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The health of any sport is measured by many milestones, from participation numbers and retail sales to innovation in product design and increased media presence. It all boils down to enthusiasm, which fuels the growth of these elements. In many successful sports, this passion is fevered by competition.
Competition at the grassroots level spurs on regional growth as active communities tend to be very visible and non-participants want to give it a try. Competition at national and international levels lights the ires of enthusiasm and creates sport loyalties to individuals, countries and even manufacturers. By and large, competition is one of the most effective marketing means for any sport. It is a mechanism seen today in the US especially for bass ishing where millions of spectators follow a handful of bass tours as competitors ight for massive prize purses each year. Fans lock to the events, sit glued to the television for that inevitably exciting weigh in, with tens of thousands live and on hand to witness the glory of that top contender as they take home the prize.
Fishing is #2 in participation in the US today, second to running. The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) shows kayak angling is one of the fastest growing segments in that igure and shows kayak ishing listed as one of the fastest growing adventure sports (behind adventure racing/triathlon and stand up paddling) with a 27% growth in 2014 alone. Along with this growth, innovation in the manufacturing process contributes to the notion that this sport is maturing fast. The next logical bit of evolution is no doubt going to be in competition, and the race to provide the market with a taste of both grassroots competition and national/international competition is well under way.
The Kayak Fishing Difference
At the dawn of the kayak angling tournament, things looked very similar to that of its big brother, bass ishing tournaments. Yet, there were immediate differences in how ish were attained and handled. Right away most note the absence of motors: the roar of tens of thousands of horsepower is replaced by the splash of a paddle. This signiicant factor not only brings pollution off
of the table, it leaves water undisturbed, the impact to local isheries is more diffuse, it uses far less launch space, it crowds the local weekend isherman less, and it allows tournaments on non-motorized waterways. Although motorized boats can get to the back bays, it takes a signiicant amount of effort poling and with trolling motors.
Of all of the above factors, the impact on the local isheries is the biggest differentiator.“Though regions beneit from these major motorized tournament stops,” notes Chad Hoover, a bass isherman who has been involved in both traditional and kayak bass ishing scene for years,“the impact on the isheries can be signiicant.” The motorized bass tournament tradition of ‘Catch 5’ means that only the biggest 5 ish are kept. In reality what that means, however, is that ish are typically caught and ‘live welled’ until a bigger ish is brought aboard to replace it. Some ish stay upwards of an entire day in a live well, are separated from their spawning grounds by miles, driven around at 70 mph in a tank and are then dropped unceremoniously at the launch site often miles away from where they originated. A mortality rate averaging 50% occurs on the best of days, but mid summer mortality rates are upwards of 90% in some tournaments. Those surviving in spawning season typically miss the spawn adding more of a dent to the population. Kayak angling is mostly 'catch, photo and release' - or CPR. The ish is caught, a photograph is taken with a measuring ruler and tournament tag and the ish is released on the spot.
Kayak angling also allows for launching lexibility. In motorized launches, the excitement happens all at once, from a single launch spot. Local anglers are greatly affected, as those who hope to launch their own boats are met with a rude awakening when they arrive to the launch site to a hundred bass boats and a major festival between them and their favorite ishing hole. Due to the impact on the isheries, local anglers can feel the effects of a motorized tournament for long after the event as well.Kayak angling tournaments usually allow multiple launch points and rarely bog the local ishing community down with trafic. This combined with the catch and release tradition leaves the ishery largely untouched.
Fly isherman James McBeath works the waters, identifying the hatch and feeding patterns.
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