... BECAUSE IT SEEMS NOBODY CAN SHOW YOU WHERE IT SAYS HOW, DESPITE EVERYONE HAVING AN OPINION
I was recently coming back into the marina after a good day out beyond the continental shelf where we'd tagged a couple of billfish. We had our flags up where I've always flown them on the port outrigger, and later, one of our club committee members who'd been sitting in the Marlin Bar having a beer at the time, wanted to tell me I was flying my flags the wrong way. This came as something of a surprise to me given that the first game flags I'd ever raised were on my great-uncle's boat back in Sydney when I was nine years old and he'd been very specific in his instructions about how to do it when I asked - as 9-year olds are always doing - "why do they go that way?" His answer went something along the lines of how that was the way they'd always done it in his club.
So having returned in a good mood after some great fishing only to be upbraided about flying my flags the wrong way for the first time in my life, it got me thinking... and two questions immediately came to mind. Firstly, why wasn't this bloke out fishing on such a perfect day himself, and two, where is it written that there's a correct way to fly game fishing flags...?
Ignoring the first, I'll deal with the second.
A bit of research turned up absolutely no definitive answer, but lots of opinions, and most of them along the lines of "well, that's the way they always did it in the first game fishing club I joined"... deja vu!
This is fair enough of course, but I've always believed that it's good practice to be able to back up strongly held opinions with something more than the fact that you learned it from another (often ill-defined) source. So I asked a few specific questions of a few normally reliable sources here and overseas, but nobody in the business knew about any clear guidance on game flags in their rules.
This prompted me to go direct to the peak body - the IGFA. I thought their answer would be black and white, but it turns out there is no current IGFA protocol for game flags, which makes it all the more interesting.
Here's a copy of the email exchange I had with Mike Myatt, the IGFA Chief Operating Officer... my letter and his answer subsequently formed the basis of an op-ed column in Issue 102 of BlueWater magazine written by the IGFA's Rob Kramer, so there was obviously some interest in this matter out there.
Hi Mike…
Your name was the first one that came up in my IGFA file, and so you get to deal with my question.
I hope this doesn’t come down to excess trivia, but it’s one of those things that everyone thinks they know the answer to, but nobody can tell you where to go to check it.
I’ve tried Google, and I’ve tried all my other sources, but I can’t find a definitive answer to something we’ve all done for years without knowing exactly if we’re doing it right.
After over 40 years of game fishing, I couldn’t tell somebody where they could find written down the correct IGFA approved way to fly gamefish flags.
I believe that in some countries, things are done slightly differently, but in the clubs I’ve fished with over the years here in Australia and overseas, we always raised our gamefish flags on the port outrigger, placing any tag flags directly below the fish flag. This goes in any order, but the tag flags always go below the fish flag, and then the next fish flag is added, with any associated tag flags below it, and so forth - but always on the port outrigger.
There has been a bit of discussion about it at our club recently, so I’m hoping that you’ll have access to some definitive description of what the IGFA recommends so that I can get it up on my website and close the matter off for everybody once and for all.
Regards,
Richard O’Ferrall
Member number 1243214
Solitary Islands Game Fishing Club
Australia
Dear Richard,
Thanks for your e-mail and please excuse the late reply, but I wanted to do some research as this question has not come
across our desks before, as IGFA does not currently have a protocol for the proper way to fly gamefish flags.
It seems to be a consensus, after polling some renown captains and mates, that gamefish flags are raised on the outrigger
with the release flags directly below the fish flag. I do not believe there is a difference in which outrigger, but most responses
indicated they flew theirs on the starboard rigger.
The Avalon Tuna Club, which is generally given credit for first employing the flags, used the flag as a method of communication
long before VHF radios to alert the fleet and dock of their catch. I also learned that generally only the
“top” species flag was flown, with no additional flags.
After speaking with the West Palm Beach Fishing club I learned that in 1938 a red release flag was instrumented for the
Silver Sailfish Derby. It was soon after that a subsidiary of the club was formed, the Sailfish Conservation Club, to enhance
catch and release efforts. Later in the 1960’s the white “T” was added during a cooperative tagging program between the
club and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
As we find this question interesting, we will post it on our Facebook social media site and see if we obtain further information.
Thanks for the question and thanks for supporting IGFA.
Good Fishing,
Mike
Michael Myatt
Chief Operating Officer
International Game Fish Association
So, there's the not-quite-definitive answer from the IGFA, but a fascinating piece of historical information about the origin and initial use of game fish flags nonetheless.
The way I see it, fly your flags pretty much any way you want to, and don't let anyone tell you you're not doing it correctly. You may be told to fly tag flags on the starboard side, and capture flags on the proc (or vice-versa), but the fact of the matter is that unless your club or affiliated GFA has a written protocol, you can fly the things exactly however you like, and don't let anybody tell you you're wrong.
Oh... and any local port customs official who can't tell the difference between a quarantine alert or customs clearance needed flag and your game fishing flags is in dire need of retraining...
And if your club or affiliated association doesn't actually have a flag protocol written down, it's arguably in everybody's interest for some enterprising committee member to resolve it. So in light of the IGFA's answer, and the historical precedents noted here, it makes sense that after canvassing opinions, either individual club committees, or preferably, a peak association group need to write a new protocol (please don't make it a "rule"), and then simply publish it as club protocol or association guidance, and the matter will be resolved. Not that it was ever really an issue, but like all these things, when there's no solid guidance, write something down, get it on the record, and that way put it to bed for good.
I was recently coming back into the marina after a good day out beyond the continental shelf where we'd tagged a couple of billfish. We had our flags up where I've always flown them on the port outrigger, and later, one of our club committee members who'd been sitting in the Marlin Bar having a beer at the time, wanted to tell me I was flying my flags the wrong way. This came as something of a surprise to me given that the first game flags I'd ever raised were on my great-uncle's boat back in Sydney when I was nine years old and he'd been very specific in his instructions about how to do it when I asked - as 9-year olds are always doing - "why do they go that way?" His answer went something along the lines of how that was the way they'd always done it in his club.
So having returned in a good mood after some great fishing only to be upbraided about flying my flags the wrong way for the first time in my life, it got me thinking... and two questions immediately came to mind. Firstly, why wasn't this bloke out fishing on such a perfect day himself, and two, where is it written that there's a correct way to fly game fishing flags...?
Ignoring the first, I'll deal with the second.
A bit of research turned up absolutely no definitive answer, but lots of opinions, and most of them along the lines of "well, that's the way they always did it in the first game fishing club I joined"... deja vu!
This is fair enough of course, but I've always believed that it's good practice to be able to back up strongly held opinions with something more than the fact that you learned it from another (often ill-defined) source. So I asked a few specific questions of a few normally reliable sources here and overseas, but nobody in the business knew about any clear guidance on game flags in their rules.
This prompted me to go direct to the peak body - the IGFA. I thought their answer would be black and white, but it turns out there is no current IGFA protocol for game flags, which makes it all the more interesting.
Here's a copy of the email exchange I had with Mike Myatt, the IGFA Chief Operating Officer... my letter and his answer subsequently formed the basis of an op-ed column in Issue 102 of BlueWater magazine written by the IGFA's Rob Kramer, so there was obviously some interest in this matter out there.
Hi Mike…
Your name was the first one that came up in my IGFA file, and so you get to deal with my question.
I hope this doesn’t come down to excess trivia, but it’s one of those things that everyone thinks they know the answer to, but nobody can tell you where to go to check it.
I’ve tried Google, and I’ve tried all my other sources, but I can’t find a definitive answer to something we’ve all done for years without knowing exactly if we’re doing it right.
After over 40 years of game fishing, I couldn’t tell somebody where they could find written down the correct IGFA approved way to fly gamefish flags.
I believe that in some countries, things are done slightly differently, but in the clubs I’ve fished with over the years here in Australia and overseas, we always raised our gamefish flags on the port outrigger, placing any tag flags directly below the fish flag. This goes in any order, but the tag flags always go below the fish flag, and then the next fish flag is added, with any associated tag flags below it, and so forth - but always on the port outrigger.
There has been a bit of discussion about it at our club recently, so I’m hoping that you’ll have access to some definitive description of what the IGFA recommends so that I can get it up on my website and close the matter off for everybody once and for all.
Regards,
Richard O’Ferrall
Member number 1243214
Solitary Islands Game Fishing Club
Australia
Dear Richard,
Thanks for your e-mail and please excuse the late reply, but I wanted to do some research as this question has not come
across our desks before, as IGFA does not currently have a protocol for the proper way to fly gamefish flags.
It seems to be a consensus, after polling some renown captains and mates, that gamefish flags are raised on the outrigger
with the release flags directly below the fish flag. I do not believe there is a difference in which outrigger, but most responses
indicated they flew theirs on the starboard rigger.
The Avalon Tuna Club, which is generally given credit for first employing the flags, used the flag as a method of communication
long before VHF radios to alert the fleet and dock of their catch. I also learned that generally only the
“top” species flag was flown, with no additional flags.
After speaking with the West Palm Beach Fishing club I learned that in 1938 a red release flag was instrumented for the
Silver Sailfish Derby. It was soon after that a subsidiary of the club was formed, the Sailfish Conservation Club, to enhance
catch and release efforts. Later in the 1960’s the white “T” was added during a cooperative tagging program between the
club and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
As we find this question interesting, we will post it on our Facebook social media site and see if we obtain further information.
Thanks for the question and thanks for supporting IGFA.
Good Fishing,
Mike
Michael Myatt
Chief Operating Officer
International Game Fish Association
So, there's the not-quite-definitive answer from the IGFA, but a fascinating piece of historical information about the origin and initial use of game fish flags nonetheless.
The way I see it, fly your flags pretty much any way you want to, and don't let anyone tell you you're not doing it correctly. You may be told to fly tag flags on the starboard side, and capture flags on the proc (or vice-versa), but the fact of the matter is that unless your club or affiliated GFA has a written protocol, you can fly the things exactly however you like, and don't let anybody tell you you're wrong.
Oh... and any local port customs official who can't tell the difference between a quarantine alert or customs clearance needed flag and your game fishing flags is in dire need of retraining...
And if your club or affiliated association doesn't actually have a flag protocol written down, it's arguably in everybody's interest for some enterprising committee member to resolve it. So in light of the IGFA's answer, and the historical precedents noted here, it makes sense that after canvassing opinions, either individual club committees, or preferably, a peak association group need to write a new protocol (please don't make it a "rule"), and then simply publish it as club protocol or association guidance, and the matter will be resolved. Not that it was ever really an issue, but like all these things, when there's no solid guidance, write something down, get it on the record, and that way put it to bed for good.