I do agree with you on the species hunt side, especially as a comp format.
What ever floats people’s boats I guess but going out on a boat then dangling scraps of mackie over the side to catch a weaver or whatever makes little sense to me either.
That said, for a long time I’ve thought the heaviest bag format in any competition is shockingly wasteful and does little for fish welfare even if they’re returned, which mostly back in the day they weren’t.
I still recall when I started out sea fishing, reading in the magazines of so many hundreds of pounds of conger caught in boat competitions and phrases such as ‘the well was filled with eels’.
At the time I knew no better either, though never fished boat comps, and maybe back then such things were sustainable.
Thankfully attitudes have mostly changed but I do think anglers have to take some responsibility for declining stocks.
Which is a bit off topic I guess.
As far as competitions go, I think these days best specimen is the way to go.
It’s a different skill, maybe not as skilful as catching by volume, and perhaps more luck involved, though there’s an element of that with pegged shore comps.
