Hey All. First let me thank the IFA and all their sponsors for making a tournament like this possible.
Now for the dreaded (drum roll please) pro-live-bait opinion.
Lemme give a little background on my experience:
I am new to kayak fishing and have never been in a tournament of any kind. In fact, I am still new to the salt-water fishing scene. I'm the guy you might pass at the surf trying to get anything to bite on a myriad of natural bait and artificial lures in an effort to learn and or justify a 260 mile trek to the coast. All in the name of fun and table fare. I really do want to be more knowledgeable in the productive ways of catching fish. It has been raining quite a bit lately and seeing as how everything's a soupy mess I have been sitting at the computer the last day or two checking out fishing forums trying to learn from the thousands of people who know more than I do. So I happen upon this kayak tournament and its forum and this thread.
I see stardot's point and think it is perfectly all right to have the tournament open to all comers and fishing styles. The opinion here that the use of artificials somehow makes the angler more crafty and sporting is a tad elitist. I feel there is always an element of luck when it comes to fish. And maybe there is actually some skill involved for the guy who finally finds the correct natural bait or presentation that puts the fish in the boat. That being said, if I were to enter the tourney at Surf City I would NOT be using natural bait. It is just my preference. And I would not fault any other angler for using live bait; it's his/her decision.
I do hope this tournament goes well. Good Fishin'
Shane

Elitist. I think that's the whole point of the IFA Kayak Fishing Tournament to be the ELITE. Name one pro tournament that uses live bait. How about just the IFA Redfish tour, or any BASS tournament, or FLW. Another point is that Mother nature does not pay you to use cut mullet, but Rapala might if you catch fish with a Skitterwalk. The whole point of a Professional tour is that its ELITE, and you fish against the Elite. Fishing with artificial only balances the playing field. You are using an unnatural device to entice a fish to strike it. Its about your choice of equipment, lures, presentation, and location. With bait, you can throw it over the side of the boat and wait for a fish to find it. Its not so much about you finding the fish. Its like flounder gigging with a bright light at night. Artificial makes it more sporting. If you want to use bait then fish the Charity tournaments. And those are great, seeing how I run the biggest Charity tournament on Florida's gulf coast I fully support those tournaments having live bait and artificial since its about promoting kayak fishing, charity, and family. That is also the place for bait, not a pro circuit of this caliber. We are in the infancy of Elite Kayak Fishing, and things will evolve. I am very happy that Hobie and IFA are filling the void left by the Extreme Edge tour of years ago, and look forward to many years of fishing in Elite events testing my skills against the skills of anglers on an equal playing field.

Who stated that Suber didn't have any class? Oh, that was someone with less class on another forum. That was definitely a classier than class response as to why we should be using artificials. Chalk one up for the Suber-Man. Yes, I do agree that luck is involved...but you can improve on your luck by knowing what arties to use in the existing conditions and environment that you are fishing. You can't change the color or presentation of a mullet chunk, it is what it is, dead bait sitting on the bottom.

Evolution is an entirely appropriate concept here. Stepping outside the Kayak box a moment and looking back on the IFA Redfish Tour (and the other tours that came later)
there was a time when we didn't know what we'd grow up to be, but most of us were pretty sure that we'd attract the huge sponsors from Maytag to Nissan, and there would be $$$ pouring in for anyone with a clean shirt, good fishing skills, and a winning smile. 10 years later? Not so much.

With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that for a good many anglers, it was never a sustainable business model. Without fishing charter revenues, direct sponsor $$, etc. the expenses were too heavy for the return. Fine for part of a plan to live the fishing life, work the shows, guide part of the year, sell some boats, whatever. That model works great, and that's what most of our guys do now. Sure, some guys are financially set, and can "just fish", but most of us have a "suit-up, show-up" job as well, and while lots of them are employed in a fishing related field, there probably aren't but a very few who do nothing but fish Redfish tournaments for a living.

So looking back, it was an evolution. We went from a Pro trail and an Open trail to a grassroots trail that welcomes Pro involvement, but concentrates on the concept of the team that wants mainly to fish close to home, pay an affordable entry fee for potentially huge paybacks, gets to fish 4 events for the price of 3 (Championship added) and is just a great, fun experience. It sure looks different today, than when it started.

Now, back to Kayaks and evolution. Every day that we work on the IFA Kayak Fishing Tour is a learning experience for us, and we've already met so many very nice folks I can see that this is going to be a fantastic tour.

If we had the benefit of being able to "time machine ahead" and look back after a couple of years, we'd be able to bypass any mistakes, and fine-tune our program right from the start. But, we don't have that benefit, so obviously we'll just have to keep our eyes and ears open, and pay attention to the input that's being offered from the guys who are fishing with us.

We've had lots of input, by email, this forum and others, and by phone. A number of the things offered up have merit, and some are just great ideas that we've liked so much we are going to make them part of our program right off.

We've heard a lot of comment regarding the live bait issue, and most of it relates to "soaking mullet heads on the bottom" which I suppose is a Bull Red tactic. We had a phone call that suggested this wouldn't be a problem for most guys if we'd require the Redfish to be in the slot, or possibly a 30 inch slot. Interesting concept?

Having a slot rule for reds would really make the diference if you wanted to stick with live bait. With live bait you can go soak the bait, catch a bull red and then pick up a dink trout and 9 times out of ten you will win the event. You also dont want it to become a trout tournament though. Much easier to go artifical only.

Adding a slot size to the reds would help to diversify the tournament from a “everybody fishing the pass with crab and mullet on a carolina rig” (sorry if I gave away anybodies secret! lol) , to more traditional slot red fishing. That would help a little with bait issue, and at this point so close to the events any change in that direction is welcomed.

I would vote for the state slot size that is used in the saturday event over a 30" one.

I agree completely with Jeff Suber. If this was a true grass roots tour, the entry fee would be aroud $25 and the payouts would be much smaller. Live or dead bait will not add more novices. I believe that an artificial only format would actually bring in more anglers. Here on the SW coast of Florida, the majority of Kayak anglers already fish with artificials for both redfish and trout. I would like to think going forward that this tour will be one to test the skills of kayak anglers and not a contest to chunk up the biggest redfish. Maybe, the tour officials could put this issue into the hands of the anglers.
All that being said, I have high regard for the IFA franchise and look forward to fishing the SW FL leg of the tour.

jd

I could get a bag of shrimp and and a cork and get a new kayak.............wow.........nanh I've been scouting in 40 degree weather,and practicing way to hard for that, see you guys in Cocodre on my yellow battle ship,bringing out the big guns.

COMPLETELY AGREE with Suber & Upthecreek. Jeff, that was a well-put response. Artificial bait levels the playing field plenty - pits the skills of the fisherman using that bait against one another. Anyone can soak a shrimp, MM, mullethead, whatever & have relatively decent luck if you've spent any time doing it and have a honeyhole or two. And I am NOT a guy who gets to fish anywhere near as much as a lot of people weighing in on this. Eliteist is not the idea. Its all about competing on a certain level - and to compete on that level you have to put your time in on the water whether its your primary job or not. More time=more results. Period.

BTW, I also think making the allowable redfish length too small (i.e. 27") opens the tournament officials up to too many challenges, difficult judgement calls = pi**ed off people who think their fish is bigger and there's no true way for the officials to settle it because the fish are not there.