I needed a bigger measuring board for this "CPR" trout!
The IFA Redfish Tour recently announced the launch of a kayak division which is a pretty exciting development for the plastic navy.
"How can they compete and have a weigh in without livewells?" is a question many powerboaters have asked and the answer is the catch - photo - release format. Personally, I am interested to see how well this kind of system will work in a highly competitive setting where significant money is on the line because I think it could be the future of tournament weigh ins.
Catch - photo - release isn't anything new, but as technology evolves it certainly can become easier for tournament officials and anglers to manage and I think it can lead to some exciting changes in our sport. My first experience with the format came from the Jax Kayak Fishing Classic run by Mike Kogan http://www.jaxkayakfishing.com/ who happens to be a computer programming expert that has developed and refined a software system that is efficient enough to manage what has become the world's largest kayak tournament with 430 entrants last year. Anglers must include a unique token in the photographs of the fish they catch which proves they were caught on tournament day. Come back to the awards ceremony with your camera's card and tournament officials judge the catch and calculate the overall inches to award the prizes.
The key advantage of this system is the minimal impact to the fish. Believe it or not, there is an anti-tournament element out there and they happen to be a vocal bunch. As far as they are concerned, tournament fishing does absolutely nothing positive for the resource or sport of fishing in general. Many of their arguments center around a belief that our method of catch, hold in a livewell, and release ends up producing a lot of dead fish after the tournament has ended. Most experienced tournament anglers know this is not the case, but you can never tell who the "higher powers" in fisheries management will choose to believe.
Another anti-tournament argument that seems to surface a lot is the fact that we are removing fish from their normal habitat and transporting them to the weigh in site for release. I still firmly believe that a catch - hold - release format doesn't damage the resource but using a catch - photograph - release format eliminates the naysayer's argument about fish relocation.
A prime example of technology changing competition is illustrated by the Association of Surfing Professionals who basically shunned the practice of having surfing contests where they could attract large crowds of spectators in favor of a live video streaming web format. By harnessing evolving technology, the ASP elected to take the spectator to the contest digitally which allowed surfing contests to be held at the world's best breaks during the best swells. The surfers got to compete in the best conditions, the viewers got to see the best competition, and the sponsors exposed their brand to millions of web viewers rather than thousands of people on the beach. It was a winning formula for all parties involved.
That same type of freedom could be refreshing in the world of tournament angling. Although it would be different to not have a live release weigh in, I feel that if done properly a catch - photo - release format could be equally exciting. Would it be less thrilling to stand on stage with a good MC interviewing you about your day and the photos of your catch being displayed behind you on screen? Would it be cool for those same photos and interviews to be posted online in real time so your friends and family could view it from their desktop? How about the ability to target fish outside the normal slot limit - they could be photographed and released without breaking any laws. If a species is out of season, they would still count since they are being released.
The couple of downsides I see are that many anglers seem to be a bit intimidated by technology and may not respond well to the idea of having to operate a digital camera. Also, it would be difficult to have a format with two of the same species - we all know that you can catch "cookie cutter" reds and that very fact could open the door to dishonest anglers taking photos of the same fish twice. Of course, there are many ways for cheaters to cheat in the current formats as well and the easy way around it is to have multi-species tournaments which ends up being a much greater test of skill anyway.
I will keep an eye on the IFA Kayak Tour to see how it all works out. If you are interested in giving the catch - photo - release format a try, http://www.321fish.com/ runs monthly tournaments that are open to the public with a variety of formats.
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