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HOW TO RUN SUCCESSFUL FISHING TOURNAMENTS
By Captain Dan Kipnis
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Looking back at the fishing scene 25 years ago things
seem really strange. It wasn’t that long ago in the
great scheme of things, but it seems like light-years
ago when it comes to fishing and fishing tournaments. When you
stop to think about it, many of the great fishing destinations in the
world had not even opened up to traveling anglers, nobody knew
what a “topshot” over braided line was, stand-up fishing was a
west coast secret, the way to catch sailfish was trolling dead bait
and only a few big game tournaments around the world could
boast, “celebrating our 25th year.”
I was 31 at the time, and the youngest board member of the
Atlantic Gamefish Foundation (AGF), just a fancy name for the
organization raising money for the experimental snook hatchery
at the Rosenstiel School of Marine Biology at the University of
Miami. The board was looking for a way to put the hatchery on
the map and felt they had to live up to their name, Gamefish.
What better way than produce the first sailfish tournament in
Miami. At the time, there had only been a nighttime swordfish
tournament held in the Magic City and it only lasted a couple of
years before the longline fleet decimated the swordfish population
reducing their numbers to levels that prevented recreational
anglers from catching them anymore.
Sure, the Florida Keys had a few venerable tournaments like
the Key Colony Beach Sailfish Tournament and the Islamorada
Sailfish Tournament. Fort Lauderdale had its twice yearly billfish
competition, and who can forget the grand daddy of them all, the
Masters Tournament in Palm Beach. But, billfish tournaments
really were a rare occurrence. Most boats trolled ballyhoo or
bonito belly strips for bait and catching a sailfish was considered
an oddity. Some boats in the Keys slow trolled live ballyhoo but
days of multiple fish catches were few and far between.
It can be argued that there were as many if not more sailfish
in those days and that we just didn’t know how to catch them. I
don’t believe that’s true. We killed almost every sail we caught.
All the tournaments except the Masters were kill tournaments.
And, having been on the water around Miami my whole life, I
just don’t remember seeing schools of sailfish coming down a sea
pushed by a stiff nor’wester during the winter months that we see
now. I think the real reason for the number of sails we see today
is that we don’t kill them anymore, we use circle hooks, have a
multitude of artificial reefs that hold and protect bait fish, don’t
gillnet and purse seine our near shore waters any more, and have
banned longliners from the Straits of Florida. It is just a hunch; I
could be wrong but, oh my, do we have sails now!
That brings me back to billfish tournaments. In 1983 the
AGF gave me four months to start the first Greater Miami Annual
Billfish Tournament. I had never run a tournament, or for that
matter fished in one other than the Metropolitan Miami Fishing
Tournament, a six month affair, started by the Miami Beach Rod
and Reel Club in 1934 to increase tourism. I had no idea what to
do, but in my youth I was too naive to realize I may have bitten
off more than I could chew. I asked the old timers around town
who I could put on a board of directors like, “pronto,” knowing I
couldn’t do it all alone.
Rule No. 1: surround yourself with a diverse group of know
ledgeable people that are not afraid to work.
At the time I had no idea that, to this day,
the board I selected would end up being the
movers and shakers of the South Florida
fishing scene. They hailed from the tackle
manufacturing and sales business, marine
electronics, guides and captains both inshore
and offshore, the airline industry, marine
taxidermy, publishing, radio and television,
the hotel industry, the Marine Council,
advertising, and most importantly, politicians
(after all, you have to raise initial seed money
from somewhere).
Rule No. 2: keep your rules simple.
For those of you attuned to fishing billfish
tournaments in South Florida these days, the rule pages in
tournament yearbooks can be daunting. The first Miami Billfish
Tournament went like this. Check-out and leave for fishing at
8:15 a.m. Lines in the water at 8:30 a.m. All IGFA rules apply.
Call in all billfish hook-ups and when you boat the fish. There
is a 20-pound minimum weight for sailfish, no minimum weight
for marlin and swordfish. Oh, by the way, you can only keep
two sailfish per angler per day. We don’t kill billfish any more
but, the rule book has grown to the point that an attorney is
required for translation. I have tried in the one tournament that
I have complete control over, the Florida Billfish Masters (I am
the entire committee), to keep rules as simple as the ones for the
first Miami Billfish Tournament. Really, the goal is to have fun
fishing a tournament. It should be easy with a minimum amount
of questions. I have found that the No. 1 source of conflict in
tournaments revolves around, “who is an amateur?” I hate working
tournaments with pro/am divisions.
Rule No. 3: have a clear and concise radio operator. The
most important person to the smooth operations of any billfish
tournament is the “committee boat.” In the old days we called in
all hook-ups and catches using the boat and anglers names. Many
tournaments still follow that approach today. Imagine the radio
chaos with more than 800 billfish releases in two days during last
December’s Dewar’s Sailfish Kick-off in Miami. It was tough
enough using just a boat number and angler letter for releases. The
biggest gripe I hear around the tournament circuit concerns the
quality, or lack thereof, of radio communications.
Rule No. 4: give the teams regular updates of the standings.
Imagine any other sporting event that you
didn’t know where you stand during the
course of play. Billfish tournaments are like
any other team sporting event and strategies
need to be constantly tweaked and updated
depending on the field of play. Make sure
you let the contestants know that the results
are “unofficial” until all catches have been
certified at the end of the day.
Rule No. 5: one word – credibility. Stick
to your rules, be fair and non-partial. Explain
your decisions, but in the end, don’t waffle,
after all, the rules are the rules and your
participants will appreciate the fact that they
are all on a level playing field.
One other word of advice, the group doing tournament
operations should not be the same group as the one putting on the
social events. Social events are very time consuming and labor
intensive. A bad showing on the social side is enough to bring an
otherwise successful tournament down. Again, keep it simple.
Usually by the end of the weekend anglers and crew are dead tired
and just want to eat, drink, get their money and go home.
It seems to me South Florida is about filled to capacity with
billfish tournaments, which is bad news for promoters but good
news for contestants. The only thing stopping a dedicated angler
during the winter season from fishing a tournament each week may
only be the price tag, but with winnings going more than $100,000
per event, that might not be as much of a problem anymore. One
win can go along way.
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