----- WALLEYE WARS IV Presented by ANGLER’S ATLAS ----- NUMBER OF ANGLERS 150 ----- DATES January 15, 2021 - January 31, 2021 ----- LOCATION Any waterbody within Saskatchewan. ----- ENTRY FEE $100/angler ----- SPECIES Walleye (inc. Sauger and Saugeye) ----- PRIZING 1st Place - $5000 ($4500 cash + $500 PK Lures Prize Package) 2nd Place - $2500 3rd Place - $1500 4th Place - $1000 5th Place - $500 6th Place - $100 7th Place - $100 8th Place - $100 9th Place - $100 10th Place - $100 Lottery Draw - $1000 (every walleye logged counts as 1 lottery ball into the draw) Biggest Fish, Day 1 - $200 PK Lures Prize Package ----- The above Top 10 placements will be awarded to the Top 10 anglers (not fish). Only the largest fish recorded by each angler will count for Top 10 Leaderboard prizes. Above prize amounts are based on a full field of 150 anglers. If the tournament doesn’t fill, the payout percentages for each paid position will remain the same. Sponsor prizing may replace cash in some paid positions from 2nd to 10th, which will be announced prior to the event start date. This is an individual tournament, so you cannot enter as a partnership or team, and under no circumstances can you share fish with any other angler. This is a Catch Photo Release virtual tournament. As per our government tournament licence, anglers MUST release their walleye after submitting the catch on the app. Anybody who is caught keeping fish (regardless of allowable limits for their location) will be disqualified. The goal is to achieve a 0% mortality rate with all of our Walleye Wars events. ----- RULES ----- The health and safety of the fish as well as the anglers is of the utmost importance, especially given that this is an ice fishing event. We ask that all participating anglers use their better judgement in the interest of keeping both the fish and themselves safe. As tournament organizers, we cannot regulate morality, so please do your part to ensure a future for this and other ice fishing events. No fishing deeper than 31 feet. ----- Please also adhere to the following: Measure fish inside tents or ice shacks whenever possible, specially when temperatures dip below -10 degrees celsius Be mindful of ice thickness; your life is worth more than $5000 Wet your boards/rulers prior to measuring fish in cold conditions to help prevent freezing the fish to the board, especially if you are using a Judge or other aluminum/metal boards Angler’s Atlas reserves the right to reject a fish on the basis of clear and indisputable evidence that a fish has been mistreated or mishandled. In such a case, the fish will be rejected and the angler will be warned once. If there is a repeat incident where a second fish is rejected for these reasons, the angler will be disqualified from the tournament, and any fish they have logged prior will be ineligible to win any prizes, including the Lottery Draw. All tournament catches will be submitted via the MyCatch mobile app (available on IOS and Android), and a tournament page will be set up www.walleyewars.com with live leaderboards that will update in real time. Catch data is shared confidentially with various Universities and research groups in Canada to further conservation and data gathering initiatives. For the anglers, Secret Spots Stay Secret...always. In the event of a tie, the win will go to the angler who logged the most catches overall. The event is capped at 150 participants. ----- REGISTRATION Signup for Walleye Wars is available online at www.walleyewars.com. The event will be filled on a first-come-first-serve basis, no exceptions. Updates regarding signup dates, availability, etc will be made on the Walleye Wars Facebook page. ----- MEASUREMENT RULES Anglers must use a measureboard/bump board to record their fish lengths (no tapes). Judge Tournament Rulers are the accepted standard, and we ask that wherever possible you use a Judge. Judges will be mandatory as of May 1, 2021. Measurements will be recorded using cm to the nearest mm. You can still use your inches ruler, but your measurements will be converted to cm on the leaderboards. If a fish exceeds the length of your board, the longest legible measurement on the measureboard will be recorded as the fish’s length (no guess measurements will be made). Every catch goes through a 2-step accept/reject process (the catch itself, and the length) We've recently included the capability of adding a 2nd photo to your catch submission on the MyCatch app. We ask that where possible, include a 2nd photo (in addition to the measureboard photo) of the fish being released. This is NOT mandatory and will have no effect on the eligibility of the catch submission, but we would like to test this feature out as a best practice moving forward. ----- Measuring: Fish bumped up against the end of the measureboard The fish must lay natural on the board (ie. NO HANDS IN THE GILLS) You are allowed to pinch the tail to the width of the board (but this is not mandatory) The mouth is allowed to be open, closed, or anywhere in between, so long as the fish meets the other above requirements The above measurement rules apply to every fish 60cm or over. For fish under 60cm, quickly put the fish on the measureboard, take a photo, and release the fish. Fish under 60cm will be judged less harshly as they will not affect paid positions in the tournament. The goal is to get the fish back in the water as soon as possible. If you break ANY of the above bulleted rules on a fish 60cm or over, the length of your fish will be rejected. If a length is rejected, the catch itself will still be approved. ----- FAQ ----- Who can access the location data of my catches? The very first thing we tell MyCatch users is that “Secret Spots Stay Secret”. We will NOT share any GPS data with any other anglers. In fact, only Sean Simmons (President of Angler’s Atlas) has access to that data. Tournament catches will be approved by Dallas Kirkpatrick and Jim Clarke, both of whom do not have that access. The only information that will be public on the Tournament Page will be the photo, date, and time that the catch was submitted. Angler’s Atlas shares its data with select university researchers and biologists, who all must sign an agreement to keep any GPS data anonymous. Can I fish with friends or other tournament participants? The prize structure is set up to minimize the issue of “fish sharing”, so there is nothing wrong with two or more tournament competitors choosing to fish together. Each angler just has to enter their own fish on their own phone. While it is still technically possible to go out fishing with non-tournament anglers and record their fish as your own, we are confident that this group of anglers will abide by the spirit of the rule. Sportsmanship will always play a role in fishing tournaments. How long does it take for my recorded catch to show up on the Tournament Webpage and the Leaderboard? When a catch is logged on the app, it is immediately sent to the Tournament Webpage for review. The catch will not show up publicly on the page or leaderboard until it is approved by the administrator. Catches will be reviewed/approved by Dallas Kirkpatrick and Jim Clarke, and Sean Simmons will have the tiebreaker vote on any discrepancies. Throughout the tournament, we will review/approve catches at least once every 24 hours on business days (although it will likely be much more often). Will my catches record if I am out of cell range? Yes! If you record a catch out of cell range, you will get a notification informing you that your catch will submit when you are back in range. Photos are time/location stamped to the moment they are taken, so even if you catch submits 5 hours later, it will be backdated to the time and location that the photo was taken. What happens if the app crashes and I have a 10lb fish in my boat? In the unlikely event that something goes very wrong with the app, there are two failsafes in place. 1) MyCatch automatically saves a copy of all photos taken in the app to your Camera Roll/Gallery, so these can emailed in manually if the system fails (please don’t delete these photos from your phone until the tournament is over, just in case), and 2) If the app is offline and you catch a new fish, take a picture of it on your measure board with you phone’s camera, and email it in. These scenarios are a last resort, but we have to make sure we have a Plan B if something goes wrong. Why did you reject my catch? The system requires 2 approvals for each fish logged. The moderator has to approve both the fish (ie. confirming that the fish is allowable based on species), and the measurement of the fish. It is very important that you check and make sure that your MyCatch photo of your fish on the measure board is visible and checks all of the boxes of an allowable fish (*see above). If we cannot verify the length of the fish in the photo, we have no choice but to reject the measurement. That said, if the measurement is rejected, the catch itself can still be approved (which is important for the lottery odds and tiebreakers - you would still get credit for the catch, just not the measurement) Are hero shots required? No. Fish submissions will be accepted/rejected based on the measureboard photos. Where can I follow along with the tournament and the leaderboard? The tournament will be hosted on it’s own webpage on the Angler’s Atlas website (www.walleyewars.com). On this page, you will be able to view submitted catches, as well as see real-time leaderboards for Largest Walleye, and Most Walleye Caught. Walleye Wars also has a Facebook page, and we will be posting updates regularly. The Facebook page is not mandatory/necessary for competitors who do not have a Facebook account, however, if you have the link, you can still view the page without an account (you will not be able to post or interact with anyone). All participants must have a valid Saskatchewan Fishing Licence, and adhere to both the provincial and local fishing laws wherever they choose to fish within the province. If you have any questions, issues, comments at all (either before or during the tournament), please don’t hesitate to reach out to Dallas at any time. Dallas Kirkpatrick [email protected] (306) 587 7625