Tidelines – August 1, 2013
From feedback I’ve received from past Tidelines articles, it seems some of you are interested in hearing about the business of fishing. While I have gained a little insight into the business of charter fishing, tackle shops, boat dealers, etc. via my time with Fisherman’s Post, the areas where I feel most comfortable reflecting on are fishing newspapers, fishing schools, and fishing tournaments.
Trying to solve a fishing tournament problem is my topic here.
Three years ago I was approached by good friends that wanted to bring a premiere king mackerel tournament back to the Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington areas. I liked the idea and agreed to partner with them to put on the Wild King Classic, but after three years we haven’t even come close to being a “premiere” event.
Boat numbers, perhaps the most important number for tournament directors trying to gauge the success of their event, have been in decline since our inaugural year where we attracted 50-ish boats despite a questionable weather forecast. Last year, we only registered a dismal 17 boats.
My partners and I have tried each year making changes to the structure of our event to motivate more boats to sign up, but none of our modifications have had any positive effect. Last year we felt the need to try something severe, so we implemented the drastic change of limiting our king mackerel tournament to boats 23’ or less. We were crucified online for making this change, but not making a big change and expecting a different result would have made us guilty of Einstein’s definition of insanity.
We knew the real problem with the Wild King Classic, but we were powerless to fix it. The real problem is that king mackerel tournament fishermen want guaranteed payouts and/or big payouts (and I understand why, as fishing KMT’s is expensive), and we were never set up to be a big money event.
My partners and I never wanted to be a big money event. We wanted a lot of boats, but we mostly strived for a lot of boats because we sought to host a big event in our local fishing community. We wanted the event to be social, attracting a lot of friends, old and new. We wanted to use the power of Wild Wing Café, one of our major sponsors, to put on a great party every night of the tournament where we shared food and drink. And we wanted to be family-friendly, celebrating junior anglers and encouraging ladies and seniors to join in on the weekend festivities.
We didn’t want to compete with other events primarily on the basis of prize payout amounts. We wanted to give our participants value in other ways, and for us that would be the reward of hosting the event.
Therefore, with three years gone by and boat numbers weakening rather than improving, we have made the decision to abandon the Wild King Classic. I have gained confidence during my 10+ years of publishing Fisherman’s Post and thought the Wild King Classic was a problem that I could ultimately solve, but with the event’s regular weekend date a little less than two months away, it is time to recognize that the Wild King Classic (for me) is defunct.
So now what?
I think I’ll listen to Henry Ford. I think my takeaway of the Wild King Classic will be following his words, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again.”
Does that mean I plan to start another king mackerel tournament? No way. Not any time in the foreseeable future at least.
My plan is to start a new “premiere” event in the Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington area, one that sticks to my vision for a fishing tournament/event: fun, social, a sense of community, family friendly, and with good prize payouts and lots of winners (even if money isn’t the bottom line you still need healthy checks to add energy and excitement to the event).
Spanish mackerel will be the new target species for the 2013 NewBridge Bank Spanish Open. I think that’s just a working title—I would love someone to call or email me with a better name for the event. In fact, please call or email me if you would like to help in any way with Fisherman’s Post’s new venture of a fall spanish mackerel tournament.
