The website with the rules is up: http://www.northtexaskayaktrail.com/

I wanted to get everything up for now so people can begin to read the rules. I'll get it a little better looking in the next few weeks.

I'll answer any questions that you may have regarding the series and rules.

Thanks.

Looks good, I'm jealous that I can't participate. Hope all goes well.

Josh,

The site looks GREAT!

Great start! Can't wait for the picture section to start filling up!

Looks good Josh, very thorough... Did notice that in the picture criteria it doesn't stipulate a direction the fish must be facing... In many tournaments they require the head pointing left, tail right etc... Not saying that you should change it, but it does make it easier to judge if everyone's on the same page about that. Also, you don't mention anything about the tail. Am I to take that to mean that it's okay to 'pinch'? If that's not expressly prohibited then someone will probably do it, others won't... Could skew the results in ways that doesn't necessarily reward the best fish... Most tourneys I've seen call for the tail in a 'natural' lay position, which means if you squeezed it and stretched it before the pic you'll be penalized...

Excellent job again... You've thought of more than I would've considered... I only mention the above points because I've seen them be issues on other tourneys before...

Thanks for the input. I'll probably make those changes. As for the pinching the tail I guess I thought I had that covered with this "No hands or devices over, on, or stretching the mouth or tail fins.", but I'll make it more clear.

I also created a little flyer to hopefully put up at a bunch of kayak spots. If anyone wants one to hand out let me know.

Josh looks great!

Will need some flyers wish i had some last weekend, have several events coming up so flyers would be good. I can print just need the flyer.

Can not wait

Great website and flyer !!!! How can I get some ?

Looks great Josh! I too would like to get a few flyers to put up where I make my rounds.

I cant wait for this. Great job! I know that this is the first year for this but based on feedback you have recieved do you have an idea of how many anglers to expect for each event?

I'm there... This is great. Bass only?

Great looking site Josh. I noticed in the lure description it says something about only comercially available baits allowed. I know some people are taking pleasure in pouring their own plastics an making their own artifical baits. Are these not going to be allowed?

Sorry for not responding sooner, but I've been in Oklahoma since Friday.

I added additional photo criteria brought up by gutcheck that I feel are necessary:

Photo Criteria
g. Fish must be facing to the left.

h. No pinching of the tail is allowed. Measure the fish as it naturally lies on the measuring board.

Also, I added a minimum age of 13 for eligible anglers.

If you're interested in distributing flyers please PM me with your address and how many and I will mail them to you.


No clue, but the feedback has been more than I anticipated.


Yes, Bass only. No sand Bass.


Correct, you are not allowed to fish with personal hand poured plastics or lures.

Neumie , when and where can I pick up some flyers ?

I will try to print some out tomorrow. If you're interested in having some flyers, please PM and we can arrange a meet up or I can mail them. Thanks. I want to try and keep this thread for questions regarding rules and what-not. Thanks.

Bumpage

Bring plenty by the store. We will be glad to put them out and promote the trail.

Will do Mike.

I'll have to get ahold of Todd and figure out if he is going to attend any of these tournaments. I will be trying my hardest to make it down there, seems like a blast Josh. I can not wait to get a chance to get my fish on with you all.

I hope to make one or all of these.....

I'll go to as many as I can if not all.

Josh, I have a problem.....when I use the Hawg Trough setting on my lap and using my camera, I can only photo up to 22"!! What happens when I get that 24"er?? :-)

Oh, I think you'll be able to find a way.

I am really looking forward to these events, should be lots of fun.

A addition of a fish eye lens should do it. That is if it's needed LOL.

That would mean you need to learn to bass fish...

Josh,

I don't see anything regarding attractants or dies for the commercial lures. Spike it dip-n-dye for soft plastics also adds a scent or using some other gel on the soft plastics to make the fish hold on longer. Will this be legal or not?

I'm glad you mentioned this. Please do not use fisheye lens on your camera.



As long as it's commercially available it's OK with me.

Josh the case has nothing to do with the lens of the go pro.

Might have to go the bank and photo it.

Does anyone have a photo of a fish on a measuring stick using their GoPro camera that they don't mind posting? I'm worried about distortion on the edges when taking such close pictures.

Oh I'm sure my money will be just as welcome as those that know how to fish!

You mean you have to know how to fish? Dang that puts me at a disadvantage. Ha! Do I have to bring my own fishing gear too?

You know Neumie, just throwing this out there: maybe a thread that shows examples of what you (the judge) deem acceptable (and unacceptable) in terms of the pics wouldn't be a bad idea some time before the tourneys. Having a visual referent for what it is you're looking for might help people out, especially if they haven't done much of this type of thing before.

Here's an example: the top fish was actually pushing 24, but you can see that the measuring stick doesn't really show that. Not sure how that fish would be 'scored'. The second fish was shorter, but a much better pic with clearer measurements visible. Not absolutely perfect though, since the tail is off-center. Someone judging these two fish probably ends up either tossing the first pic or not giving it the correct credit because they have no other choice. It also shows how different measuring sticks stack up to one another.





Question? Would you penalize the fish below for having a 'pinched' or unnatural tail lay? There was actually something wrong with that fish's tail that caused it to lay like that, and try as I may I couldn't fan it out in a more natural position. But I was glad I caught a better fish when in this particular tourney because I myself would have given some kind of deduction or penalty if I had been judging.



This last one's a pretty good one it seems to me.

In my opinion (not that it matters) three of the four are acceptable fish. The first could not count unless you want to make a minimum for any fish caught bc you cant see any numbers on the measuring stick. The second is a clear 20 3/4, the third is 19 1/2 and the fourth is 20 1/2. I think when you enter a CPR tournament you take on the responsability of taking good photos of your fish. This is why its a good idea to practice taking pics while your pre-fishing for the tourney. Just my $.02

So are you just trying to brag? LOL.

#1 I will not score that fish. There are no clear markers nor is there anything for the fish's mouth to touch on the 0" mark.

#2 Looks good to me.

#3 This brings up something I haven't thought about. I don't want to disqualify the fish, but I don't want to award it full length because it could have been pinched prior to the photo. I will think about this some over the next few days.

#4 Looks good to me.


I want to post pics of correctly photographed fish for the tournament but there are some problems;
#1 I suck at bass fishing

and

#2 I've only hit the water 3 time since announcing the tournament, none of which for bass. (mainly trout in the Brazos)

BTW, I enjoy the constructive criticism from this thread and those in the past. keep them coming guys.

Generally,from what I have seen a pinched tail only gains a person about 3/8" I would think that or 1/2" deduction would be reasonable and fair.

Well depending on the fish you can get as much as a half inch by pinching IMO... But 3/8 is about right most of the time... Multiply that over 5 fish and you get two more inches... I can promise you that tourneys have been won/lost with much less than that...

True, a penalty should be assessed that makes you not want to do it.

What about the open mouth on #2 and #3? That adds about 1/2 inch.

I'm OK with that as almost every CPR tournament allows it. No tournaments allow pinching of the tail and call for the fish's tail to "naturally lay".

Josh, what's up with the web site?

TPW measures length for legality by simply closing mouth and pinching tail. AT least that way nothing can be prepped before the pic and everyone gets the same ( if any) advantage.

just sayin

It's a work in progress......


I understand the rules from TPWD, but since we're not keeping fish I want to make the judging easier on myself. I'm just following the footsteps of most of the past CPR tournaments.

Not trying to stir the pot here, but yesterday while Shaun and I were at Crockett, he caught a fish that he didn't think was long enough for the 16 inch minimum in Kayak Wars. I asked him if he had opened the mouth. I know Shaun, like me, has been participating in the challenges at KBF in the last 6-8 months and I figured he was documenting the fish the way they are required on that site: mouth closed. Sure enough, he opened up the mouth and the fish went over the mark (I did the same myself several times, since Kayak Wars deems that acceptable for making the minimum). I ended up taking a before and after of one of the fish I caught and here's the results...

mouth closed - 16.50


mouth open - 17.00


This got me to thinking... OK, opening the mouth gives this fish a half inch 'push'. Is that really such a big deal? I also did it with some smaller fish and noticed that it was a smaller 'push', which makes sense: the smaller the mouth/jaw, the smaller the added 'push' becomes. Of course, the opposite would be true on a bigger fish. So on a 22 inch fish you could be seeing a push of as much as an inch conceivably, though I can't confirm that until I actually do it with a fish of that size (hope I can remember to do that next time I catch one that big, knock on wood)....

I then decided to look at the results of last year's KATS tourney in Austin to see if 1/2 inch over 5 fish (2.5 inches) was the difference between any of the finishers in a given single tourney. I couldn't find results for one specific tourney in a straightforward format, but I did find this results page for all five tourneys and the Angler of the Year thing they have (best total inches over three of the five tourneys). Wow! those were close! There was a tie for second place! So that means that if just one of 15 possible fish used in calculating this DOES NOT have a mouth open pic, then the other guy wins hands down! This is over three tourneys cumulative, not even one! And if one doesn't do it for all 15 possible fish? The difference is 7 1/2 inches. You can look at the KATS RESULTS HERE to see what I mean.

Ok, to the point... NOT TRYING TO MAKE A CASE FOR MOUTH OPEN OR MOUTH CLOSED AS A RULE... Think both have their pros and cons. Actually think mouth open probably makes the most sense, just as long as everyone knows that it is the rule. Sometimes fish just don't want to close their mouths. Getting them to open them, though, is usually pretty easy...

Anyways, enough of my rambling... Just thought it was interesting to see how something as small as this could make such a big difference....

Make perfect since to me. Close mouth would be better. I just need to catch something.

I agree. I think open mouth is easier and if a picture has a closed mouth it should count and not be disqualified but the angler just lost some on the measurement which could made a difference at the end.

mouth closed is my vote

Really? Not when I put a lure in front of them!

Most tournaments use a closed mouth, but I am ok with either as long as the rules state it does not matter but a good point since it is a picture.

Nice job gutcheck, do not think 99% of most people would have ever noticed, I did not think it would have made that much of a differance

Man I wanna move back to gainesville now
Now that I leave there is a kayak trail!!!

The fish will be scored regardless if the mouth is opened or closed.

Scoring the fish with the mouth closed.....

Spiny I think I could get a extra .250 on that fish.

You guys are a tuff crowd, are stretchers allowed,

NEGATIVE! This is a catch-photo-release tourny!

Could someone clairify a rule for me? Under launchin point it states "you may launch from any public launch site on the tournament lake" and "watercraft may be launched at any legal and public launch site on the boundry waters of that particular even". Does this have to be a designated launch point or can I pull over from any public road and launch as long as I do not access any private roads or land?

Thanks

Good question... Is putting in at a bridge that isn't technically a ramp ok?

I was wondering the same. Specially for ray bob. There are places I wanna go but can't peddle there from a ramp. It would take all day. Neumie....

lol... All of our secret locations will probably end up being the same spot.

Josh....Whats your call on this?

Your right N.Tex_paddler it sounds like a lot of us are going to be at the same place.

I do not see any minimum distance which is usually 50 yards unless hailed, with exceptions for passage if the navigable water is too narrow. In other words some guy can't block you from passing him on the creek as long as you don't fish within 50 yards of him.

Sorry guys, I've been at a bachelor party for the weekend.

You may launch anywhere that is considered public access. Even if it's where a road crosses the lake. Basically, you're not allowed to launch from your buddy's house on the lake.

now if we could just get the a-rig legal to use.....

That would be nice.

Not happening.

I have to go with Neumie on this one. I have an A-rig but I dont thing its right for competition. Plus, I would have to have one of you guys ice my shoulder at the weigh in.

Can entrance fee be paid at check in?

Will I be DQed if I use my A rig as an anchor?

Lol.

Thanks for that clarification.

Well I can tell you guys right now that not going to be one of the favorites on this body of water. Yesterday I stunk it up.

I will collect the tournament entry fees at check in Saturday morning. Please remember to bring the exact amount in cash to make it go as smoothly as possible.

$25 for the entry
$30 if you want to participate in the Big Bass Side pot.

Feel the same way Rob. As I said once before: I'll be ecstatic if I can put together five fish of any length on Saturday. That lake has yet to be kind to me.

Same here unfortunately. I've got two new spots I'm gonna try but if not I'll go to the one spot I've had some luck at and hopefully will be able to pull a few out. I have a feeling this will be a very close tourny unless someone really gets into them.

dude i just hope I get a limit. I caught one bass and one catfish. Tried another spot and the wind was rocking so bad that I didn't get a chance to fish that long and that spot is where I'll probably fish this weekend. Just hope the wind isn't as bad. I honestly have no clue! I really think its a little early for RR.

I shook off 2 good bites 3/11 on fresh grass fishing slow but that was with 53 degree water temps, hindsight I should have stuck one to make sure it was not catfish. I am hoping that spot is turned on this weekend with higher temps and continuous south winds.

I'm with you guys. We need the wind to be a little closer to 10mph just for that day. I have found a good concentration of fish and hope that my decision to fly fish works.

Looks like my weekend plans maybe cancelled. So,I maybe able to fish this afterall! Crossing my fingers and my toes.

Please click on the link

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...CHA#Post7312950