I fished a local club tournament last weekend as a guest boater. The club member who invited me is in-between boats so he was my back seat. The format as explained to me was that it was an individual event, we would each weigh in our own fish (5 fish limit each). At the weigh in, we did just that. Here is where I got confused..... They use a draw system for matching boaters with non boaters within the club for each tournament. Sometimes the numbers are odd and someone fishes the event alone. All good, however.... In this case, the lone angler weighed his fish in and then was awarded additional "ghost weight" (half of his actual weight) for not having a non-boater available to fish with him. I feel like this was blending individual and team formats and created a huge advantage for the lone competitor.

I'm not at all bashing the club or anything, they are all great folks and it was a good time. I was just a little confused with the format. Am I missing something?

Ghost weight? Thats maybe the craziest format I've ever heard, unless your just running new water alll day the person with a non-boater is at a disadvantage. It would maybe make sense if it was a shared weight format but the way you explain it, it was not.

that might have been for a side pot which combines both the anglers in the boat which I'd guess you were not in.

Our B.A.S.S. club format weighed individually in order to award club points per member; however, both front and back seater weights were combined afterward to determine the actual tourn. finishing order and payouts. Someone fishing solo was awarded ghost points to allow them to still be competitive in the tournaments final finishing order.

Maybe that's what you experienced.

That would make more sense, but the payouts were awarded to individuals for individual weights. In this case he took 1st with his individual weight plus 50% ghost.

That makes no sense at all.

Maybe find a different club...

If anything he should be penalized weight by being alone. He didn’t have to compete with a coangler catching his fish.

If it was team weight and all he got was HALF of his own weight that certainly isnt a advantage....

I agree with T Bird, what you have described makes no sense at all.

Did everyone get a little participation star sticker too?

You have our attention. Please get clarification because this sounds like a sham!

So if he caught 12 pounds, he then gets an additional ghost 6 for a total of 18 pounds? I think you're misunderstanding something.