How does everyone feel about changing it from a "car topper" tourney only to a "trolling motor" only trial. WE already have 4-5 air craft carries that fish. Last year we had some difficulty filling some tournies. I think this would help eliminate that. We could also pick slightly bigger places that will allow more then 10-12 boats and get more boat participating.
I think part of the allure of the car toppers is being able to go to smaller less fished bodies of water. With people in true cartoppers, I think youd see less participation on the big bodies of water, I think Id be in that camp. Just so much tougher to cover water and stay positioned in a cartopper rather than the bigger bodies.
If we have two different set of tournies for big boat/cartopper I dont see the need for the cross over.
Cartoppers are already at a disadvantage to the air craft carriers due to space and casting decks, but somewhere along the line trailered air craft carriers were ok but that was before i started fishing the cartoppers so we lived with it ....adding big boats is just piling on.
This is the kind of input I am looking for. the other 2..... zip it!!!
I would definitely rather see the cartopper trail be just that. I am fine with fishing bigger waters or smaller waters....doesn't matter. The cool thing about it is the similarity in rigs and the fact we all have the same hurdles (size, space, etc.). Just my .02...
Rich,
Believe it or not I don't think you should change much for the topper trail. I would however suggest that maybe during the off season, someone make a poll for locations next season? Ask for lake/pond suggestions from everyone, put them in the poll and take the top 15 or so suggestions from those? Obviously time is needed to give yourself or whoever volunteers to run a particular tourney time to get permits in place, so maybe keep the poll open for 20-30 days? I'm just throwing a number out there. Can be anything but should allow time for more people to be able to see it and give some input. Some folks may not log on as frequently during the "Off season", but should be able to be heard still. Just an idea or two from me.
I think personalities played a bigger part of who participated in tourneys or not and not confusion over what a cartopper is. The aircraft carriers are here to stay, trailered in or not and everyone knows it by now, except maybe some newbies. They can always be educated on that.
Ken said it in another post that "Hopefully differences can be put aside this upcoming season and more people come out to fish together". I'll add that hopefully it gets back to being just a fun way to get together and fish, putting a little extra change in your pocket at the same time once in a while, maybe seeing how you stack up against the competition in a friendly way (if stats are kept), trading tips and pointers, not being so hell bent on rules and not trying to be or compete with the Bassmaster tourney trail. Let's get away from calling people "Tournament Directors" and having labeled "Leaders", instead have simply volunteers by name, maybe even a dozen or one for each fishing location. I'm pretty sure most people have scales and bags (Yes Shawn, I said bags!) and weights can be determined pretty easily each and every time. If you want to bring slop sinks, baskets and commercial scales, more power to you, but I don't think you need it all in order to function on a whole and have fun (in any trail or group)! Or just keep it all like before and it simply say "It is what it is!". It's like anything else. People either like it or they don't and are either going to fish the main MAFF trail all of the time, some of the time or not at all.
Just my 3 1/2 cents, no criticisms here and I hope next season is a huge success for all!
P.S. I don't think any elections are necessary.
Believe it or not I don't think you should change much for the topper trail. I would however suggest that maybe during the off season, someone make a poll for locations next season? Ask for lake/pond suggestions from everyone, put them in the poll and take the top 15 or so suggestions from those? Obviously time is needed to give yourself or whoever volunteers to run a particular tourney time to get permits in place, so maybe keep the poll open for 20-30 days? I'm just throwing a number out there. Can be anything but should allow time for more people to be able to see it and give some input. Some folks may not log on as frequently during the "Off season", but should be able to be heard still. Just an idea or two from me.
I think personalities played a bigger part of who participated in tourneys or not and not confusion over what a cartopper is. The aircraft carriers are here to stay, trailered in or not and everyone knows it by now, except maybe some newbies. They can always be educated on that.
Ken said it in another post that "Hopefully differences can be put aside this upcoming season and more people come out to fish together". I'll add that hopefully it gets back to being just a fun way to get together and fish, putting a little extra change in your pocket at the same time once in a while, maybe seeing how you stack up against the competition in a friendly way (if stats are kept), trading tips and pointers, not being so hell bent on rules and not trying to be or compete with the Bassmaster tourney trail. Let's get away from calling people "Tournament Directors" and having labeled "Leaders", instead have simply volunteers by name, maybe even a dozen or one for each fishing location. I'm pretty sure most people have scales and bags (Yes Shawn, I said bags!) and weights can be determined pretty easily each and every time. If you want to bring slop sinks, baskets and commercial scales, more power to you, but I don't think you need it all in order to function on a whole and have fun (in any trail or group)! Or just keep it all like before and it simply say "It is what it is!". It's like anything else. People either like it or they don't and are either going to fish the main MAFF trail all of the time, some of the time or not at all.
Just my 3 1/2 cents, no criticisms here and I hope next season is a huge success for all!
P.S. I don't think any elections are necessary.
How does everyone feel about downsizing the # of "official" tournaments. Instead of having one every other weekend, schedule 1 a month or 1 every 4 weeks and then if guys want to throw together a "pick up" event.... cool. I know i did not do a lot of "just for fun" fishing. I can really only fish every other weekend and they were all taken up with Tournaments. So we would be looking at 7 -9 tournaments instead of 12.
I don't mind the voting idea. I think its a good idea as long as the tournies are spread out geographically.
When Neil, Kenny and I put last years schedual together we took 90% of the locations from the previous season which took 90% of its locations from its previous season. We made sure to include what seemed like favorites of a lot of guys like Oldham, Upper Mystic, Boone and Horn We tried to sprinkle in some new locations taking into account, fish quality, geography and what we knew had a ramp/access like Big Sandy and Sabbatia. We tried to spread out and bring guys to the Cape and BIG smallies since it offers some of the best bass fishing in the state. That was confirmed when Ken and Scottie brought in a HUGE bag in tough conditions even if they were all Largies haha. I would like to see us spread our wings and continue to find new and challenging places to fish even if it means you have an hour+ ride to and from a great pond.
When Neil, Kenny and I put last years schedual together we took 90% of the locations from the previous season which took 90% of its locations from its previous season. We made sure to include what seemed like favorites of a lot of guys like Oldham, Upper Mystic, Boone and Horn We tried to sprinkle in some new locations taking into account, fish quality, geography and what we knew had a ramp/access like Big Sandy and Sabbatia. We tried to spread out and bring guys to the Cape and BIG smallies since it offers some of the best bass fishing in the state. That was confirmed when Ken and Scottie brought in a HUGE bag in tough conditions even if they were all Largies haha. I would like to see us spread our wings and continue to find new and challenging places to fish even if it means you have an hour+ ride to and from a great pond.
I like the points aspect and TOC. It created some good hearted jawing at the ramp.
Voting and nominating places would be great. As well, a bit more diversity in locations would be better...
I am happy to volunteer to help out on aspect of the Trail, if needed.
Ron
Voting and nominating places would be great. As well, a bit more diversity in locations would be better...
I am happy to volunteer to help out on aspect of the Trail, if needed.
Ron
The only negative I see with voting is having people vote who will either never fish a tourney or fish just a few.We will end up with 2 or 3 times the votes as we do boats fishing. Now you have peoples votes counting who have little or nothing to do with the trail. Maybe have those who fish a majority last year vote? Do the same at the end of next year and so on?
That's not fair to do. People's circumstances change. Maybe those who fished 2 seasons ago couldn't fish this past season for whatever reason, but fully intend to fish the upcoming season and vice versa, those who fished this year may not be able to fish next season and that wouldn't be fair to have them vote for all. We gotta keep the main board tourneys and any decisions regarding it open for all to decide, not just a few. MAFF belongs to ALL members and ALL members should decide. Make tourneys every week and those who want to fish them will fish the ones they wish too, closer to their homes or not. Just my opinion and not trying to start an argument, but I can't believe I'm alone on that thought?
That's not fair to do. People's circumstances change. Maybe those who fished 2 seasons ago couldn't fish this past season for whatever reason, but fully intend to fish the upcoming season and vice versa, those who fished this year may not be able to fish next season and that wouldn't be fair to have them vote for all. We gotta keep the main board tourneys and any decisions regarding it open for all to decide, not just a few. MAFF belongs to ALL members and ALL members should decide. Make tourneys every week and those who want to fish them will fish the ones they wish too, closer to their homes or not. Just my opinion and not trying to start an argument, but I can't believe I'm alone on that thought?
I agree......to an extent haha I think somehow limiting voting to folks who have been involved in the tourneys in the last few years. If we just put up thread with a bunch of lakes and ask people to pick their top 5 and post them we get an idea if they are coming from people that actually participate one way or another.
That's not fair to do. People's circumstances change. Maybe those who fished 2 seasons ago couldn't fish this past season for whatever reason, but fully intend to fish the upcoming season and vice versa, those who fished this year may not be able to fish next season and that wouldn't be fair to have them vote for all. We gotta keep the main board tourneys and any decisions regarding it open for all to decide, not just a few. MAFF belongs to ALL members and ALL members should decide. Make tourneys every week and those who want to fish them will fish the ones they wish too, closer to their homes or not. Just my opinion and not trying to start an argument, but I can't believe I'm alone on that thought?
I agree......to an extent haha I think somehow limiting voting to folks who have been involved in the tourneys in the last few years. If we just put up thread with a bunch of lakes and ask people to pick their top 5 and post them we get an idea if they are coming from people that actually participate one way or another.
I agree with this^. My only concern is how many tournies of the past 2 years should be considered? Last year we had 31 different teams fish. Of those 31 only 9 made 50% of the tournies. only 15 teams made 25% of the tournies. That means 16 teams fished 2 or less tournies. I dont want guys who fished 3 tournies taking part in deciding where we fish 12. Thats not fair to the guys who fish a majority of them.
This is why voting for sites may not work. I did not think a bad job was done last year or the year before or the year before that. I don't remember voting being done then.
if you look at the tournies from last year, we had 5 SE mass tournies, we had 2 north shore and 5 metro west tournies. Id like to see 1-2 more Northshore tournies to even it out.