First Forum Trolling Fishing Competition - 12th July

skip · June 19, 2008, 09:09:53 CET

Guys,

We've settled on a date of Saturday 12th July (with a backup overflow day of Sunday 13th in case of weather) for the first forum offshore trolling competition, which will be open to all; Members and Non-Members who want to take part. We will most likely have a TV crew covering the event to be featured on the Misterfisherman TV programme.

The competition will follow a pretty standard format and there will be a main prize and a prize for the largest fish, along with possibly some token runner up prizes. Trophies will be presented along with the prizes which will probably be in the form of vouchers from the main event sponsor Mister Fish, we will have to see which additional sponsors we can get.

At the prize giving which will ideally be done on Sunday evening, there will also be a raffle going to raise money for the forum and future activities with a good piece of fishing equipment being the main raffle prize, and the chance to buy some Malta Fishing Forum merchandise which I hope will be on offer prior to the competition start.

I would ideally like to close-off the registration for the competition either on the Thursday evening, where there will be a briefing and all the necessary paperwork will be sorted out. That way due to the early start on Saturday morning we won't have to go through all these hassles. All boats will be required to report to an offshore starting point to give chance for everyone to converge on one spot for the start.

These are my idea's so far, but let's discuss them in this thread so that we can fine tune.

Skip

The_Gaffer · June 20, 2008, 07:31:38 CET

Skip,
My suggestion is that 1st prize should be awarded to the boat that lands the most alungi, and weight consideration should be taken into account if there are 2 or more competitors placing 1st with the same amount of fish. I am not too sure what ou mean by the points system. Would that suggest that there will be a handicap applied to fast boats, big boats ect.

skip · June 20, 2008, 07:56:55 CET

Essentially yes that was my idea that there would be a handicap, these were my thoughts to enable us to all start at the same time and avoid having to have two different classes. Nothing is set in stone, if we all agree there's no need then no worries. It would be impossible and I don't think practical to enforce a maximum distance, but obviously smaller boats can't leave 12nm so are restricted in terms of which xifer's they can fish on. Speed of the boat isn't an issue but reckon available fishing territory so to speak could be.

Open to suggestions about how 1st place should be decided, but what are the reasons why you don't think total weight should be the deciding factor?

shanook · June 20, 2008, 08:00:35 CET

Lets say I catch 3 fish of 6 kg each that makes 18kg total. So if one catches 1 of 18.5kg he is the winner........ i think it should be the number of fish caught that determines the winner but a prize should be set for the biggest fish.

shanook · June 20, 2008, 08:03:02 CET

regarding speed or distance thats a matter of luck. At the moment alungi are being caught in the 10 mile zone. but i presume that the smaller boats should speak their mind here and post their suggestions.

The_Gaffer · June 20, 2008, 08:46:37 CET

I agree that quantity landed should determine who wins the competition, and weight should only be considered when 2 or more boats come in with the same amount caught. Its not a question of smaller boats staying in the 12 mile zone, but registration. S registered boats are not allowed to leave the 12 mile zone, but its an open secret that they do leave, and troll in open waters further beyond the 12 mile limit!, so who will monitor this during the competition.
Another consideration:
Is this a trolling competition, or an exclusive Albacore trolling competition. The 1st implies that all fish caught during the competitiion, including alungi, Med sail fish, BFT ect are considered as valid cathces for the competition, the 2nd restricts the validitity of fish caught exclusively to Albacore(alungi)
These are considereations that need to be clarified at the earliest stage possible.
When other clubs around Malta organise trolling competitions for Alungi,
1. The valid catch is restricted exclusively to Alungi
2. No handicap is applied to boat size, speed, registration

SPITEC · June 20, 2008, 09:30:26 CET

I am not in fishing alungi because I don't have a boat but at least I would like to come and see your catches when you will come in from the competition.What I can suggest is if a good quantity of alungi is cought we could do an alungata not a fenkata and do the presentation of the winners there.

Jonathan · June 20, 2008, 12:58:45 CET

This coming Sunday (22nd June) the Marsamxett club is organising a fishing competition for alungi and to give you an idea of how we work it out it's as follows:
- Prior to the start of the competition (eg. 4:30am but this is still unconfirmed) all boats must tie up to a jetty where club officials will inspect each boat to check it out. (eg. that there are no konzijiet on board, no precaught fish, etc)
- All boats leave together at the hooting of a horn or on the VHF
- Boats are free to pick the fishing grounds that they want
- By a certain time (eg. 4:30am but this is still unconfirmed) all boats must have returned to the jetty to have their catch checked by the club officers. Anyone returning even 1 minute after this deadline is disqualified.
- Prizes are based on the number of fish caught with only alungi counting
- In the case of a tie, weight is factored in
- A separate prize is awarded for the biggest fish caught.

If anyone is going to be out on Sunday feel free to drop me a ring on 99882615 or call me on VHF ch6. My nick there is Jonathan too.

Jonathan · June 20, 2008, 12:59:56 CET

I meant something like 1pm for closing time

suffrun · June 20, 2008, 14:51:00 CET

excellent idea spitec

Simon G · June 21, 2008, 18:00:39 CET

can i spear them

skip · June 22, 2008, 20:22:26 CET

Guys,

Been discussing some of the finer details today, will try and post some more info shortly so that we can present a clearer picture. But here's a small summary:

1) The competition will be a trolling competition for pelagic fish
2) We will be using a points based system to determine the winner
3) Any vessel choosing to use more than 4 rods/lines will start off with a % points deduction per additional rod in order to even the playing field.
4) We are aiming to have two start points and one finish point being 2 miles off from Filfla so that there is a central finishing point for everyone, say by 2.30pm. Catches will be checked quickly at the finish point and sealed for weighing in later on at the official weigh station (to be determined), allowing boats to return to their respective home ports, clean up etc.

The points based system will essentially be X points per fish landed, with different points per species, things like bluefin and spearfish will carry more points. Then there will be X number of points in addition per 500g of fish weight. So you will be scoring points both for the number of fish caught and their respective weight. You will also score higher if you land more unsual pelagic fish.

The competition has been changed to a straight trolling competition for pelagic fish in order to appeal to a wider audience and because every other local competition seems to be just for Alungi, so we may as well try and improve on things.

More details to follow....

The_Gaffer · June 22, 2008, 21:58:49 CET

Skip,
I have no problem with the rules, except I would subsitute number of rods with number of lines fishing.

Jonathan · June 23, 2008, 04:55:06 CET

Skip, I agree with your line of thinking but I think that there are a few points which we need to amend to make it easier to administer:
1 I would first start by defining the species which can be caught to keep things clear and avoid something like "other unusual pelagic fish". And re other local competitions, several other trolling competitions are held locally for pelagic fish (like tumbrell, plamti, kubrit, pixxispad, pastardell, lampuki, etc) but these general competitions are held later on in the year. It is only the competitions in June & July which are restricted to alungi only.
2 Re the number of lines / rod down, I think that this is an almost impossible thing to check. How would a person know how many lines are being simultaneoulsy put down / used as spare / etc? I would either leave this penalty system out completely or at most I would just factor in the size of the boat which is a much easier thing to check / confirm.
3 Re the close of the competition, I think you had an offshore area in mind. This is OK in flat calm water but in anything above that it's not so easy to transfer a person from a boat to another to seal / count the fish and back. Perhaps a simpler idea migth be every boat will finish in the same area where it started and have like 2 finish points given that we have people coming from different areas of Malta.
These are just my ideas - of course feel free to pick and drop as you deem fit.

skip · June 23, 2008, 06:48:31 CET

Basically when the boat is checked the number of rods/hand lines is counted. No boat may carry more than it chooses to register except one spare which will be sealed with a marked cable tie and only used if a rod/reel fails and they radio in the problem that they need to change. It's not actually that hard to administer, the 'difficulty' comes if people start wanting to use hand-lines rather than rods, but just like boats are checked for fish already on board etc etc, they will be checked for the numbers of rods/reel/hand lines.

My concern is that if we just factor in the size of the boat, one is then discrminating against the boat size which isn't really the issue. The advantage that larger boats have is that they can generally put more rods/lines into the water and as I think everyone will agree that makes a huge difference.

We can define further, but pelagic fish are pelagic fish! If they are listed on fishbase accordingly then there shouldn't be any issues, but we can actually list them ourselves if that would be better.

The concern with the finish point is this: If boats are coming from the North, Central and South, where does one have the finish point that will be fair for everyone. If it's B'Bugia that's fine for the guys who berth there, but everyone else has to go out of their way to get there. If we do two finish points one south and one north, the time taken to reach the North finish point will be very different from the time taken to reach the south finish point if the majority of the fishing is being done in the south.

If someone can suggest a sheltered bay mid-way along the west coast I am all for it, perhaps somewhere like Fomm Ir-Rih. Remember that all the other competitions tend to be village/town based, ie. the B'Bugia competition etc, so there one expects boat to start and leave from that location. But with the forum is 'nationwide' so to speak!! So somehow we need to accomodate this, without over-complicating things.

The only way we can achieve this is like we are doing here, with a healthy discussion and bouncing idea's off each other, though I have to say that we see to have very limited interest so far in the competition.