Will do!

I need to re-mark mine.  The measuring board on my recent mack pic was washed out a bit.

Rob, thank you for posting this.  It's absolutely spot-on.

To add to Rob's post: AOTY participants, PLEASE take a look at your photos before you submit them.  Put yourself in the Committee's shoes and ask these questions:

1) Is the entire fish visible on the measuring board?
2) Can I see the fish's mouth and tell without a doubt that the fish's mouth is CLOSED?
3) When I zoom in on my fish's tail, can I tell without a doubt what the measurement is to the nearest 1/4 inch WITHOUT jumping to conclusions or assumptions?

If the answer is anything except "YES" to any of the above, then you probably shouldn't submit the photo.  When you submit a questionable photo to leave it up to the Committee to decide, it's a bunch of extra work for us to decipher whether the fish qualifies.  In addition to marking your troughs with a Sharpie, take sun angle/brightness into account when taking your AOTY photos.  Sometimes it can make all the difference in the world if you just turn your bow in a slightly different direction to eliminate glare.

Thanks to all the AOTY participants who read this and help to make life for the Committee a bit easier.  Now go get some fish!

Chris

Great reminders Rob and Chris...

My only input is to be careful if using a sharpie on your hawg trough and don't go too thick...

Cuz then you end up with a trough like this:

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/530

Really what you want is a trough that looks like this:

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/385

My personal method is to never wash the blood and slime off and let nature darken my lines for me.

 

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/catches/1985

Bottom line...if your pics suck (and you can't honestly tell the length of the fish and that the mouth is closed and touching from the full body shot) you are making it a lot more likely that the committee will have to DQ the entry and that SUCKS...so don't do it!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

great advise. thanks. I went one step further. I made the inch lines black and the 1/2 inch lines blue.

seriuosly have you really had anyone that desperate that they would cheat? I mean how sad would that be ?

I missed second place by 1/4" 2 years ago. There have been several fish over the last year that had to be downgraded because they did not hit the mark in the whole fish pic. The tail pic showed the fish hitting the mark. Yes, people will "manipulate " the size if they think they can.

I liked the FreshKats rule. If the fish is short it is DQ'd, no questions asked. You need to make sure it hits the mark or no downgrade, just DQ.

There is an AOTY 2017 rules discussion thread around here sonewhere. I like a point deduction rather than a straight DQ but I agree that there should be some penalty for this.

I missed second place by 1/4" 2 years ago. There have been several fish over the last year that had to be downgraded because they did not hit the mark in the whole fish pic. The tail pic showed the fish hitting the mark. Yes, people will "manipulate " the size if they think they can.

I liked the FreshKats rule. If the fish is short it is DQ'd, no questions asked. You need to make sure it hits the mark or no downgrade, just DQ.

hash hash hogwash, Rob...!