “troutkiller”

6

Keith Gaff did do so hot. Well there is always next year…

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you’ll be a mile from them, and you’ll have their shoes.

7

Sea legs,

It’s “didn’t do so hot” and yes they miss spelled my name.

I thought it was a decent turn out for the first tourny and I hope that there will be more to come. I do think that there should have been different catagorizes for each fish. If you happen to find a school of trout you can wear them out in minutes, same with red fish (if you can keep from spooking them). Flounder on the other hand are a little harder. I was happy to catch 2 flouder on aritifical when I hardly ever fish for them.

I also think that there should have been a division for lady anglers, that would bring more women out. Danica did a great job catching a 13" and a 17" trout for her first time out. There were also other women signed up for it.

I do thank Dee and Haddrell’s for putting on the tourny and hope that there will be a lot more in the future. Watch out next time because I am going to wear my fly rod out!!!

8

All in all I’d have to say I thought it was a great tournament. I agree that the species should be split out in to catagories and win based on largest fish by length w/ photo and a grand prize for largest slam, and lets leave the blues out of it, let the yanks have 'em. Maybe a gimmic category for largest “other” and a separate category for the fly. I think the pics are important more for publicity and press releases than angler honesty. We need to take a bigger part in the whole proccess as a club with sponsors rather than expecting Haddrell’s to do all this for us. Then we could make it a charity tourny and get multiple sponsors like chas angler to sponsor the fly division and haddrells sponsor the spinning divisions and such. We also may want to look into partnering with who ever put on the canoe and kayak festival every year and maybe combined the events to drastically multiply the sponsors.
Just some food for thought. I also have to say that I had a great time and can’t complain about where I fell out in the whole thing since I have only had my yak about 6 months and fished the Chas area about 8 times. The day of the tourney I tried a new spot and came in 4th. I had fun and I think that was the important part.

Thats why they call it fishing, not catching

9

Thanks stinky for posting the scores.
I would like to see a tourny where the fish are split up in different categories, but I also liked the way this tournament was scored and would like to see Haderals keep it the same way each year. Markbob has a good idea and maybe that can get a tournament going in the spring where the fish can be spit in different categories…?

Mud and a four legged mutt

Tarpon 140

10

Does anyone know who is responsible for the canoe and yak festival in James Island county park? If we want to work to do a tournament in concert with that, maybe we should at least pick a name for our “club” so that we can approach the powers that be in a some what organized fasion. If we wanted to put together a little committee for the event I would be happy to be on it but could use some help since I live down here in ga. Penny for your thoughts?

Thats why they call it fishing, not catching

11

i stand corrected…i’ll admit when I’m wrong…

after talking to some people, i believe putting reds on par w/ flounder seems fair…seems the flatties are a formidable challenge out there and dont group up like reds…i lacked the experience to make my prior statement…

oh but my on jihad on “trout angling” remains in place; i know what trout fishing is all about and i would rather watch redfish swim than fish for dinks…

12

the flounder is a formidable foe in these parts, but this time of year is killer for them in Va. and up there they do group up in huge schools. Here they are not impossible to find but it is difficult to get your hook in to a respectible size flounder on a regular basis.

Thats why they call it fishing, not catching

13

youre a good man livestoked.i think everybody sees your points you made.yes flounder around here are a challenge.but,so are trout when it comes to catchin big ones.trust me…there is a difference…and different methods used to catch the big ones.it tends to be a little slower fishin,cause they arent gonna be caught on shrimp as often as finger mullet and other baits.having said that…lately i have been chasin spottails a little more myself.i like the way they fight.:smiley:

14 ft oldtown “troutkiller”

14
quote:
Originally posted by markbob

Does anyone know who is responsible for the canoe and yak festival in James Island county park? If we want to work to do a tournament in concert with that, maybe we should at least pick a name for our “club” so that we can approach the powers that be in a some what organized fasion. If we wanted to put together a little committee for the event I would be happy to be on it but could use some help since I live down here in ga. Penny for your thoughts?

Thats why they call it fishing, not catching

Markbob, It is the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission that puts together the Kayak Festival. Good organization, but I would be cautious about having them set it up. I used to work for them, and like I said good organization; but they have a bit to much beaurocracy and seem to take a lot of the fun out of stuff.

The Lowcountry paddlers would be a better group to organize with. I believe they have already started a Fishing offshoot of the club called the “Pluffmudders”. Talk to Keith Goff, he is the Vice President of the paddlers.

What about “CAYA”? The Charleston Area Yak Anglers??

DD

15

i like that dave sounds good

Patrick E Crawford

16

Maybe I was misunderstood a little, I was indtending for us to put the tournament on and just set it up to cooincide with the festival. Maybe have the capts meeting there friday evening and the “weigh” in on saturday evening. I figured it would be easier to get big name sponsors there since festival is in place to act as a customer base for them in addition to us. I imagine we would just have to cooperate with the parks department to make it happen like this.

Thats why they call it fishing, not catching

17

markbob it was nice to nice to meet ya.

Do you know if there are any other tournaments held the same time of a kayak festival and if so how did it turn out?

Mud and a four legged mutt

Tarpon 140

18

Not exactly, when TKAA put on their tourney this year, Reps from several large companies were there doing demos of their products including Hobie, wilderness, TFO and several others. Its good PR for the companies to be associated with a charity event and practically free advertising. Typically if you contact companies soon enough prior to an event, they can and will donate yaks and gear for prizes and such. TKAA had about 4 or 5 yaks for prizes as well as AT paddles, rods from TFO and more. Do a t-shirt for the tourney and put the sponsors on the back and you’d be suprized at what may come from it. I just looked and the festival is Apr 20-27 next year. I am going to find out if that would conflict with the Jax tourney and if not do ya’ll want to persue this?

Thats why they call it fishing, not catching

19

Sounds like a good idea to me, you might want to PM DD and see what WS thinks about it and also get in touch with Reps from other companies and see what they think.
From what I can remember about the festival last year is that there where a couple of kayak tours going on that weekend.

Mud and a four legged mutt

Tarpon 140

20

man i’d love to get up in another tournament…

hey the format might even be legit in this one!

keep me posted yall