Hi Romain, Fiiish and Savager's are coming up with a new concept of kayak fishing competition. Can you give us an overview of this competition?
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros Of course, it is a lure fishing competition, in kayak and in pairs targeting exclusively the sea bass (Dicentrarchus Labrax) and which will take place from May 22 to July 4, 2021. The idea is to succeed in setting up a kayak fishing competition without having to gather the participants given the sanitary context, each pair will therefore be able to fish their usual spots. In addition, this format allows us to free ourselves from all the constraints encountered when organizing such an event (notifying the municipality, the Maritime Affairs, the SNSM, Natura 2000 for certain areas, etc.).
From May 22 to July 4, 2021?!
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros Yes, this competition will take place in the form of 3 rounds of 2 weeks during which each pair will be able to fish without time limit all the spots it wishes, knowing that only the 2 best rounds of each pair will be retained for the final classification, that in order to preserve a fairness between the participants, all not having the possibility of fishing easily during 6 weeks in a row or will have to face climatic hazards in particular.
How will it work in practice, how will the points be counted?
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros We have established the minimum size for the validation of a fish at 45 cm. During each round, each pair will have to validate its 2 nicest fishes, that is to say 6 fishes in all, knowing that the final classification will be based on the 2 best rounds of each pair, as I said, that is 4 fishes. Each centimeter will be worth 1 point. Also, all the fishes of more than 75 cm (maximum size of the toise) will bring back a bonus of 15 additional points whatever its size, 76 cm or more.
What process will you use to validate the catches?
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros After registration, each pair will receive a 75 cm rigid fish finder and a PVC "TAG" the size of a CB. To definitively validate a fish, it will be necessary to send by mail: 2 photos by fish, 1 photo of the fish with the "TAG" and a photo of the fish taken by the binomial.
Once validated these 2 fishes, it will not be possible to improve its quota. Nevertheless, nothing prevents the competitors to validate their fishes at the very last moment. You keep your fishes in your camera as you would keep your fishes in your tank in a more classical competition.
The validation of the catches will be done by mail, the system is a little archaic for this first edition but it allows us to be autonomous, independent and especially to break in our concept.
I guess if you have set a quota of only 2 fish there is a good reason?
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros There are 2 main reasons for this. The first one is that it is Cédric Lartigue (European Communication Manager of Savager's ndlr ) and myself who will receive and process the photos sent by email, which represents a certain workload. The second reason is to receive, we hope, a good proportion of photos of nice fish so as to enhance the image of the kayak fishing competition.
How can you ensure that there is no cheating?
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros Let's be honest, our concept is not infallible, however our "TAG" is there to counter those who would have bad intentions.
At the beginning of each round the competitors will be asked to cut one of the corners of the "TAG", each corner having a different color, this allows to make sure that the validated fish has not been caught before or after the current round. For example, let's imagine that the first round is the Green round, so the "TAGs" will have to have the green corner cut on all the photos we will receive for this round.
With the will to believe in it we count on the good state of mind of each participant and the kayak fishing competitions which took place before this one, I think in particular of the SKF or the Fish à l'Affiche Trophy have been the proof of this state of mind that the kayak competitors have. Après, if a participant wants to cheat, too bad for himâeuros¦ And then, there is nothing to win if not the glory or the honor (laughs). No kayaking, no luresâeuros¦ The goal is really to bring people together.
Indeed, from what I could see about the communication around this event on social networks, the idea is above all to gather kayak fishermen around a competition and in a good state of mind.
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros The idea is that anyone, regardless of their region, experience or the equipment they use, should have access to a kayak fishing competition. In general, most of the kayak fishing competitions take place in the Great West or Normandy and the travel for a weekend is not possible for everyone depending on his geographical situation. The idea is that it is truly open to as many people as possible. This is one of the reasons why we have created a Facebook page dedicated to the event, Jam Kayak Fishing Competition so that the Fiiish and Savager's Facebook pages are not the only communication relays (a profile of the same name exists on Instagram also ndlr ).
JAM! is a rather atypical name in the fishing world!
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros Indeed, Jam means "gathering". In the world of music, a Jam is a session during which several musicians meet to improvise together. Here, the idea is the same. JAM! is a well thought-out name with a strong meaning, a bit like a war cry through which we wish to demonstrate that, despite the context, it is possible to get together, in one way or another.
A little reminder of the safety rules?
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros They are similar to those that you can find in the framework of classic competitions like always having a kayak buddy, VHF compulsory and visible on the photos, life jacket compulsory and visible on the photos too. We will be uncompromising on these points.
Registration is open as of today. How do I proceed?
Romain Le Bouffo âeuros To register, everything is dematerialized since the registration is done on the Savager's website. You "buy" your registration as you would buy a product on the site. After registering, each pair will receive its "TAG", its toise, etc. For this first edition, we have limited the number of places to 50 pairs. We invite the readers who would like to take part in the adventure to follow the Live that will be held tonight at 7:30 pm on the Facebook page of the event during which we will discuss in details the points concerning the organization and the rules of the competition and we will try to answer all the questions that will be asked! You can register by clicking HERE .
Thank you Romain and let's hope that this idea will be used in the future!
Social networks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamkayak/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamkayakfishingcompetition/?hl=fr
