Hi all,
I hope this is in the right section if not i apologise. My local club manages a 100 acre stocked fishery which was previously only stocked with browns until rainbows were added this year for the first time. What could be a difficult venue now has improved dramatically in terms of catch returns. The club would traditionally run 2-3 competitions for its members each year with small prizes on offer of tackle etc or just trophies- nothing too prestigious. This would consist of an all method competition, flyfishing, spinning and worm etc and one which is flyfishing only. Each competition would be divided into a separate section for boat anglers and shore anglers etc.

This year due to the increased catch rates we are considering running our competitions on a C&R capacity at least on a trial basis. Having never done this before I wanted to investigate the various methods available. A lot of our members would have fished pike competitions and be accustomed to using barrels to store their catch until weigh in. Is this viable for trout? I was considering proposing a 3 fish bag limit per angler(Size limit inclusive) with each consecutive trout caught thereafter awarded a standard weight value regardless of actual length/weight once it was released alive and witnessed by an official/steward with boat anglers able to use barrels for storage until it is convenient to release them. Is this ridiculous? I am new to all this as are my fellow anglers and would appreciate any advice or opinions. Alternative suggestions are also welcome.

I might add that drawing anglers to fish with random competitors isn't really an option for us. Neither is having a steward or boatman accompany each angler in individual boats as we dont have the manpower to do this. We are a small club with a committee of 4 or 5 anglers and struggle to get anyone to actually help with the running of such events so are therefore limited in what we can achieve.

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Fortis Sub Forte Fatiscet. The brave yield only to the brave.


www.rinnshannon.com

Member of the S.S.F.D 2010

Why try tagging some trout when you next stock and have a tagged fish comp. With prizes that match the numbers etc. You can still c&r this way

It works well at one of my local fisheries

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As its a 100 acre fishery I think it would be too large for this option to work well. Thanks for the input however.

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Fortis Sub Forte Fatiscet. The brave yield only to the brave.


www.rinnshannon.com

Member of the S.S.F.D 2010

The storing fish in buckets idea isn't going to do the fish any good.

Why not go down the lines of buying in cheap (China) measuring sticks (rulers we used to call them lol) and issue them to all competitors. They simply lay the fish across a wet mat and place the measure stick along side for a photo. Everyone has a digital camera or a mobile phone that takes pics.

You can purchase them in batches of different colours so you can issue a different coloured stick for every competition, that way no cheeky double entries from previous comps.

Comp decided by pics. No fish killed, fish become trickier to catch next time, the need for stocking reduces.

Or is that approaching another subject for another thread?

This is a method we have also considered although as some of our anglers are quite elderly and dont even own mobile phones let alone know how to use them! It is an excellent method and one that is definitely worth considering! Thanks.

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Fortis Sub Forte Fatiscet. The brave yield only to the brave.


www.rinnshannon.com

Member of the S.S.F.D 2010

I fish the very succesful celtic league at Llandegfedd which is run to catch and release.

All fish are returned and the exact time that your 4th fish is in the net is recorded. This means that the person who catches the most fish wins the competition. in the event of a tie on number of fish caught then the recorded time comes into play. i.e. the person who caught his 4th fish the earliest takes the higher placing.

It works well.

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If a man speaks in the woods and no woman is there to hear him............is he still wrong????