Big Game Tournament - need your opinion

[Jagsare1]

Opinions please. Scenario: Billfish tournament, captains choice format where there are 4 days available to fish(Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday). Would you like to see 3 days of fishing or 2 days of fishing? You choose the fishing days.

Points to remember. 3 days of fishing is more expensive than 2 and the prize structure is the same for both choices.

Tell me what you think. Asking this question on 3 different fishing sites. Thanks.

[DropinBack]

Depends what the entry fee is? If the prize is large enough and the entry fee is over 10-15gs whats an extra 500-1500 bucks to fish the third day?

Where is the location?

[Swami]

I believe Jags is out of north Florida. Me personally, I'd rather fish three days out of a possible four as I feel it gives everyone the best chance to find and release a lot of fish. And if you have a sliding point structure where sails are worth X and marlin are worth X times 3, 4, or 5, you could have boats that are well behind the leaders after the first two days that feel they can go blue marlin fishing on the third day and have a shot to come back and win.

Just my .02 for what it's worth...just curious, are we talking about the El Pescado?

[Jagsare1]

Swami, not the El Pescado but this tournament is based in St. Augustine. The format has always been such that you had to take the whole week off to fish it. Grand Prize not including any calcutta has been $10K. With the economy as it is and fuel prices as they are(down for now but historically up), the tournament is looking for a way to potentially drive down the cost for the tournament and the participants and possibly increase prize money to $15K.

If you have to run 15 miles to fish, 3 days in a row is not a problem. But if you have to run 60-70+ miles to fish, 3 days is tough. Sailfish are lower points than blues of course. I personally would like to see 2 days because no matter how you look at it, the playing field is as even as it can be if we all fish the same # of days. If boat A finds the fish and I don't, that's fishing.

I still want to hear opinions and I appreciate the ones who commented.

[Jagsare1]

Dropin back, sorry, I didn't answer you. Total cost is approx $2500 for everything and prize money was $10K for 1st not including calcutta. Under consideration is trying to get the prize up to $15K and reducing the cost to play. Entry would remain the same but you wouldn't have dockage and hotels for a week and maybe 1 less day of fishing, 2 instead of 3.

St. Augustine, FL is the location.

[sportfishingusa]

i could do a ton of tournaments if they all fell on weekends!!

friday, saturday, sunday tourneys would be awesome. pick two of the three days and pay a little extra or whatever..

if i take a day from my office i am losing more money then i want to so it is not worth doing an entire week of fishing a tournament..
some of those pick 4 of 5 of 3 of 4 day tournaments are a little to much for me... the cost is not the problem.. it is the losing time with the family, the business, and the life to go and fish...

i mean do not get me wrong.. i love to fish and would fish every tournament i could if funds permitted all the time and i was single and had nothing else to do or if it was my job and i got paid for it but being a person who pays their way and fishes.. i like the shorter tourneys..

[Phat Mann]

Tourney Suggestions-

I think you have two options:

Big money 3/4 or even 3/5 format. To get boats to travel and spend not only money to get there, enter, and fish, as well as the time to fish, a tournament has to satisfy the risk reward factor. In other words, bigger $, more draw, and probably more risk of success when you are starting out.

Or the more local flavor of a 2/3 fri, sat, sun option. Or even a 1/2 with a theme. Charity or Challenge type theme seems to help (or combo)

A great example up our way is the Dare Co Boat Builders Challenge. Its not a big $ tournament but has all the features, Charity, Challenge (Dare Co built boats only), and enough money to help cover expenses but not too much in the way of entry fees to make it unmanagable.

Good luck in your endeavor.

[Jagsare1]

Phat, you hit the nail on the head. Risk and reward. This is an established tournament, 37 years old but we are looking at alternatives to make it more attractive. I have focused on 2 keys, lowering the cost for the entrants and increasing the prize money...higher reward, lower risk.

For us, a successful tournament means an additonal 15 boats. In other words, 25-30 boats are going to fish it every year no matter what and we can count on them but an additional 15 boats means alot of additional calcutta $$'s and that is what drives some of the boat owners.

Thanks for the suggestions!