thanks for doing this Trav...I was going to gather my thoughts and do the same thing but since you volunteered...
I agree 100% with Scott on his first suggestion about time to stop fishing. The two best times to fish any day are first and last light. While we can continue to legally fish until 1 hour after sunset, we lose the ability to check those fish.
I also agree with increasing the minimum weight to 21". This will have positive impact in retaining many 20 inch fish in the lake and some "big 19s" that get brought in just in case they can be "stretched". I'm not sure a slot limit is where we want to go....you want to win with a big fish, not just a random average sized fish.
The $100 daily prizes randomly chosen from everyone who registered a fish. Should go to a random drawing of all ticket holders at the awards. This would increase attendance, give those who aren't doing well a chance to win something AND not encourage checking a low qualifying fish just for the "lottery ticket" (which I don't think happened this year but it could easily turn as word spreads about this prize).
I've asked a couple of times for posting "top 10" fish in each category on the website. They said they announce it on the radio but I have 3 problems with that:
1.) how do we know it's authoritative and not someone trying to get you to toss back your 3.71# fish?
2.) if you don't have a radio, you have no news
3.) if you miss the announcement, you won't know the weights.
By putting it on the Website (including the time posted), anyone with a smartphone can check anytime. Also the only weight that matters is the LOWEST weight as we are trying to prevent killing fish that are out of the prizes.
