Back to the tournament. Just to make it clear, that after the top 10 heaviest Chinook, the heaviest halibut, heaviest hatchery Chinook and a couple other specialty prizes the other 50% in value prizes are awarded by draws. All you have to do it register a catch (min 5 pounds for salmon) and you get a draw ticket for these draws. Our most valuable draw prize to date is a 9.9 Yamaha high thrust. We set the tournament up this way so that the top rods can compete against each other because they enjoy the competition and novices can still win as well. We are attracting more folks who would otherwise not bother entering a tournament like this because they feel they don't stand a chance under a normal tournament format.
(larger fish take all the prizes) It is also more responsible to not run a derby that exclusively targets only larger fish. Our sponsors also are more comfortable supporting this format.