Wessex Juniors FOM

Your'e having a laugh!!!!

Are they suggesting we kill the juniors catch to bring it to certified scales. They need a kick up the arse!

Greg I am not but they may be.

Rob no they are not and to date they never have. You were at the meeting when this was discussed so I guess you will have heard what was said.  If however they do want us to encourage juniors to bring dead fish home purely for the glory then I guess we as a club would be sending them a letter/sign that we disapprove by disassociating ourselves from them.

I've personally emailed the AT (Wessex Region) to ask if they are "seriously encouraging juniors to kill every fish they catch so they can have them weighed on certified scales?"

I think clarification needs to sought. It certainly reads like certified scales and fish killing are needed. Howevever, several Wessex Junior fish of the Month have been caught on Fisheagle.

We stated the type of scale used and its max weight, several photos were also supplied as well as photo showing the lenght of the fish in cms.against my metre ruler. In the case of a ray, the weight and two measurements were taken, namely from snout to tail end and also across the wings. There were also two adult witnesses.

In both cases, they were accepted and in the case of the Ballions, which was caught during one if our Junior Comps, I believe it was excepted by Wessex as a new Regional Record and credited to Curtis Driver. We were surprised because of what was asked for on the form. Obviously some updating needs to be done by Wessex. Dave Samuels used to be our rep on Wessex and may be able to help on this.

Allan

I raised it with the rest of the Wessex AT Committee while we were still at our club meeting, and it has been added to the Agenda for the Wessex AT AGM.

This is basically a very old form which has just been updated with new contact information due to a change in people, and then re-circulated to Club Secretaries.

Allan is correct, we have previously reported fish using only a fraction of the sections on this form, and those fish have been accepted as winners. I suggest we carry on the same until a more realistic and conservation-minded form is released.

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Needs a bit more effort by the AT to get it right.

Not a great thing to produce a form like that if it is not correct.

A bit like their specimen sizes, it needs some work and an update

Charlie C is right.

Also, the form needs to be a lot more simpler to encourage a Parent/Junior to fill it out and send it off.

On a positive note at least the AT are trying to do something to encourage Juniors.

Greg

Seriously we talk about participation rates for youngsters they are issuing this. Any decent marketer (not a salesman:)) will know each question on a form over the first few (and if you know what your doing these will be prepopulated) knocks 10% off the response rate

I'm pleased to hear a few of the above posters have applied common sense and been accepted but a lot of dads buying their first boat and taking their kids out would take one look and not bother

Hi all

I have had an email from Chris Holloway who is the Chairman of the Wessex AT, I got his email as I am the secretary of the Poole & District Sea Angling Association.

I have copied his email below:

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Hi Dave

I see some anglers on web site are asking if we would encourage to kill or bring in fish for weighing purposes, absolutely no.  we also ask for as much information as we can get so we can award the FOM of month, also based on angling skills, as an example if we were having to sort out a tie we would look at the tackle its was caught on (CONGER/SKATE ) on flounder or bream gear.

We also need the club secretary to sign off so we can check that the club is also a member of AT , but we will have a look at and see if its user friendly and improve if we can.

You can post my comments if you like.

Best wishes to you and the Club.

Chris.

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Hope that answers the concerns

Dave
 

Hi Dave

Best ask Chris if they can at least remove the part about certified scales

We carry three sets but none have been certified.

Hi Charlie

I did point this out to him as to bring fish to "certified scales" would normally mean the fish would be dead, which we both agreed is not what is wanted.

If however someone wants to claim for a New Record, then for it to be approved I am afraid you would have to kill the fish to get it weighed.

Dave

Bit of a double edged sword isn't it,

Most of us would want AT and National records to be accurate, so have to put up with the need for certified scales. It is the anglers choice to kill it just for that purpose or weigh it on-board return it alive and submit it for a Club record / FOM on trust.

I for one would rather see a great fish survive than have to kill it for a AT record. <img src="/emoticons/default_biggrin.png" alt=":D" data-emoticon="" srcset="/emoticons/biggrin@2x.png 2x" width="20" height="20" />  <img src="/emoticons/default_biggrin.png" alt=":D" data-emoticon="" srcset="/emoticons/biggrin@2x.png 2x" width="20" height="20" />

That said I would have no problem with the AT accepting weighed on board and released for their senior or Junior Fish of the months.

Dave do they have a lady one? Chrissie could enter? <img src="/emoticons/default_biggrin.png" alt=":D" data-emoticon="" srcset="/emoticons/biggrin@2x.png 2x" width="20" height="20" />