Bagging out at fishing competitions SUNTAG
Stefan Sawynok
Back at this time of year in 2017 I wrote an article on the ABT bag system (Best 5 fish by weight) comparing it to the only major alternative, being points as a key metric to decide winners and alsorans in fishing events. The focus of that article was on how useful the bag system was in terms of improving the competition overall. Even at that stage my view was that the bag system was the most reliable measure of fishing as a sport, which said the lack of adoption of that system outside the ABT was a major hurdle. Fast forward to 2021 and now bags in events are far
gave the impression it was a niche format. In 2021 though, we now have a lot more events that have made the leap to bags and over time I expect that momentum to grow. More to the point, all the events that have made the jump to bags have reported that they have tightened up the competition with a lot more leaderboard changes and competitiveness to the last minute. One of the things that has been tested now in terms of bags is a much wider array of species, including the full array of freshwater species, estuary species, pelagic and even reef species. Species is one area I had a concern with bags in terms of how scalable they are but in reality, the bag system equalises well across the whole set of species as there is a natural distribution of sizes within a species. A
Table 1. Top 10 Fishers calculated using the 2021 rules Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Team HUMMINBIRD HAPPY DAYS JUST TROLLIN TEAM FUSION EDWARDS BARRA BROTHERS TACKLEWORLD REVO`S PISSWRECK FISHING DEAD FISHY OLD SCHOOL TACKLE WORLD CODDAMMIT
equalise well but at the expense of ease of understanding or ‘caveat’ rules. Here I have my biggest issue because any sport that is going to be followed by an audience needs to be easily understood. Best five fish is easy to understand, bonus points that reset are not. That is not to say that points systems are wrong, personally I like the idea that
No Fish 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
not trying to create controversy over who should or should not placed wherever, I am using the numbers as an academic exercise of comparison. Table.1 has the results from this years top 10, Table. 2 has the results if the 2018/19 points system was used. Note that in 2020 there was no restriction on length whereas the points system excludes fish under 40cm.
Table 2. Top 10 Fishers calculated using the 2018/19 rules Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Team HUMMINBIRD TEAM FUSION HAPPY DAYS DEAD FISHY JUST TROLLIN OLD SCHOOL TACKLE WORLD HUMMINBIRD/MERCURY EDWARDS BARRA BROTHERS PRECISION MARINE MERCURY TACKLEWORLD REVO`S
more common and, through the typical innovation of fishers, the bag system has fleshed out in a range of different spaces, including club, online and major events. My view hasn’t changed, I think that the bag system is the best system fishing has for ‘fishing as a sport’ because: • Bags reward consistency – maintaining a good average is more important than numbers. • Bags make time meaningful – in events that are based on numbers of points advantage, it’s easy for a fisher to take the lead and run away with it. As demonstrated in the ABT Bream Australian Open and the Barra Nationals, the bag system means the highest performers need to stay on their game, lest they be pipped at the post. • Bags make tactics meaningful. This applies more to multi-day events where conditions may change but I have been to many events where limiting the damage on a tough day is as important as cashing in on the good days. • Bags naturally equalize the field without need for additional rules. BAGS IN 2021 In the limited forums where bags were being used in 2017, separating the potential from reality was a challenge. The mathematics stacked up in terms of improving the overall competitive side of the sport but limited events using bags 122
JULY 2021
bag of four Australian salmon in the Salmon Slam is just as effective as a five bag of Murray cod in the Teams Fishing Australia event terms of competition. If there is one area the bag system has a limit it’s geography, though I haven’t seen a system that accounts well for location. While the bag system is perfect for localised species (eg. a river or dam) or a mobile migratory species (Australian salmon), there will be variation in sizes between north and south, east and west. While we don’t really have a great number of national events beyond the Pirtek Challenge, I think that the best solution for the cross location issue is the ABT approach of hosting events in a wide variety of venues. BAGS VS POINTS – BARRA NATIONALS 2021 The biggest limitation of points systems of all stripes in terms of usefulness as a measure is no matter how you work them, they always end up providing a benefit to somebody. The alternative is essentially to make them more complex, which I have definitely seen a number of very good points systems that
No Fish 57 58 58 56 57 64 59 20 38 30
Total Length 3,364 2,767 2,540 2,103 2,051 1,979 1,901 1,858 1,787 1,744
there are different flavours of events but all pastimes that have become sports have had to sacrifice variety for consistency of rules. There is no standardisation of rules in points, bags is a simple single rule that is easy to understand and creates better competition. Creates better competition – Three words that will definitely spark up debate, but hear me out I have in this case a decent set of numbers to compare. As luck would have it this year the Barra Nationals is one of the first events we have on the books that made the transition from a points system to a daily bag, similar to the ABT. In that event there were over 2,000 fish submitted, so sample size is not a problem. In order to do this assessment, I went back post event and applied the points used in the 2018/2019 events. The rationale for the change was specifically to improve the overall competitiveness of the event, to even things up and keep the event alive until the last day, in line with the events status as a premium event on the calendar. I want to be clear I am
Total Points 60.6 58.6 52.6 52.2 46.9 51.3 50.1 65.9 47.0 61.4
DID CHANGING TO BAGS SUCCEED? Addressing the core objective of increasing the competitiveness of the event there are a couple of metrics that help demonstrate why bags delivered the result the organisers were after. First, take a look at the averages, the averages for bags form a consistent progression, whereas under the points system the averages are random with eighth and tenth having a higher average than first. I think there is a reasonable debate to be had on ability to get numbers over ability to deliver day over day but in this case ability to deliver day over day was favoured. Still, the winner is the same so what’s the difference? Table. 3. highlights the real difference between the bags and points systems. Using exactly the same fish, the difference between 1st and 10th is significantly less than the difference between first and second under the points system. In real terms, for 2nd to match 1st they needed an extra 2cm a fish on their 15 fish, whereas under the points system they were either two 95 cm, or one 115cm barra
Table 3. Comparison of Bags vs Points Top 10 fishers Difference in Score Bags Difference 1st - 2nd 2.7% Difference 1st - 5th 5.9% Difference 1st - 10th 12.3%
Total Length 1,123 1,093 1,081 1,075 1,057 1,036 1,031 1,024 999 985
short. For 10th to make up the difference under bags they needed an extra 9cm per fish, whereas under the point system they needed an additional 27 fish while maintain the same average to catch first. Another way to look at it is under bags, 1st was around 10% better than 10th, under points they were twice as good. I will let readers decide which is a more accurate representation of the actual performance difference over five days. By that final metric, the Barra Nationals definitely succeeded in tightening up the competition. MORE FISH VS MORE CONSISTENCY Numbers of fish vs consistency is going to be a debate that will go on. I don’t think there is a right answer to that question. As with everything in fishing, there is only evolution. In the end events and competitors will decide which path is right. Bags do achieve their primary goal of improving the competitiveness of the event without the need for complex algorithms. Simplicity and scalability are the hallmarks of systems that are replicated and that’s part of the reason I think bags are becoming more popular. The scoreboard from the Barra Nationals reached an audience of more than 14,000 viewers across Australia and New Zealand so it’s fair to say there is a serious audience and most won’t know the event rules. This is the other component of the sport – consistency grows audiences. The general public following fishing are not going to learn a new system every time they follow an event. Imagine if the scoring system changed every time you turned up to a Rugby League or AFL match. All of the events with largest followings of scoreboards in the last 12 months – ABT Bream Australian Open, Barra Nationals, Teams Fishing Australia and SCF Research & Sustainability/ King of Kings have been bag
Difference in Score Points 17.7% 39.0% 48.2%
Total Points 74.9 72.9 72.1 71.7 70.5 69.1 68.7 68.3 66.6 65.7
based events. That might be a hint that if it’s simple to follow, the interest is there. YAKHUNTERS Having compared an event that has made the change I want to look at a couple of events that have innovated with Bags to demonstrate that bags don’t limit variety in terms of how they are implemented. Yakhunters is an Australia Wide event series that takes quite a different approach to the Hobie Series which applies a more traditional bag format with live weigh ins. I ran into the Yakhunters crew a couple of years ago and have kind of found myself dragged into the team – I get to run the scoring for all their events which happen in six states all on one day, which for me is often a crazy busy day. Yakhunters use a mix of two and three bags – total cm, decided state by state. Yakhunters embrace the outdoors aspect of Kayaks, so every round in each state is in different location targeting a different species. This ensures that whoever takes out the series has been tested in a range of conditions. Given the lower mobility of Kayaks a two bag is a good compromise that keeps the whole field in the mix. Over the past two years the number of fish coming in during the events has nearly doubled and clearly the skills of the competitors has improved by a good margin. I think that’s because Yakhunters have developed a great formula – mix up salt and freshwater, lure only and locations that are great getaways for the weekend encouraging camping for the prefish. That extra day on the water with less pressure definitely helps sharpen the skills for the main event. TEAM FISHING AUSTRALIA Teams Fishing Australia is a new series with quite a different premise and a mix of traditional and app based Bag events. Their Mulwala round bought in a different concept a mixed Bag of five Goldens and five Murray Cod. This event was one of the most exciting of the year for me, I looked at the algorithm and decided that given Goldens were the smaller fish
