new skillful angler program

[Chrisper4694]

a couple of us will be going to the next njf&w meeting with new ideas for the skillful angler program. It will be under new management and they're looking for suggestions.

some of the thoughts we will bring up are:

making submissions totally online (no more printing a picture and snail mailing it)...anglers would fill out an online form or email form and submit it with the two pictures attached.

adjusting some of the fish sizes to be closer to reality (i.e. bumping up 24" walleye, bumping down some of the trout species, etc) some of the minimum size ranges are way too easy to achieve and others are next to impossible.

sharing the submitted data only to anglers participating in the program (kind of like a reward that would cost nothing)

If anyone has any suggestions you want us to bring up, let us know in the next week or so.

[Mark B.]

The meeting:

North Jersey Fisheries Forum - January 20, 2018 at 10am: Hackettstown State Fish Hatchery

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/bfwf_forums.htm

[AndyS]

I think the whole program got lost in the sauce.

http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/skflang.htm

[AndyS]

Sea bass should be 6 pounds.

Striped Bass should be 50 pounds.

Tog should be 15 pounds.

I think the freshwater numbers are pretty good. The whole thing went awash with this slam thing, multi-species catch etc etc. When my wife won for her state record brown trout the entries that year were truly amazing, the best of the best.
There was a huge awards banquet with all the F&W people as well as all the N.J. outdoor writers. These people set the bar with one fish, now it's just a blow out of paper products.

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by AndyS

Sea bass should be 6 pounds.

Striped Bass should be 50 pounds.

Tog should be 15 pounds.

I think the freshwater numbers are pretty good. The whole thing went awash with this slam thing, multi-species catch etc etc. When my wife won for her state record brown trout the entries that year were truly amazing, the best of the best.
There was a huge awards banquet with all the F&W people as well as all the N.J. outdoor writers. These people set the bar with one fish, now it's just a blow out of paper products.

If it was up to me i'd say ditch the weight/kept category all together and have nothing but c&r honestly. State records are totally different, wont be seeing many of those if you ask me. To many big fish being kept or mishandled.

I dont think anyone cares about the paper print out cert...we want the data. A google sheets chart with all the catch info, available only to those making submissions, a better reward than a paper cert printout.

[NJSquatch]

My 2 pennies if F&G wants to increase interest in the program

- Online submissions is a must!

- Enhanced web site with registration for program participants. Maybe tie it to the licensing system?

- Publicly accessible web site with active leader board that includes photos of the fish only (not the lake or lure details).

- "Privately" accessible web site for fisherman that have registered and submitted a fish to the program. User would have access to all information submitted (pictures, lake, and lure information, etc).

- Make the program strictly catch and release. Split it into Adult and Junior categories.

- Award (pin,patch,etc) for catching the biggest fish in a given year. Something similar to the Hook a Winner program.

- Save the printing and mailing costs and just email pdf versions of the certificates.