550

2011 Updated Points Proposal Coldwater Salmon points are dropped from 71 to 66 to account for a major resurgence in the average and outlier size. This brings the window past the historical average but recent results suggest the average top 10 fish is growing. This puts the points in better agreement with the Lake Trout category below. Lake Trout points are increased by 1 point from 36 to 37 points. This increase in points gives the outlier L.T. the opportunity to compete with an outlier salmon. Like the salmon category, this puts the average Lake Trout at a slightly more difficult weight to achieve historically but recent results suggest that the average is increasing. The two changes for Lake Trout and Salmon bring them in pretty good agreement with each other. Coolwater Smallmouth points remain at the historical 100pts which is a good historical average. Northern Pike Points remain at 37pts. N.P. points could be increased to move the average to the average pike size but there are already a significant number of outlier fish in the graph at the current point configuration. Increasing N.P. points would create a difficult super bonus winning scenario for walleye and smallmouth. Walleye points are reduced from 70 to 62 to bring the window to the historic average. Note that this still leaves a significant number of outlier fish at 513 and 550 meaning that Walleye still stand a strong chance of winning the super bonus with the new point structure. If large walleye are registered in subsequent years, it may be necessary to revisit Walleye points and move them lower. Warmwater Catfish points remain the same at 20pts. The average fish and the outlier fish are well distributed. Bowfin points are increased by 2 points from 39 to points brings the average bowfin inline with the historical average and gives the outlier bowfin a chance at winning the super bonus. Sheepshead points are decreased by 1 point from 30 to 29 points. This puts the average in good agreement with the historical average and moves the outlier lines to a higher fish weight. Note that the very limited data on Sheepshead means that this point structure may need further refinement as more Sheepshead are caught. Largemouth points are decreased from 84 to 81 points bringing the average fish weight inline with the point region. Additionally, the Largemouth pool is more consistent with the other members of the warmwater species.