If you are entered as a boat guy , you can't even enter a shore caught fish at all can you?
Anyway , I think OTW is doing a good job and letting it evolve. I think they made good progress and ran a good tournament the first two years.

I still disagree with the point some of you are making. There are separate boat and surf categories, are there not?
Prizes are awarded for each division by week, month, and angler of the year for both surf and boat.
Correct me, but it sounds like you guys are contesting the fairness of the team totals, which I think are very fair. You do need some kind of shore/boat handicap. Remember each year pans out differently too with regard to what's available and which club benefits the most. The so called "best" club won't win every year due to changes in fish availability in their waters. With the exception of S-B, most of the clubs range is very small, thus opportunties they have depend on what's available in their local waters.

With either case the losers will always cry foul and say it wasn't fair, which is B.S. to me. Get in there and fight for the cup for god's sake!:rumble:

Its not supposed to be easy.

Mike,I don't see where anyone is claiming they want it to be easier.This isn't sour grapes, rather a thread you chose to participate in discussing the rule changes for the UPCOMING Cup.There is no easy answer here.Like you say,certain teams have inherent advantages due to the number of anglers as well as being more spread out. Nothing wrong with this type of advantage IMO.Maybe proposing 5 boat fish and 5 surf fish per team would be fair.Who knows?Maybe paying a registration fee and using the honor system as to whether it was boat or surf caught would be a more adult way to operate. Perhaps introducing a Ladies division for adult and junior anglers may be a progressive idea.I think you are correct to an extent;no matter what the handicap index is someone will gripe.I don't remember the numbers but I think by August 1st last year S-B had around 490 pounds using the handicap system.That is 10 ,49 pound fish.Tournament was over already.I can certainly see why you would consider it to be very fair.Each year the bait and migratory habits of the fish will change thus giving a certain division a competetive edge which will result in the index being called into question.Of course there are separate categories for the prizes as you state and this is solely to accomadate the sponsors.However I can't think of a single legitimate reason for combining the two categories for the Cup.If there are other fishing (not golf)tournaments presently run using the handicap system please enlighten me.BTW, my numbers from shore last year dwarfed my boat numbers.Thanks in part to you.

The way I see it is On the Water Runs a Tournament. They set the Rules. When you sign up you agree to abide by those rules......It doesn't say anywhere in the rules that you will abide by them and then piss and moan about them when the tourney ends.

I give them credit for at least listening to you and trying to change the rules the following year to make people happy.

Bottom line is if you don't like the rules for that year.....don't send in your registration fee. And if you do register you play by their rules and smile the whole time and say Thanx for putting this together for us. :hee: (see I'm Smiling)

Chris,

The 1.3 for a surf fish is way too much IMO. Maybe I didn't clearly state that. The 1.2, perhaps even 1.15 would be better, which it looks like they are doing for 2008. I am in total agreement with lowering the ratio. In 2006 it was lopsided in favor of the boat clubs due to no conversion ratio for the surf guys.
As far as combining surf and boat for the teams, it makes perfect sense to me to do that becuase its just the cup. No big prizes awarded, its for fun, and many clubs feature both surf and boat anglers. They should be able to compete together. Utilizing a handicap is the most effective way to allow this to happen. Its like an ABCD golf tournament. The handicap comes into play as it allows participants from different capabilities to play together on an even field.
Can't wait for the next installment of those jamaican jerk chicken wings. I'm up every night thinking about them.:banano:

exactly

words of wisdom from dad

I agree also.I actually considered this to be an intelligent discussion.Perhaps discussions like this may have influenced the rules changes in the past.The same may happen moving forward.

now thats the most sensible statement I've heard outta any of US in a long time....

in other words-
if it wasn't for this tournament, would you be killing all those fish??

I don't wanna get down on people for how/why they choose to fish in the tourny, just think we should all take a good look at whether or not its worth killing all the "best fish" we catch during the season?? would you kill 'em if you weren't entered???

think about it..................

No Offense to anyone from this board who I know or those of you that enjoy participating but....Screw "On The Water" and their kill fish for profit, hypocritical tournament!

Or maybe they're not hypocritical...Do they? Or have they ever encouraged conservation of the resource? I don't know....

I'm pretty sure that is why they give out catch and release pins to encourage conservation of the resource.

Like someone above stated it is a "fun" tournament. I dont necessarily like the tourney set-up in its entirety but they dont force me to enter it either. Thats obligatory on my part.

The reason that there are not 2 trophies is that many teams have people that boat fish , and shore fish. Msba I am sure is one of them. You will never make everyone happy, only pacify some.