This discussion reminded me of coverage I watched of one of the Bass Masters Elite Tournaments that KVD did win and during it caught the largest recorded bass ever taken from that lake. Incredible to think of how many people fish a body of water like that….and during a tournament he pulls off that fish…the statistics are against everything aligning to make it happen on that given day….just goes to show how much preparation and skill a guy like that displays.

"Lewisville, Texas — There are great weeks and then there are weeks like the one Kevin VanDam just had. The Kalamazoo Kid dominated the Lake Lewisville Bassmaster Elite 50 bass fishing tournament in every facet of competition, starting off the tournament on Wednesday by catching a new lake record largemouth bass weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces.
The 2001 Bassmaster Classic champ finished the week in grand fashion, bringing in a fourth consecutive limit, this one weighing 10 pounds, four ounces and good enough to best Missouri's Brian Snowden by a pound and 12 ounces. VanDam, whose two-day total was 18-4, takes home a $100,000 paycheck for his efforts."

I know nothing about muskie tourney's and am nowhere near a good enough fisherman to enter one so I am not sure if rules like this already exist but why not set up a system where the cutoff for fish that count is something like 35 or 40 inches and then you get a certain amount of points per inch for fish bigger than that but the amount of points per inch increase at specific size "milestones" per say. For instance say you get 1 point per inch and any inch over 45 you get 5 points per inch and any inch over 50 you get 10 or even 20 points per inch. So that you are still rewarding those who catch alot of fish but the big ones count for so much more. So a 52 inch fish is essentially worth the same as 3 or more 35 inch fish but you are not automatically giving the victory to one lucky guy who catches 1 pig.

Just my thoughts…