Specie Comp Results

[Sam]

dad has asked me to put on can those people who fished the competition on sunday send through their score sheets

 

so far we have Paul Dores, Mark Bessant and Gordon Moore

 

dad has to post them to the bfm by sunday

 

thanks

 

sam

[Coddy]

Sam

 

I sent them to your dads email address last night, Tuesday, if not got them what email address to use?

 

Coddy

[great white]

Dave can you re send to wchapman212@ntlworld.com

 

I think I had better change my email address because my one only seems to work a small percentage of the time

 

cheers

 

I will post when I receive it

 

Charlie

[Coddy]

Hi Charlie

 

Resent to email you supplied.

 

I dont think there is too much for others to worry about from me!

 

Coddy

[great white]

thanks Dave all received

 

reply on route

 

Charlie

[great white]

Hi all

 

Just to keep everyone in the picture, I only received 5 sets of results from the last species comp.

 

While that does not pose a problem for the Club comp and the scores will count for that one.

 

It does give me a problem with the BFM comp, where a minimum of 10 anglers must fish.

Unfortunatly the deadline of a week has passed so I was unable to send in a results card.

 

We do not have to pre book which 4 comps we use and there is still time to get two more in. the next 2 will now be the August species comp and the September Ray/Flatfish comp.

 

I feel sorry for those that took part last time, especially those that fished hard to catch 8 species and Gordon who won and would have maintained good points in the BFM.

 

I find it hard to believe that with the Club growing so big we can not get 10 anglers fishing. I have received no real feedback as to why that is and would welcome some please.

 

Charlie

 

 

 

 

[pegleg]

I'D HAVE A GO.......If someone would take me. Jas

[TomBettle]

Charlie

 

I for one fish for enjoyment and do not base my fishing diary around club competitions, more around when I have time off.

 

The only competition I will actively try and keep my diary open for is the Club Open other than that it is just for fun.

 

If a competition was so relaxed that you could fish on any day between X date and Y date, within club waters and call in your catch then I may well be tempted into doing more.

 

Tom

[Newboy]

Well said. Many of us actually fish for fun and some of us just can't fish on a Sunday. Although I'd love to do it every Sunday.

[pegleg]

WELL SAID TOM... I AGREE......i'm just desperate to get out on the water and catch some fish. I'm not really into comps.....people just take it too seriously. It got too serious when i used to be in a pool team......I wanted to have a laugh and socialise, but my team players thought that their life revolved around winning. JUST ENJOY Jas

[Paul D]

Agreed with the fact that some take it too seriously, however you don't need to take it seriously to succeed.

 

When I fish I have no problems with not "winning" etc. ( with James around you need to ), however, in a species comp it is possible to be in the running whilst fishing for fun ( I went bass fishing for the last one and if I had caught a solitary mullet I would have won it without really trying too hard.. )

 

Ditto, the 48 hr comp, fished this for 2-3 hours on the Friday and caught a fantastic bream.

 

What I found personally disappointing is that we could have club members in the running to win a fantastic prize in the BFM ( and after all James achieved it ) and the only reason we could fail to do this will be because not enough members bother to put in an entry for a competition that only involves recording what they caught that day. Not asking for much surely ?

 

 

[Coddy]

I thought I would add my two pennies worth here.

 

Since being relatively new to both the club and fishing area I never expect to win but use the exercise to learn new fishing methods, locations and methods.

 

I fished the last club comp and did better than I did in the last comp, which is pleasing for me as I caught more and different species.

 

I fish for fun, very rarely keep any fish but enjoy the fun, camaraderie, boating and learning new skills.

 

I had the dubious task of running a species comp for another group of friends this year and "borrowed" the club's format and from the comments fed back it seemed to be very fair and good fun especially when trying to get that 4th fish for the bonus point.

 

So, if you want to take comp's seriously you can, if you like a bit of fun and trying out your skills have a go, even if you only get a couple of fish it is all a learning game. Just ask how long the Bass gods have been at it to get the respect they have on their favourite target.

 

I would like to try a night session for Sole, but it is just finding the time, weather and availability of it all for me.

 

Off my small soap box now

 

Coddy

[Swainiac]

Lads....................try catching ten of each species, then your pounts are worth every ounce of effort!!!

 

The Weakest Link

[TomBettle]

Guys, you are missing the point.

 

It isn't so much the competitiveness of it, when I fish a comp it is for fun, if I win great, if I lose, who cares.

 

It is simply about finding time to fish when te comps are on.

 

A lot of us (actually me) work a lot of weekends, when I am not working I like to spend time with my daughter and my fishing tends to be in little bursts of two or three days at a time when I have a break.

These little bursts rarely co-incide with a comp.

 

I am sure not everyone has exactly the same situation as me, but I would guess that many are similar with families, FPO's, jobs around the house, building boats etc etc etc.

 

Brings me back to the flexibility of saying, "This months competition will be fished on any day between the 18th and 25th, a maximum of 8 hours fishing, please call in with the day you are fishing and then again with your results."

 

Our club comps are almost exclusively trust based so why can't this work?

It even allows for duff weather.

 

Tom

[Adam F]

All good points chaps and you can alter the comp format all you like - fact is that you will never please everyone.

 

If we adopted Tom's suggestion, the anglers who like the 'competition' side of the current format, going out all together and a bit of mettle in the day would be dissapointed.

 

The format has worked for several years now, it is just this year that it seems to have slowed up.

 

I know not everyone can fish Sunday's, but overall it must be the easist day for average joe to fish - work all week, sat with the family /choes etc and Sunday for fishing.

 

As Charlie said, the club is now the biggest its ever been and the attendance is at the lowest - and to be honest if we look at the attendees they are pretty much the same (bar one or two) as the previous years, so is the problem getting new members to fish the comps?

 

Adam

[Paul J]

You don't see many new members entering- i think the problem lies here.

 

if a few regulars take a day off this is what happens.

 

ps i sent my results via the website, it doesn't look like it was received

 

PJ

[TomBettle]

I am trying to answer the question as one of the new members who isn't fishing comps rather than a longer term member who fish them and can't understand why others don't want to or haven't got the time to.

 

XXXXXX

 

 

Just a guess, but isn't Sunday's the actual day for the family.....?

 

Sunday lunch, Mothers Day (Didn't we stop a trail away for that this year), Granny coming over, mowing the lawn etc etc.

 

Adam you hit the nail on the head.

"and to be honest if we look at the attendees they are pretty much the same (bar one or two) as the previous years, "

 

 

It is generaly the same people entering as they either 1) have the time to come out and fish for the fun of it

or 2) are competitive spirits.

 

The lower turn out is that people are particularly excited by comps. In addition, the club has very successfully gained membership by promoting itself as a very good place to learn about safety, fishing in general and comaradary. The people joining (myself included) joined for the above, not to fish loads of competitions.

 

Tom

 

 

[Adam F]

Take your point Tom, but I am trying to look at it from a more 'global' perspective.

 

Sunday is traditionally the day to go fishing, all coarse fishing comps are on Sunday's for example - that doesnt mean it is in stone, just the tradition.

 

Sure it is still the old hard core, but the point I am making is that the same 5-10 people seem to fish each month, these were members when the club had only 60 members, now we have double that it hasnt changed.

 

It was the same this year with the 48hr comp - the lowest turnout for years - we even had flexible fishing times oevr 3 days, prizes and a specimen, not species format.

 

I feel the clubs direction has moved due to the forums / website influence - not that this is a bad thing, but we now have members with a different motive - all of the evidence above also backs this up.

 

Members used to join with the main motive to get out with other, fish the comps, and get together once a month - not saying that they dont anymore, but now the main driver in many cases is to join the club to meet others, use the forum in more depth and gain experiance and knowledge - neither is wrong, just a change in attitudes.

 

Not meant to sound like a soap box job, its not, its just my optinion.

 

Adam

[lady jane]

from a personal point of view most of my fishing is on a Saturday or a day in the week if a job is cancelled.

would it be possible to try and get feedback in regards of numbers of people who would rather fish a Saturday so that the people concerned could perhaps give it a try ?

 

cheers andy

 

(please note this is only an idea)

[charlieannear]

Feel like I'm being a bit told off as one of those new members who hasn't entered a comp! So here's my take on the situation, which is a bit like Tom's really.

 

Unfortunately it's a combination of weather, work and other responsilbilities.

 

As we all know the weather was crap for a long period at the start of the year.

For me that meant I had a lot of jobs backing up- not least of all sorting out my restoration project!

 

This means that when the weather has been OK I have been boat restoring (there's always more to do than you first think) or doing general DIY, or storing up some Brownie points (I have a decent number in the account now)

 

Plus I'm a novice fisher (with a capital N. And a capital OVICE for that matter ) So I haven't offered myself to accompany anyone else on a comp day for fear of getting in the way.

 

I do really intend to get out more in the future, once the boat is finished, I've got some tackle and half a clue what to do with it, and the sea is really, really flat!

 

I manage to make it to the club meetings though!

[Gnasher]

i would love to fish them all, but im another who works every sunday and has other commitments. But if i was to fish, i would take it seriously. The idea of the comp, is to give your mate a good whooping, get sum bfm points, and have the possibility of a bloody good prize at the end. Thats why the likes of James and a few others fish their nuts off, as he knows first hand of the rewards that it can bring.

 

We should maybe 'big' the event up prior. maybe a pic of the winner of each event on the home page just to show everyone that comps are important. But for the likes of myself who work sundays, it aint ever gonna make a differance, but there has to be ways of advertising the comp to our members better. Need something more 'in your face'

 

 

[great white]

Thanks for the comments guys please keep them coming so that The Committee and I have some ideas on what you think.

 

The competition times have been opened up recently to cater for peoples other commitments, tides etc, so we hope that has helped

 

But I feel that completly opening them up to any time /date loses the focus on a competition, is it not the point to all be out in simular conditions/tides etc and see who does best on the day.

 

If you record the fish caught on any day that you can escape your other commitments to go fishing , when you manage to tease out that elusive "Fish of a Lifetime"you are allready eligable for a lot of Club trophies.

Fish of the month and most species have a trophy for best fish of the year.

 

The way the Club competitions are going, would Members prefer not to have the monthly comps and just have these two catagories, the Open and the 48Hr ?

 

A radical move away from how the Members used to get to know each other, learn the sport gain a few marks and make friendships that have lasted the years.

 

I have delibratly not mentioned the Safety aspect of knowing who is at sea during our comps until the end. Is it the need to pre book that is putting people off??

 

I also note that it is the usual faces [Names] on here that have replied perhaps some of the newer Members would also like to give an opinion please.

 

Thanks again

 

I had better go back to boat building now

 

Charlei

[Mike Fox]

"Frisky" would have added 3 to the angling tally, but it was the start of our annual holiday, and as we got to Guernsey on Day1, we were out of club waters in one go.

 

Hope to fish the rearranged one next weekend to stay in contention!

 

Mike

[Newboy]

Most of Guernsey is club water.

[Paul D]

Most of Guernsey is club water.

Not according to the map I am looking at ( only the water to the east )