OKA Qualifiers and Payout Structure for the 2016 Spring Series
How to Qualify for the Oklahoma State Championship: The state Championship is one of our most coveted titles. Gary Kasper currently reins as The CHAMP, but a new championship belt is being forged. Will you earn the right to wear it?
This event will be held on October 15th
Here are the ways you can get an invite to fish in the championship:
1) Top 10 AOY finish in either circuit for the Oklahoma Kayak Anglers 2) Top 3 Finish in any Oklahoma Kayak Anglers event 3) Participated as a Board member for the Oklahoma Kayak Anglers 4) Top 10 finish in: The Beavers Bend Kayak Classic
The Oklahoma OPEN 5) Win 3 big bass jackpots/Or the 3 anglers with the most wins at the end of the season (3 slots available) HOOK 1 Oklahoma Central Ok Working Man’s
The AOY list will be the drawing pool if anglers qualify through other ways than the AOY top 10. Just a heads up that the entry fee will be a few more dollars than your typical OKA event, but the payout will be huge!
How to Qualify for the Tournament of Champions:
This is THE high stakes high reward tournament. It draws from the top events around the country and brings them into the south central us (you don't have to drive across the country). Its held on Lake Fork in November
https://www.facebook.com/events/713433728786948/
Top 3 from the Red River Rivalry
Top 3 in the Oklahoma vs. Arkansas Border Battle
Top 5 in either circuit of the OKA Spring Series
How to Qualify for the 2017 KBF National Championship:
We are still negotiating the KBF National championship and I will update this section as soon as we have the information. I can tell you that we are shooting for top 5 in AOY points from each circuit. KBF is also hosting online tournaments wich have Oklahoma evenly matched with other states. I know that Gary Kasper has been participating in them http://tourneyx.com/tournament/west-central-may-2016-kbf-rcs/
OKA 2016 Payout Structure explained
I've heard quite a few questions concerning our payout structure, so lets explain it here. This was also covered at the beginning of the year in our February meetings.
First of all the OKA would like to thank the men and women who came out and fished with us this year. It takes foresight and a sense of community to invest in building a club. If you fished with us you had a direct hand into building Oklahoma's kayak fishing future. This year we took a big step towards building the club a more solid and stable foundation.
I've seen alot of guys bow out, tuck tail, and run when they find out that they aren't getting the money directly back. You guys didn't do that, you fished. You came out and fished in some tough conditions, made a few new friends, shared in victory and defeat, and you fished. That is one of the things I love about kayak fishing, I've seen more "doers" while participating in these events than I have anywhere else. It is what has kept me inspired, you guys going out there and giving it your all in a day of kayak fishing and not being afraid to lend a hand.
The Payout structure is a tough subject for me to explain, so I'll just start at the beginning. This trail started more as a local club, nothing fancy was needed and what expenses we had were just paid upfront out of a few of our pockets. After a year of doing it that way, I realized that wasn't going to work. We switched to a $5/angler fee afterward and had stayed there until this year. That $5/angler went towards everything we purchase and mainly at the begging of the year (scorecards, paperwork, for AOY and some prizes, for lake permits and fees, for trophy's and plaque's, for the website....ect ect.)
This year the Board felt it necessary to introduce liability insurance. Which gives the organizers some protection should something bad happen. It comes with an initial cost of around $200 and $5 for each angler at each event. The American Canoe Association (ACA) offers the best deal we were able to find so we went with them.
The Board also wanted to try a new approach towards the season to increase the AOY cash prize, and to boost the prize pool for the open/championship.
The best compromise we came up with after a vote from multiple payout structures was the 50/50 payout rule:
The old way: $30 entry fee---- $25 back into prize pot, $5 into the OKA account (which wasn't enough to keep up with our growth)
The new way: $30 entry fee---- $15 pays directly back into the prize pot, $5 to the ACA insurance, $10 to the OKA ( the $10 is now being used to purchase everything we need) We also added a fun raiser through tourney x in the form of Toad Fest and hope to do one more this summer if time allows.
John is our treasure and this is his take:
John Richmond " The 50/50 rule was put in place to accomplish a couple of things that will help sustain the group. First, we wanted to be able to file for a nonprofit status. This will give us a legitimate stance in the community and may make it a little easier to convince companies to donate prizes in the future. To do this it takes approximately $1000 for all the fillings with the state and IRS. Second, was to be able to have a little working capital. This insures that we as a group can pay such bills as insurance and website fees. Last year I believe we were not getting insurance which leaves all of us, as board members, liable if someone was to get hurt. And if memory serves me correctly a person could not only file suit against the board but could then sue each of us separately. In addition, we will have an AOY from both NE and CE divisions with better payouts for that and should have some money to carry over to get 2017 tournament schedule running. The last thing the 50/50 rule does is keep the cost down and still have great pay outs. We have seen some fantastic growth with increased participation this year and I believe that one thing that helps that is the cost. If you are a single guy coming out to fish it is easy. But one thing we are seeing is families starting to come or maybe father son. If we raise the cost then we may put in jeopardy some of these folks not being able to attend. Another thing to keep in mind is simple math, larger participation equals more prize money.
We are currently working on prizes for the Open. It will have some big prizes and we should have them worked into the open page soon! See you guys at the Open! https://www.facebook.com/oklahomakayakanglers/events?ref=page_internal&qsefr=1