A DISQUALIFICATION
Team Misfits did a good job of catcching many sharks in one spot or in a few spots closely related and they did not take the time to be more careful with posting what they caught and ended up with MULTIPLE DOUBLE POST OF THE SAME SHARKS. We will only disqualify the double posted sharks caught by Team Misfits.I personally do not take pleasure in this, I am hurt this has happened because I know these are good young man who may be victims of just not being computer savvy and let someone who did not understand the importance of not making multiple mistakes on different pages of the BHC thread while posting the Team's shark pictures.
Fishing for numbers and having to post all whole bunch of sharks all at once increases the possibility that the person posting the sharks will get confused with the number of similiar sized sharks.I'm not giving anyone an easy out to what we found in this circumstance with Team Misfits posting multiple same sharks .If you prepare well and put no more then say five sharks at a time every couple of days there should be no confusion and no excuse for double posting OF ANY SHARK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE.
The name of this Tournament which was thought of by myself from many years of hooking large hammerhead sharks and getting my equipment trashed or my line POPPED ,wrapped on pilings, or my big Penn Senators completely spooled is "THE BIG HAMMER CHALLENGE" it is that for a good reason.
The key words in the tournaments name are "BIG HAMMER" and "CHALLENGE" .Unlike other internet catch and release shark tournaments of the past which set up a points system per shark and the Teams with the most sharks were crowned the Grand Champions,,,,,we are a CHALLENGE tournament we don't place much emphasis on the numbers!!Do marlin fisherman fish for numbers ,do Tuna fishermen fish for numbers,do swordfish fisherman fish for numbers ???NO they fish to do battle with the BIGGEST OF THE BIGGEST .Folks weather you know it or not WE ARE BIG GAME HUNTERS and we love a good fight with a worthy opponent that will push us to the max,push us to overcome our limits ,test our resolve,and make us find our spirit and the strength in our bodies.
Real red blooded shark fishermen thirst for a fight with a MONSTER SHARK that will take you to the limits of your physical capacity and test your equipment to the maximum .Numbers are good, but BIGGEST IS GREAT.
The point I am making here is that we don't mind if you catch 5o ,60 or 70 sharks during our tourney BUT we are more interested in those BIG STUD SHARKS and is the life blood of what this tournament was meant to be.Some teams may have a great spot where they catch 10 sharks a night but if you are limiting your catches by fishing one spot with repeated same species of small to medium sized sharks then you have missed the boat and shortchanged yourself and your team of the big prize -the BIG SHARK!!We urge all teams in the future to fish for the big fish not only for the numbers.We urge Teams to fish for the different Line Classes and the different platforms such as Bridge,Pier,Jetty and Beach which shows shorebound anglers that have become proficient in catching sharks in multiple different ways depending on obstacles presented by each one of those.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
Will,
How about givng these guys a chance to clean up thier count. Its tough to keep things straight sometimes after several days on the beach. Mark did our reports and had to make several edits as we saw things that needed correcting. Our final count on the week four report you put up is even wrong. 12 and 21 equals 33, not 32. These young men fished hard.
To your point about the monster. We have fished beaches, for two years that regularly have produced 11' to 13' Hammers and Tigers. In two years the best we have managed is a 9'6" Lemon and 8'8 1/2" Bull. Looks like we'll be moving around some next year. Seems that spring just ain't the season in this area for a monster.
Anyway, just my $.02. Thanks for all you do for our sport.
I am more then glad to give them a chance to defend themselves and I wish they would but they have not even tried ,,no calls ,no pms nothing.When you have looked at the pictures as closely and hard as I have then you see some similiar sized sharks they posted double and that is suspicious and upsetting for a tournament director to see.
ps,,,you are right I just counted your second week total on the graph and your last week total and you have 33 total not 32.My wife makes the graph and runs the totals and we really need help but have none .My ex vice president resigned because he has too much work and everyone else is too busy doing there own thing and again i do the best I can WITH THE HELP OF MY WIFE WHO IS FED UP WITH ALL OF IT BY NOW SHE IS BEGGING FOR THE END OF THE 2012 TOURNAMENT
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
I recieved a call from Team Misfits Scott Ogden late last night and became aware of there mistakes after talking to him for a long while.Team Misfits have been reinstated but all the double posted sharks have been disqualified from there Total Count.These young men fished hard and we will not punish there lack of computer knowledge and dependence on outside help to post there sharks on the BHC thread.We sincerly hope that in the future they will better prepare themselves for the computer work needed to fish and post on this internet based catch and release shark Tournament.
TOTAL COUNT FOR TEAM MISFITS 26 SHARKS
Folks next year please learn computer skills,please become fully aware of what is required to upload pictures and post pictures.Our apologies to the anglers of Team Misfits and any others that were upset by the Disqualification.Most of the Team Misfits members don't even own computers and are fishermen not computer geeks..
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger