Fly Fishing Tournament

[Zach Bearden]

I agree with you OTF. That could be quite annoying to me if I went to my favorite stretch and it was full of people. An idea is to decide the stretch of river, go there, post signs for the event a couple months in advance and let the regulars have a fair chance of knowing about it. You could get more teams this way as well.

As for the money, I've only ever competed for money once. It was a local club one fly event. The first year I won 25$, and I was happpy with that. The next year they decided to go to trophies. I went and won a trophy for most fish. Looking back, I'm glad I got the trophy more than I am the money. I can sit here and see all of my previous events lined up on a shelf. I'm sure some day down the road I will have to stop competing and I'll be happy to look at that shelf and remember what I once was.

[ozark trout fisher]

I agree with you OTF. That could be quite annoying to me if I went to my favorite stretch and it was full of people. An idea is to decide the stretch of river, go there, post signs for the event a couple months in advance and let the regulars have a fair chance of knowing about it. You could get more teams this way as well.

As for the money, I've only ever competed for money once. It was a local club one fly event. The first year I won 25$, and I was happpy with that. The next year they decided to go to trophies. I went and won a trophy for most fish. Looking back, I'm glad I got the trophy more than I am the money. I can sit here and see all of my previous events lined up on a shelf. I'm sure some day down the road I will have to stop competing and I'll be happy to look at that shelf and remember what I once was.

I have a tendency to be a curmudgeon about tournaments, but then again I think I am more visualizing B.A.S.S. type events and everything that surrounds that than what you're talking about. It's still not something I would personally have a lot of interest in participating in, but I guess I really don't have a problem with it at all. Just try to do your best to let folks know what is going on so it won't be a surprise to too many folks that go down there.

Hope it works out for ya'll.

[Al Agnew]

Seems to me that if it's an open tournament, and you are going to have hefty entry fees and give out hefty prize money, and it's catch and release, you're going to have to make everybody fish with a randomly drawn partner. Otherwise, there's always a real good chance of cheating.

And if you get more than 30 or so entries (and you won't know how many entries you'll get until you get them) upper Current River is almost too small, unless you can figure out a way to spread the anglers out over the whole blue ribbon stretch. I can also envision headaches when people complain that another contestant barged into their hole, etc.

I kinda like the idea of having beats, if you can limit entries to maybe 30 anglers (15 pairs) or so. You could probably fit 15 pairs into 15 beats between the lower end of the park and a couple miles below Baptist Camp. I think it's something like 5 miles from the park to Ashley Creek, which would give you three beats between the park and Tan Vat, three between Tan Vat and Baptist, and 9 between Baptist and Ashley Creek. But you'd have to cut off entries in plenty of time, so you know how many beats you have to divide the river into. The pairs would draw for beats. You'd have to figure out some way of making sure that whoever drew the last four or so below Baptist was in good enough shape to hike down that far, though.

[Zach Bearden]

I like the idea of beats as well. Something that is a possibility is have a beat marked out and for half the time competitor A is to watch and score fish for competitor B. Once the halfway point is reached they switch. I personally wouldn't like the idea... But I'm just throwing out ideas

[Justin Spencer]

Don't really know the set up on the Current, but if we were to do one on the NFoW, I would start everyone (in canoes) above the trout water, make them race to the trout water, first come first serve on the spots. You would have to read what you think the best spots would be, and the fastest team won't neccesarily get the best spots. No way to do it on foot here, which sounds like is possible on the Current. Main thing is to have fun, I could see a real possiblity for complaints when it comes to fishing "good trout water", people will complain they got a bad beat, or someone encroached on their area, much like I tell my kids, "first one to cry loses". With the right group of guys that don't really care about winning or losing it could be a great time!

[Idylwilde]

Thank you for the ideas as this is a first time for this kind of event here. I have printed all the ideas out and I am looking at a plot map of the Current River from the Park boundaries to Cedar Grove and even to Welch Spring. What do you think about including the park fly area in it with some kind of penalty to the anglers that choose to fish it to make it fair to the ones that choose the lower Blue Ribbon area. (say a 6 fish subtraction of overall count?) I like the section off areas per team but I also like the Canoe thing also (Keep the anglers moving and not all in the easy access areas), but this is going to take some (a lot) More planing. I am talking to reps from some for the fly fishing products about sponsorship in the way of added prizes and they seem receiptive to it.

I am thinking it would be sometime in July at earliest to get this done. I am trying to work out a way for getting the word out to the Missouri fly fishing community and by the first of July have the teams in place. Thank you guys and gals for your ideas and help so far but please keep it coming. I know we can do this and make it enjoyable for everyone even the non-participating folks.

[stlfisher]

The fly fishing tournamments I have seen usually divide the river up into 3 sections. Each team fishes those sections at different times during the day. This way everyone fishes all of the water and no one camps out at one spot all day. This might be the fairest way to divide up the water.

[Trout Commander]

Don't really know the set up on the Current, but if we were to do one on the NFoW, I would start everyone (in canoes) above the trout water, make them race to the trout water, first come first serve on the spots. You would have to read what you think the best spots would be, and the fastest team won't neccesarily get the best spots. No way to do it on foot here, which sounds like is possible on the Current. Main thing is to have fun, I could see a real possiblity for complaints when it comes to fishing "good trout water", people will complain they got a bad beat, or someone encroached on their area, much like I tell my kids, "first one to cry loses". With the right group of guys that don't really care about winning or losing it could be a great time!

DO IT.

[Gavin]

Don't really know the set up on the Current, but if we were to do one on the NFoW, I would start everyone (in canoes) above the trout water, make them race to the trout water, first come first serve on the spots. You would have to read what you think the best spots would be, and the fastest team won't neccesarily get the best spots. No way to do it on foot here, which sounds like is possible on the Current. Main thing is to have fun, I could see a real possiblity for complaints when it comes to fishing "good trout water", people will complain they got a bad beat, or someone encroached on their area, much like I tell my kids, "first one to cry loses". With the right group of guys that don't really care about winning or losing it could be a great time!

That would be a hoot. Canoe race & fishing tourney!

Not sure I like the idea of an assigned beat on the Current because some stretches are allot better than others....Let folks go where the want to go but dont let them camp out on a spot.

[Idylwilde]

Here is it's shaping up so far! Good, Bad, Indifferent?

Current River Fly Fishing Tournament 2011 Rules

Start Time: 7:00 am

End Time: 5:00 Pm

Enter Fee: $25.00 per angler. Fee paid before the 7:00 am Start time.

Anglers will be divided into two man teams randomly.

No spin-cast equipment shall be used.

Each team will be on a honor system for record of catch. Each team will have a digital camera with time and date post available to log catches for each angler.

All anglers will have a valid Missouri fishing license.

All fish attracting flies will be made under the State Of Missouri definition of a Fly.

(A fly shall be constructed on a single-point hook using any material except soft plastic bait and natural and scented bait that is tied, glued, or otherwise permanently attached.)

Canoes, kayak, are optional, both team members must remain in sight of the partner while fishing.

Fish-able water boundaries will be from the cable at the head of the blue ribbon area below Montauk State Park to Akers Ferry.

All fish shall be released unharmed quickly after documented. Trout either Brown or Rainbow will be the only fish excepted as tournament qualifying species of fish.

No team will wade of fish through another anglers fishing area without permission.

No alcohol beverage will be consumed during tournament hours.

Anglers will be penalized one fish per 10 minutes late for the 5:00pm check in, Starting with the smallest fish in logged creel.

Prizes will be awarded to The heaviest fish, (Girth x Girth) x Length) / 800 = weight in pounds

(girth and length are inches).

ANY DEPATURE FROM THE RULES OR FISHING ECTHICS WILL BE GROUNDS FOR DISQUALIFICATION