Great whinge for a first post - it's in an effort to spread the prize money around more evenly - plus you get the chance of picking up £100 in the raffle included in your ticket whether you weigh-in or not. Also, we're the only club I know that donates proceeds to charity (Evening Chronicle Sunshine Fund), having given over £33,000 over the years. If you still feel that strongly, then we'll gladly accept any contribution you'd like to make in the way of a donated prize or sponsorship or perhaps you could guarantee a turnout of 400 plus anglers, then we could look at increasing the prize fund. If you're still not happy then as Micky says, don't fish it - simples.
Unfortunately attendance at opens is headed the same way, and several (e.g. Tynemouth) are no more. Gone are the days of over 1400 anglers, anything over 200 is a success these days, and the budget for comps reflects this. Many anglers dislike a proportionately large first prize (encourages cheating etc etc) and think it a bit off that the winner might pick up £500 when the fourth place has to make do with a smock. So don't be surprised in future years to see more comps being run on reduced budgets or being cancelled altogether if attendances continue to fall.
When we used to have a top three listed prizes, it was always in the rules that the angler could accept the nominated prize or have the pick of a table prize if preferred. I'd hope other clubs would do the same - personally I hate it when I see someone picking prizes out and handing them to anglers who get no choice….
There's always a debate as to whether it's better to have fewer, better quality prizes, or try and reward everybody by having a table full of fish-bags & boxes of hooks & general trash. Personally I like to see the top 6-10 getting something worthwhile, with maybe another 20-30 or so prizes rather than endless prizes of caps & spools of line. (Based on turnout of 150-200 anglers - bigger events with major sponsorship can always do better). I certainly don't believe that a nigh on last placed barely-size whiting is worthy of the latest Century rod as some would have you believe
Then there's always the debate over huge versus smaller boundaries, which opens up another whole can of worms….
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