Match fishing league next year?

[Brett Vegoe]

Would anybody be interested in an AI match fishing league next year? I'm just starting to think about this so I'm up for any suggestions. Here's what I'm thinking.

1. It could be individual or team, I'd think individual would be easier to schedule.
2. It could be just bass or it could be multi-species.
3. We would put together a schedule of matches that run throughout the summer. I'm thinking they would be in 2 week blocks. The 2 scededuled anglers or teams would have 2 weeks to fish their match. We would have a home and visitor. The home team or angler for each match would get to pick the lake within a specified distance from Minneapolis, maybe 60 miles. The people in the match would be responsible for their own weigh in or length measurement, whatever it takes to see who won. They could even set their own fishing hours for the match.
4. We would keep the standings and could payoff from this at the end of the year or have playoffs?
5. I'm thinking very low entry fees to get participation, maybe $20 per event. If anyone wants to make it more interesting they can setup their own side bets.

With everyone's busy schedules this might be a good way to get to fish against/with some other AI anglers. Just throwing this out to see what people think.

[rjruda]

sounds pretty interesting, may have to see what my schedule looks like for next summer. One thought I have is doing a measurement standard the same for all the matches, that way there couldn't be any disagreement with one person saying they prefer measurement vs weight or vice versa. definitely interested if my schedule will allow for it.

[Juan Arellano]

yes interesting, but 20 buck is not enough money to make worth your while. even if you have 10 teams or ind. at the most you will 400 if it is winner take all.
I think you should do it like a big bracket winner moves on type thing, and then the winner is that AI angler of the year.

[Tubes]

OR if you want to move it to cover all of minnesota have all who interested from an area be in like a 4 or 8 man regional and have four regions? Ex St. Cloud, Minneapolis, Duluth, St. Paul.

[Brett Vegoe]

OR if you want to move it to cover all of minnesota have all who interested from an area be in like a 4 or 8 man regional and have four regions? Ex St. Cloud, Minneapolis, Duluth, St. Paul.

I really like that idea. At the end of the year we could have a tournament for the regional winners to determine AI angler of the year.

[Dan Wood]

somebody else suggested this a few weeks ago actually.. it's worth a shot to see if there are enough interest.. it would give a chance for those without a boat to get out..

[tka]

I would be interested.

[perry piehl]

I would also be interested, though bass are not my primary target except in the dog days of summer.

[Lucas Deyoung]

Sounds interesting to me (if it's bass). I know the "Ulimate Match Fishing" show/ concept is quite popular. The scheduling flexibility would be key, given everyone's busy summers. Sounds like fun if you can get the logistics right.

[BassHammer]

Sounds interesting to me!

[bwynnemer]

I think it's a great idea. I agree that there should be regions, based on attendance and interest. Multi species might be tough, unless the two anglers going against each other agreed on a different species. Say both want to do walleye or pike and both agreed, you could still have a winner to move on to the next round or get a win. However, you might have to base it around one species like bass (of course) in the case there is a conflict of interest. This might make it easier for an AI champion.
I would agree with the low entry fee, maybe $20, with the playoffs being higher in payoffs and entry fees.
Also length of fish is easiest.

[biglakeba$$]

Hard to say at this time. No clue what the kids schedules would be once again, plus I have fishing league on Thursdays, and bass club events on some weekends.

So impossible to answer, but yes, interesting idea as always.

[MNBassGuy]

I actually was going to start a league like this a couple years back...had a website and everything: minnesotamatchfishing.com, but when push came to shove there wasn't much interest, so I backed out of it.

I'd potentially do something like this,but I think you need a buy in to cover the whole thing, otherwise the stakes get higher and high as you move on, which sort of sucks for those advancing and then having to pony up more money becasue they won a round. I'd be cool with a buy in at the beginning of maybe $100 or so. I'd also suggest doing a random lake draw of small and mainly underfished lakes. Take away prefishing completely.

[Brett Vegoe]

It looks like we have enough interest to make this work. I'll try and work with a few of you to come up with a format and rules so we can have it finalized by March 1st at the latest. I like the idea of fishing smaller lakes. I also like initially having several divisions from different areas of the state if we can get enough buy in for that, not sure if the logistics will work but I like the idea. I'll start working on it.

[wanzek]

This is an Awesome Idea.....
I am new to the area but what the hell I would love to do something like this.

[tka]

Is this still in the works?

[Brett Vegoe]

I was getting ready to finalize how it would work and then the Thursday night league thread showed up. I'm not sure how many leagues can survive. We also have the MFL.

I'm going to post a poll today with a few options on it to see what the interest is.