I'm a shore fisherman and have to say that the balance has shifted too far to the shore fisherman this year. The boat fisherman had an advantage last year, but this year now the shore fisherman do. 1.3 is too high a number and unrealistic for boat fisherman. I agree with the 1.2 or even 1.15. A 52# average is not realistic. I'd like to see a cap of 25 per team, that way the playing field is leveled and there is nothing that can be done about the range, i.e. having members from New Jersey to Maine.
Another great thought would be to have a shore striper cup and a boat striper cup and get rid of the conversion ratio all together. The MV Derby has created two seperate events for just this reason. It is too hard to get the shore and boat fisherman to get along or to agree on anything. A 52# bass from the shore is a great fish, but not unlikely. For a boat fisherman to catch a 67.6# bass is HIGHLY unlikely. How has the playing field been leveled or fair?
They DEFINITELY have to work out how the weigh slips are handled. If a tackle shop wants to be a weigh station it must be mandatory that they have a fax machine. Go spend the $100 or less, buy a fax machine and fax those weigh slips at the end of each day. If a weigh slip is not faxed within 24 hours that fish is disqualified and that weigh station is no longer able to be a weigh station. It is absurd that these weigh stations are holding their slips for over a week and discarding a weigh slip if a guy caught a bigger fish that week. It is happening. 24 hour time limit and the time and date need to be on the weigh slip.
It is also crazy that you can ONLY fish from boat or shore. I love to fish with my friends from their boats. If I catch a big fish from the boat I can do nothing with it. Ooo, I can get a pounder pin, but I can't contribute to my team. They say it discourages cheating, but wouldn't this encouraging cheating even more?
It is only the second year of this tournament so they still have some bugs to be worked out, these are some of them. I like this tournament, it gives me motivation, especially in late July and August and I like the competitive nature in it.
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