I think they should
#1 Bring back the boats for Prizes ( Need to get the sponsors to donate of course ) And winners should be charged on the actual Reasonable price the can buy them for, retail is rediculas.either that or also include the tax money with the boat.
#2 Make a kids catagory for Lake trout and one for Salmon, and totally seperate from the adults. Plus change the age to under 18 years old, if you not old enough to vote wheather you have to pay for a license or not you should be in the kids catagory.
#3 The legal limit is two fish per day you should be able to register two fish and if those fish happen to make it in the money then they should be able to win both prizes they are in line to win. This bologna about you can only win one prize is CRAZY If a guy checks in the largest Laker and the largest Salmon then he should win both top prizes period.
#4 The derby should stay the three days ending at noon and having the ceromonies for all three days after the derby is over at about 3 o-clock giving anglers a chance to get there boats out of the water.Plus they can stay fishing right up until the 2 hours after sunset, which the weigh stations stay open one hour atfer legal fishing time making the fish caught that day be eligible for prizes that day this would allow the luicky angler a chance to register fish he catches the next day to count for that day as well.
#5 make the grab bags more interesting not the same old stuff in every bag year after year. throw some gift cards or something in amongst the bags to really make it interesting.
And last but not least have the grand prize for each catagory recieve the largest of prizes ,however make the prizes below that win prizes at random meaning fifth place could win a better prize than say second, and tenth place could win a better prize than fourteeth this cuts down on any cheating, because then you don't know what prizes you are going to win it is all random, which I feel is much better. An example would be the Brainard ice fishing derby check out the site below you will see what I mean.
and that's about it. just my .02
