Making the Grade?

I was speaking with my buddy and fellow tournament angler Ron Hobbs recently about successes and failures on game day and what our goals are. I shared with him how I have started to measure my performance and it dates back to grade school.

Everybody remembers report cards, right? Well, I give myself a fishing report card after every tournament and it helps put things into perspective.

I have never considered myself a winner take all kind of angler and don't put a lot of thought into it when I don't win. Although wins are sweet for sure, only 1 team on any given day will find the first place limit and odds are it will be somebody else. So, if I were to judge myself on wins alone, I would have quit the sport long ago.

Instead, I have always been focused on realistic goals and right now my goal is to make the A/B Honor Roll. Think of it like this, 90th percentile = A, 80th percentile - B, 70th percentile = C, and so on. If there is 100 boat field and I get a "top 10" then I grade myself an A for excellent that day. Same thing goes for a tournament series points race - for the FLA Club this year my goal was a "top 5" finish which would have been an "A" performance since we have seen around 50 active teams this year. Back when we fished the IFA Redfish Tour full time we typically hovered around 15th or so in the end of year standings so that was a "B" or above average result.

That being said, the question I have been pondering lately is if the return on investment from tournament fishing is paying back according to my grades. It seems to me that if I earn an "A" I should get a good paycheck - at least triple my money back, a "B" should bring around double back, and a "C" may not deserve a check since that is only an average day. An "A+" (95th percentile) should really be enough to make a nice deposit in the fishing account.

Based on that logic, my partner Jamie and I elected to sit out the last FLW Redfish Series tournament in our home waters because the math had not worked the year before in 2007. There was at least an 90 boat field that year and we came in 14th place which would have earned a "B" on my report card. But, the payout for us was only $888.00 on an $800.00 entry fee. In 2005 we came in 8th place for an "A" and earned $1900.00 on a $750.00 investment so that return was almost in line with what it should be. Hindsight shows that the FLW Tour's model didn't work for a lot of anglers and now they are out of business.

Their biggest problem from a business standpoint in my opinion is the "winner take all" mentality of the pay structure. By advertising a guaranteed 1st place prize of $25,000 or whatever it was, their hands were tied to cover the grand prize. That's all well and good for the lucky ones who win, but what about the rest of the guys who put in the time and fell ounces short? Should 2nd place be 20 grand less than first and then by the time it gets back to the above average "B" anglers there shouldn't be any gravy at all?

I guess it all depends on if you would rather gamble on a 1 in 100 chance to win a boat or big cash prize or if you would rather gamble on far better odds at making a good payday for your efforts. I fall clearly in the latter group and would much rather fish a tournament where if I earned an "A" I would walk home with all expenses paid and enough money to fish the next couple of tournaments. I think professional golf parallels fishing in many ways - yesterday TPC's winner walked away with a cool $1,710,000 but 2nd place still got paid $1,026,000 which ain't too shabby. Why should the difference between a win and a "first looser" in fishing be so far out of line with what the PGA does?

In looking at what we have locally to participate in, there are a couple of good values out there. First and foremost would be the FLA fishing club where you can make a $125.00 annual investment and if you get an "A" or "B" you will certainly get paid back a good return at the year end banquet. Not to mention any monies you collect in the monthly calcuttas which pay back pretty well for an "A" performance. The great thing about the FLA is that they reward a year long performance by paying back the top points teams which means consistency pays off.

Another good tour that is operating locally is the Xtreme Redfish Series http://www.xtremeredfish.com/ and coming to town this month will be the HT3 Redfish organization http://www.ht3redfish.com/ . Both of these tours do a cash payback based on the number of participants and when I run my grading scale up against what they pay back it makes good mathmatical sense to me. The good thing about either of these tours is that they aren't offering up a "pie in the sky" grand prize that will rob the rest of the field if there is a weak turnout. The investment in either of these tours pretty much gives you good odds of making some money for an above average result. I would love to see them get the participation they deserve to help them grow into a position to fill the void left by the FLW.

Finally, we have the IFA Redfish Tour. I have always been a staunch supporter of the IFA but am a bit disappointed in their business model this year. Again, it is my dislike for the winner take all prize structure which hurts the rest of the field if there isn't a strong turnout. Even with a full 100 boat field per their brochure 2nd place only gets $3,500 and it goes down from there. So, first place is supposed to be a $30,000 boat package and you loose $26,500 for coming in 2nd? In their defense, they do hold back funds to pay for the no entry "buy 3 get one free" tournament at year's end which would make me feel better if it were an "invitation to the top 15 of each division championship" deal. Not to mention they do give away the boat despite the turnout - imagine how bad it hurt them financially to give away a boat at Bay St. Louis when they only drew 25 teams....

Speaking of the HT3 Series, they are coming to town on May 31st with a brand new format which I am excited about - 1 man/1 redfish. It will be a lures only challenge which should be interesting considering we all have learned to fish as a team and will have to make it happen alone. From an anglers perspective, they have really got it together with their stage setup, computerized scales and live leaderboard, a mathmatically correct payback structure, and the fact that they don't have a captain's meeting - you basically show up at the ramp and go fishing. That idea has been a LONG time coming.

I also suggest checking out the next Xtreme Redfish Artificials only tournament on June 13th at Vilano. Unfortunately, local anglers didn't come out and support this tour when they came to town last month but I fished it and feel like they have an excellent product to offer. Again, I am most happy that they have an honest payback that makes sense financially.