Competitions

[JPPLAY]

Last season we talked about doing some competitions but nothing happened. This year I would like to have a couple. I was thinking we could have one at Sylvan Lake for whitefish total weight wins bag limit of five. Sylvan lake could be a Kayak competition to make it more intresting maybe even add in one Burbot to make it even more intresting.
We should maybe also do Twin total weight wins say 10 perch total 3-4 hours dive time.
We need to figure out what the prize would be for winning the competitions if we hold them.

[messey]

that sounds like it would be awesome. would you actually want a prize or like every one throughs in 5 bucks winner takes all type thing

when does the ice usually come off those lakes and is there a closed time for fishing here i havent looked at the albert laws yet

[JPPLAY]

Originally Posted by messey

that sounds like it would be awesome. would you actually want a prize or like every one throughs in 5 bucks winner takes all type thing

when does the ice usually come off those lakes and is there a closed time for fishing here i havent looked at the albert laws yet

The five dollar things a good idea as that why it nothing major but you still have something to show for the effort.

The ice is usually off when the fishing season opens. The fishing season closes when certain fish are spawning so the time that all finished the ice is usually off.
I am hoping though that Cold Lake still has about 50% of it ice on when fishing season opens as I would like to catch some Lake trout on the fly and spearfish for them.

[JMD]

I'm not convinced that hauling out 5 or 10 fish each would be a good way to represent spearfishing in the sportfishing community.

How about you just enter your single heaviest fish instead?

[messey]

we could decide on a limit less then 10 for each person or just go with largest single fish. If we do something like that we would not have to worry about a negaive representation of our sport. I dont know how you guys are when hunting but i dont shoot everything i see, specificly large fish i just stock them a bit maybe see if i can poke them. it might be because of the lakes im hunting in that i can be picky about which fish i shoot.

vessey

[JMD]

What were the rules of the competition Carlos Eyles always went to on Catalina island, as described in his book the last of the blue water hunters? I thought it was biggest per species, and biggest overall or something like that? You could only submit one fish for judging I think...

Anyway those rules seem to reward selectively taking the biggest fish you can find as opposed to pure volume.

[JPPLAY]

The thing with doing a competition for whitefish is that fisherman if they get their limit of whitefish keep all the fish and if we included suckers they are a fish that no one else wants. I don't think it would be bad to represent spearfishing this way. We can set the limits lower like 3 whitefish and 2 non-gamefish. That way it still shows skill in that you had to stalk all those fish not that you just blundered onto one big fish.

[spaghetti]

Originally Posted by JPPLAY

The thing with doing a competition for whitefish is that fisherman if they get their limit of whitefish keep all the fish and if we included suckers they are a fish that no one else wants. I don't think it would be bad to represent spearfishing this way. We can set the limits lower like 3 whitefish and 2 non-gamefish. That way it still shows skill in that you had to stalk all those fish not that you just blundered onto one big fish.

I agree with you all the way: if you're within the legal harvest limit and keep moderated, no one has the right to complain, and if they do, just piss them off. I also agree that bouncing on a big fish doesn't show skills, especially if the big one is a carp.
In my country we have official lake competitions and also a lake national championship, with the following catch rule (in official competitions the normal legal harvest limit doesn't count): maximum 10 cyprinidae (carp, tench et cetera); max 10 eels; max 10 salmonidae; max 10 perciformes (perch, black bass et cetera); max 5 pikes et cetera. Every category has a difficulty coefficient, which is multiplied by the weight of each fish caught to have your final score.
Prizes are medals, cups and...brand new spearguns offered by the sponsors. In Italy lake competitions are taken so seriously that the best 2 of the lake national championship automatically qualify for the national champ finals in the sea!
Enjoy it.

[JMD]

The problem here is that spearfishing is heavily regulated with only certain generally unfavorable types of fish being legal to spear for. Any negative impact will cause the fisherman (#'d in the thousands) to complain and ask for further restrictions against the spearo's (about 5 of us). I'd just hate to see any bad press whatsoever. If we decide to "just piss them off" as you suggest likely we'll just end up getting banned from spearing altogether.

[messey]

we could do things completely different for compititions, we could make a point system where the average size of fish species is worth like 50pts and subtract 5 pts for ever inch over and then points for where you shot the fish like head shots 50 pts and have other places worth less. this would make the compition based on skill, how good you aim and stock fish.

[deep thinker]

We use the following points system in our competitions, it mite work for you guys too but I dont know how many species of fish you have in your lakes, so use it dont use it, its just an outsiders 2cents.
Your fish has to weigh in at or above a certain weight, normally the legal take limit for each specie. So its different weight category for each specie allthough some have the same take limit.
Now the points system:
You are only allowed to weigh in one fish from each specie, and in areas with limited species a amount of weighers agreed upon before the start of the comp say 2 or 3. So you get one point for a specie and a point for say each 100gr your fish weighs more than the legal limit with a limit of 4 points per fish for reef fish and 6 points for game fish and a biggest fish of each specie bonus point.
Eg, you weigh in 3 different species one of wich is a game fish, your legal take limit on the 2 reef fish is 800gr and 900gr and the game fish is 1.2kg, so your 800gr reef fish weighs in at 980gr youll get 3points total for the fish, your 900gr fish weighs in at 1.2kg, you get 2points in total and your game fish weighs in at 3.6kg so you get full 6points, you now have 11points for the comp and as a extra your game fish was the biggest of em all so you have 12points with a bonus point for the biggest take of game fish specie.
Our club runs a comp once a month for a year with small prizes like shafts weights, floats and float lines. And have a total tally of all points at the end of the year where we use part of the entry fees for each comp to buy prizes, last year we had a speargun, some knives a spearfishing dvd and a few books on hunting. When we have the prize giving the guy in first gets his choice of the prizes and so it goes down the line till the last of the decided amount of prizes are taken, the others get something like a roll of fishing line and a hook or a pair of cheap lobster gloves or a bottle of energade or something arb like that

[JPPLAY]

JD if we are spearfishing within the regulations no one can complain about what we do. If we spear outside of the regulations then someone has a right to complain. Why should their be double standards for spearfishing competitions and fishing when we are both allowed the same limits for whitefish and non-gamefish? Should we tell Erik not to shoot his limit of perch? It has taken him lots of practice like us all to get decent at spearfishing. I expect a fly fisherman that has spent more time fishing to outfish me just like I expect a spearfisherman to do the same.

[messey]

ya unfortuantely there is a double standard and there is not much one can do about it but tread lightly in hopes of our sport not being regulated more then it already is. Even in sask I stay below limits and dont take large fish because of this, i am free to spearfish just like the normal fisherman and i wont to keep it that way. I find the thing ppl have the biggest issue and misconception with is us being able to pick and choose which fish we take, they assume we go down and take the biggest fish we can everytime. I wish this was a complete misconseption but unfortunately its not even though they were in the legal limits. I dont see the point of pushing the limits with keeping large fish or a full limit it only feeds the stereotyping. When i talk to fisherman and they tell me I'm "cheating" i just tell them i train for my sport and go off on what it takes to shoot a walleye mid summer. They dont understand the skill it takes to hunt fish, but its totally cool to sit in a boat with a line out the back trolling while you drink beer (i have done this lots, trolling in a 18 foot ski boat doesnt work well though but the beer is still good ). The situation sucks but if we just fit the stereotype even if we are within the regulations things are just going to get worse.

vessey

[feign]

Originally Posted by messey

When i talk to fisherman and they tell me I'm "cheating" i just tell them i train for my sport and go off on what it takes to shoot a walleye mid summer. They dont understand the skill it takes to hunt fish, but its totally cool to sit in a boat with a line out the back trolling while you drink beer (i have done this lots, trolling in a 18 foot ski boat doesnt work well though but the beer is still good ).
vessey

Ask them, if it is so easy then why don't they do it? Most of the fisherman around here don't have the balls or hint of desire to get in a cold, dark lake and dive down into the blackness. The real gutsy ones sit in an inner-tube and splash their feet around to motor the lake. Still keeping the beer handy in the cup holder of the belly boat.

[JPPLAY]

Originally Posted by feign

Ask them, if it is so easy then why don't they do it? Most of the fisherman around here don't have the balls or hint of desire to get in a cold, dark lake and dive down into the blackness. The real gutsy ones sit in an inner-tube and splash their feet around to motor the lake. Still keeping the beer handy in the cup holder of the belly boat.

Sounds like Lee up for a spearfishing competition.
Hey I got called gutsy I am one of those fly fisherman that splashes around a lake. I think you drink me under the table Lee though.