My .02 on JCAA Tournament

[dfish28]

Great post! We left SRI at 7:00 waiting out some of the rain- wasn't very nice out there... Got as far as Asbury and set up a couple drifts deploying the boat brakes- no bueno- surfed back into the inlet around lunchtime with nothing but snapper blues to show for it, fished the river for a bit,but you shouldn't have to flank 40-50' boats in the river fluking... That was enough for me.
Spoke to my buddy on another boat as well- we both said never again. Congrats to those who placed!

[hammer4reel]

ALL the tourneys should have a rain date. MANY guys went out yesterday because they had payed pre entry. And I for one am not interested in paying to have a winner drawn from a hat because of inclement weather.

If I wanted to play the lottery at a chance of winning ALOT of money and dropping a hundred or two on that would be ok.

To draw for a few grand I would never be interested.

The fees to enter a tourney are for FISHING the tourney, and the bragging rights to go with the day. NOT just to win a few bucks.

SAFETY should def be first and formost of anyone setting one of these days up

[stevelikes2fish]

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

SAFETY should def be first and formost of anyone setting one of these days up

MY thoughts exactly

[bobberboy]

Since we are on the topic of safety and tournaments how about the pt pleasent Elks and the shotgun start in the inlet ..... If you have never seen it it's a joke and somebody is going to get hurt or killed I know every year they loose a number of boats due to this practice

[Qman]

The shotgun start is an easy one stay at port till 615 problem solved. Been fishing that tourney since beginning. We break inlet 615 620. No problem.

Originally Posted by Angler Paul

I am the JCAA president and I agree that we should have an alternate date in the event of bad weather. However, I still have only one vote on the board and on our fluke tournament committee. In addition to safety reasons, I want everyone to have a nice day on the water, catching fish and enjoying the competition. It is also the second year in a row that our tournament was held during a bad nor'easter. This is perhaps our biggest fundraiser and I know that we lost thousands of dollars in entrance fees because many people waited until the last minute to join and based there decision on the weather forecast. For the record record, I waited until almost mid-nightmidnight until I made my decision not to fish the tournament. (You could sign up until midnight the night before the tournament) . I would also like to point out that the weather forecasts have been wrong most of the time which makes our decision a tough one. It is hard to reschedule a tournament of this magnitude and we try hard not to interfere with the other major tournaments as well. Regardless though, I intend to push for an alternate date for next year's tournament. Lastly I am amazed by the quality of fish that were weighed in and I would like to thank everyone who participated. Congratulations to all the winners!

Paul Haertel

Paul,

First I appreciate you taking the time and making the effort to comment on the issues being raised in this post and on behalf of the JCAA. Many would avoid doing that so thanks for engaging in the discussion. Many tournaments have alternate weather dates so it is possible to schedule it accordingly. I'm sure it would create logistical issues but those issues should be dealt with as opposed to having anglers who contribute to your cause lose their entry fee by not fishing or worse risk their own safety by making a bad decision to sail which many including myself did yesterday. Not wanting to interfere with other major tournaments is just another way of saying the club doesn't want to lose revenue or entry fees by competing with other tournaments scheduled on the same day, it's not a matter of respect.

The reality is the JCAA or any organization running a fishing tournament ultimately has a fiduciary responsibility to the people who sign up to not put them in harm's way. The fact that you yourself decided to NOT fish the tournament due to weather yet not cancel the tournament is insane. As I said in my earlier post, it is a simple matter of money over safety. An alternate date, regardless of the scheduling difficulties involved, should be mandatory in all these tournaments and the absence of means the officials running the tournament want everyone's patronage and cash but have no regard for their safety. I would hope your counterparts get it right prospectively and make the necessary changes next year otherwise I for one will not be signing up for this tournament. As you said, this is now two years in a row and I would have thought the tournament would have learned from last year's experience but obviously that's not the case. Maybe it'll take a $50 million gross negligence lawsuit against the JCAA and tournament officials for them to show some regard for angler's safety during the running of their tournaments.

Dakota

[Gerry Zagorski]

Been on both sides of this, running and fishing a tournament and it's not easy.

IMHO you shedule it for Saturday and your weather date is Sunday. Both days are subject to small craft warnings. If you can't get it in Saturday or Sunday then a drawing.

A multi port tournament like the JCAA adds a lot of complexity. Raritan Bay no small craft while it's up on the ocean. Everyone's availability for the rain date etc.

You are dammed if you do or dammed if you don't, but like was mentioned above, you know the rules when you sign up.

Originally Posted by Gerry Zagorski

Been on both sides of this, running and fishing a tournament and it's not easy.

IMHO you shedule it for Saturday and your weather date is Sunday. Both days are subject to small craft warnings. If you can't get it in Saturday or Sunday then a drawing.

A multi port tournament like the JCAA adds a lot of complexity. Raritan Bay no small craft while it's up on the ocean. Everyone's availability for the rain date etc.

You are dammed if you do or dammed if you don't, but like was mentioned above, you know the rules when you sign up.

Gerry,

No one is debating the rules as you and BB pointed out. This is what the entire thread boils down to which I think was very tactfully stated in the above thread. The JCAA and any other tournament should have a rain date for when there's a small craft advisory in effect. The multiple port set up adds complexity but I don't think it changes the fact if 50% of the ports were at risk and 50% had the benefit of being in an area protected by land. The point is yesterday's condition were not safe to fish in and the tournament should have been rescheduled or cancelled. As I said if one boat had mechanical problems and went down costing someone their life, how would this thread be worded. This is all about money over safety....period. For Christ sake you have the President of the JCAA admit he didn't fish due to the forecast and the tournament was still run. Hypocrisy doesn't get much greater.

If the tournament cared about angler safety, they would have changed there policy last year. And your correct, the rules are the rules which is why anyone who is fed up with them should simply not sign up for the tournament next year. There's virtually no prize money, the calcutta is paid out two- thirds which is the only tournament I know which holds back a portion of the Calcutta for themselves, and they obviously don't care about the safety of their supporters. This is one case where I disagree with you in saying "You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't" I don't see how anyone looses if they implemented an alternate weather date for the safety and parity of all entrants.

This shouldn't take until next year to decide so the tournament hopes everyone forgets what happened this year or for the last two years. The tournament if they care should issue a release immediately that says next years tournament will have a weather date and if there are small craft advisories posted the tournament will be rescheduled to such and such a date. Why would that be such a difficult thing to do IF the tournament officials truly care about angler safety. In the absence of that change I for one will not be signing up next year and I know of many others who share those sentiments.

Dakota

[Angler Paul]

All,

I agree that our tournament should have a bad weather date and will push our board to approve one for next year. My decision not to fish the tournament had nothing to do with safety. I have a 30' Grady and 35 plus years of experience. I fish close to 200 days a year and can handle just about anything the seas can throw at me. I respect the ocean and never exceed my boat's capablilty or my own skill. I have fished in far worse conditions than yesterday but I am older now and have a bad back. I chose not to fish because I did not feel like taking a pounding which would aggravate my back. I am also fortunate enough to be retired and therefore I can fish just about any day.
That being said I certainly am concerned about the saftey and enjoyment of others who participate in the tournament. That is why I would like to have an alternate date. The fact that we have not had one in the past is not do to greed as someone said. There would not be refunds if an alternate date was listed in the rules and we would end up with far more entrants if the weather was nicer on the alternate date. As I said previously many people including me waited until the last minute and then decided not to join because of the weather forecast. The fact of the matter is that we lost a lot of much needed funding because of the weather. IMO an alternate date would be better for our entrants and JCAA as well.
The biggest problem in scheduling an alternate date is the booking of a location for the awards ceremony. An alternate date for the ceremony would not fly with a big casino in AC where we have held most of our awards ceremonies and it is unlikely that it would be acceptable to other large facilities such as the Holiday Inn in Manahawkin where we are having this year's ceremony.
I intend to show what others have posted on this thread to the JCAA board and I am looking for a little help here. Please let me know what you think. I don't think that the vast majority of people would want to go to a drawing so we are going to hold the tournament. My suggestion for next year would be to hold the tournament on 8/1 with a bad weather date of either 8/2 or 8/8. The problem with having the bad weather date the very next day is that we often have bad weather two or more days in a row. Having it a week later might interfere with other tournaments being run on the same day at any or some of our 9 or 10 weigh-in stations. The other problem is the ceremony. An idea I have is to hold the ceremony a couple days after the alternate date even if we hold the tounament on our originally scheduled date. For instance next year the tournament might be held on 8/1 with an alternate date of 8/8 but the ceremony would not be held until 8/12 regardless. Would that be acceptable to our entrants? Again, any input is appreciated.

Paul Haertel

[Gerry Zagorski]

What I mean by damned if you do damned if you don't is someone is always going to be on the opposing side of whatever decision is made.

The small craft thing is not perfect either. I've seen small crafts up and it's been totally fishable and other times no small crafts and not fish able. Thing is you have to also apply some common sense to your own decision based on your experience, your crew, your boat, small craft or not.