Fishing Competitions, Clubs & Season Ladders Are Now Live

Fishing clubs in Australia have been running competitions on paper, Facebook comment threads, and spreadsheets for decades. Verification is ad-hoc. Leaderboards are a volunteer's Friday night job. Season point-scores are a pain in the neck for whoever draws the short straw. We built something better.

As of June 2026, Fishare supports fully digital fishing competitions — with live leaderboards, structured catch entries (with verification), club membership, and season ladder scoring that aggregates across your monthly rounds automatically. It is free to create a competition and free to enter one.

What's included

How competitions work

Creating a competition

Any Fishare user can create a competition from the Competitions page. You set:

• Name and slug — the slug becomes the public URL
• Start and end times — organisers can extend or pause the window
• Scoring format — longest single fish (mm), sum of best N lengths, or species slam points
• Eligible species — restrict to your target species, or leave open for any
• Code word — shown to entrants only after the comp starts; required in the catch photo to verify the entry wasn't pre-staged
• Visibility — public (appears on /competitions/) or private (accessible only by join code)

Entering a competition

Entering costs nothing beyond logging a catch. The flow from within the app:

1. 1
   Join the competition From the comp page (public) or via a join link/code (private). New users who click a join link get taken through sign-up and land back enrolled — no friction, no dead ends.
2. 2
   Log your catch as normal Use the existing catch log flow: species, length, photo with the code word visible. The comp prompt appears automatically when you log during an active joined comp.
3. 3
   Submit to the comp in one tap After logging, tap "Enter into [comp name]?" — the catch is linked to your entry. You can also submit past catches from the comp page if they fall within the comp window.
4. 4
   Track the live leaderboard The leaderboard updates as entries are approved. Your standing and the entries above you are visible from the comp page. Entries are marked pending until the organiser approves the photo.

Verification

The trust model for v1 is organiser judgment, not automated AI detection. The code-word system — a random phrase announced at comp start, required visibly in the catch photo — prevents pre-staged entries from before the comp window. Organisers review photos and approve, reject, or disqualify entries with a stated reason. Any source catch that is edited after entry approval is flagged for re-review.

Scoring formats

Three formats supported at launch, covering the most common comp structures:

• Longest single — the single longest fish of the comp determines placing. Tiebreak: next-longest fish, then earliest catch timestamp.
• Total top-N — sum of the best N fish lengths. Organiser sets N (default: 3). Suited to club derbies where consistency is rewarded over a single lucky catch.
• Species slam — points per distinct species from the comp's eligible list. Rewards versatility. Tiebreak: total length of all caught species.

All lengths are recorded in 5 mm increments, always rounded down (industry grammar: the same standard as KBF and TourneyX).

Clubs and season ladders

A fishing club on Fishare has a page, a membership list with defined roles, and the ability to run members-only comps. Club admins can run multiple comps through the season and tie them into a single season ladder — a persistent point-score that aggregates across rounds automatically.

The season ladder recomputes after each comp result is finalised. No manual tallying. The annual point-score runs itself.

Prizes

For comps and clubs you organise yourself, Fishare does not hold prize money, entry fees, or pay out — your club handles prizes off-platform. The app shows placings and whatever prize text you set.

For Fishare-hosted competitions (created and run by Fishare), prizes are Fishare Pro subscriptions (granted digitally via redemption codes) and sponsor-provided goods shipped directly by the sponsor. These are skill-judged awards, not random draws.

What it costs

Creating a competition is free. Entering a competition is free. Viewing public competition leaderboards is free without an account. You need a free Fishare account to join a comp and submit entries. The daily forecast, live map, and bite score remain free whether or not you enter any competition.

The bigger picture

Competitions exist as a distribution mechanic as much as a feature. Every comp is a funnel: join link → sign up → log catches → return for the leaderboard. Every leaderboard is a return-visit loop. Every club season ladder keeps members coming back for the duration of the season.

The intent is not to replace fishing club culture — clubs already have their social infrastructure in WhatsApp and Messenger and Facebook. The intent is to give the competition itself a proper home: catch-verified, scored without a spreadsheet, and shareable beyond the closed group.