I'm all for it Rick and I'm sure allot of others would be too as long as there are no rules against it (F & G are strange about some of this stuff) or any other problems we can't overcome. If it's OK all around you need to think up some ground rules, how about a date with Paris as 1st prize, LOL.

I think a few of the web site members had a small contest/Derby thingy last year ???

RFP had an Armada type on get together biggest fish won something, but I can't remember who won or what the prize was, LOL. But we had fun and had a great meal afterwards where at AJ works.

John S.

John, surerly you jest! PARIS?? as in France?? You must mean Suncook!! A true bastion of French culture on this side of the pond!

Rick and I chatted about this idea the other night. I think this one will be legal for us to do, but I'm gonna send emails to the correct people today, to make sure.
Hoping this might be a way to get more people involved on the board. Maybe some of the "lurkers" will come out of hiding? Would be nice to see/hear from a larger portion of the "viewing crowd".
I also thought maybe instead of a downloadeable 8.5x11" paper... maybe anyone interested in being a part of this "just for fun" tourney could buy one of Travis and AJs new fishlakewinni decals (the one that has a ruler built into it). This way, you just hold up your fish next to the decal and snap a quick pic... no time wasted trying to get exactly six feet away with the camera. This will help us get the fish back in the water as fast as possible. (Using the new fishwinni decal also lets everyone know the fish was caught this year.)
Remember, we'd only be measuring large fish. Maybe we should set a minimum length per species? We'd be trying to do as little harm to the fish as possible by not measuring more fish than necessary.
Any thoughts... anybody? Good, bad or indifferent???

Here's a copy of the quick email I sent to Fish and Games Law Division...

A group of us, at fishlakewinni.com message board, would like to know if it would be legal to have a "just for fun" fishing tournament during the summer season?
What we propose to do is:
Fish for lake trout, rainbow and land locked salmon, in the state of NH, following ALL game laws for the given body of water. Any fish we catch that we believe would be larger than the previous "#1" fish caught by a friend, in the matching category, would be held up next to a ruler and photographed. At this point, the angler would either release the fish unharmed or keep it as part of his/her daily allowance. We will be asking that anyone planning to release a fish does not let the fish touch the ruler and that they take all normal precautions to do as little harm to the fish as possible... (ie: wet hands first, don't drop fish, photo as quick as possible, etc.)
There would be no prizes involved... just bragging rights.
We are hoping this simple "tournament" would create more talk between the members of the board, as well as get more of the "website lurkers" to get involved.
We feel there is nothing different going on with this simple tournament than would normally happen with these larger fish. We believe a very large percentage of anglers would be taking pictures of these larger catches even without this "tournament".
Please inform me/us with the legality of this idea.
Thank you very much for your time. Craig Butler

Not to throw a curve on the photo/ruler idea which is an excellent idea for length, but are we going to look for longest fish or heaviest ???

Fish and Game would benefit from the data collected too.

John S.

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Replying to:

Rick and I chatted about this idea the other night. I think this one will be legal for us to do, but I'm gonna send emails to the correct people today, to make sure.
Hoping this might be a way to get more people involved on the board. Maybe some of the "lurkers" will come out of hiding? Would be nice to see/hear from a larger portion of the "viewing crowd".
I also thought maybe instead of a downloadeable 8.5x11" paper... maybe anyone interested in being a part of this "just for fun" tourney could buy one of Travis and AJs new fishlakewinni decals (the one that has a ruler built into it). This way, you just hold up your fish next to the decal and snap a quick pic... no time wasted trying to get exactly six feet away with the camera. This will help us get the fish back in the water as fast as possible. (Using the new fishwinni decal also lets everyone know the fish was caught this year.)
Remember, we'd only be measuring large fish. Maybe we should set a minimum length per species? We'd be trying to do as little harm to the fish as possible by not measuring more fish than necessary.
Any thoughts... anybody? Good, bad or indifferent???

Rick is good friends with Paris Hilton, my sugestion was a date with her cold be the 1st prize. And yes it was in jest as most (not all) of my post are.

John S.

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John, surerly you jest! PARIS?? as in France?? You must mean Suncook!! A true bastion of French culture on this side of the pond!

Hey Craig, Anyone ever told you that you should run for office???? The way you talk and write (kudos to the wife as she is a teacher LOL) that you'd make a great politician??????? LOL Excuse me Senator Slipknot could you please repeat that LMAO Take Care God Bless LOL Dave From Up North

No... but I've heard I'm a great bulls---er... hey, maybe thats the same thing?

Yes, John, it would be length not weight. Too much risk to a salmonid to hook its jaw or gill plate and weigh it. The weight of hanging vertically can badly harm a fish.
We're hoping with the right precautions... pictures can be safe enough and quick enough to allow a safe release of the fish.

Sounds good,length only.

Politician my a-, allthough you need to be one sometimes, I hope the politicians found some money for F and G.

John S.

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Replying to:

No... but I've heard I'm a great bulls---er... hey, maybe thats the same thing?

Yes, John, it would be length not weight. Too much risk to a salmonid to hook its jaw or gill plate and weigh it. The weight of hanging vertically can badly harm a fish.
We're hoping with the right precautions... pictures can be safe enough and quick enough to allow a safe release of the fish.

i cant see anything wrong with it as long as its all season long, its just what we would have done if there were no tounament. on a bbq forum we did a year long photocontest a few years in a row, i came in second with this shot of my dad, the subject was goobers (people in action doing their thing). it was pretty interesting seeing what was posted for the different categories. it had 4 categories and each person on the forum could only submit 1 photo per category.

Is that a right ventral clip? Was that from the Conn. Lakes?

i think that one has both fins clipped, sebago does left, right, both, and top back nub. havent ever seen a year chart there.