Match Fishing Electronic Peg Draw System

Fast, Fair, Reliable and Cool Way to Allocate Match Pegs to Anglers

Problem:

How to allocate (draw) peg numbers to match anglers efficiently, fairly and quickly, at multiple ongoing venues throughout a season. Particularly at larger venues and also when certain pegs are unfishable (perhaps due to flooding) and have to removed from the draw. Current methods do work OK and include; writing peg numbers on small pieces of paper and drawing them from a hat or cloth bag, also the same process using numbered tokens.

However, it can be time consuming and fiddly to write out fresh numbered pieces of paper for every new venue. Tokens are better, but matches and venues vary a great deal and the range of tokens required needs to be high enough to accommodate the largest venues. Also, tokens can be lost, and omitting certain peg numbers can also be time consuming (finding the numbers in a pile of a hundred tokens for example).

The requirement for a solution to this problem is minimal for a small individual fishing club, however, I believe a correctly priced solution would be valuable for the following situations:

For larger clubs that hold regular matches on multiple venues.
For national or international matches where there are large numbers of pegs to be allocated in a limited time.
If a number of small local clubs and teams were to agree share the product solution over multiple events. One product used by several clubs and teams.
If the product was bought by a commercial fishery which holds regular matches and the product remained on site to be used for all matches, regardless of entrants, clubs or teams. An additional service provided by the fishery.
There are many different kinds of fishing matches and tournaments. For larger matches and tournaments with significant prizes or prize money, there is a need for guaranteed fairness in peg allocation, no possibility of bias or cheating, the prevention of errors or mistakes, and for the draw to be fully monitored and controlled and not open to any form of interference. This form of guarantee would be useful to the sponsors and may even help to bring in larger prizes and prize money.

Solution:

In this case I have already designed and developed the end product to solve this problem. However, production costs would need to be reduced to make it viable. I named the product ‘Peg-Master’.

Peg-Master is a unique random number generator designed specifically to draw match fishing pegs. The available peg numbers for the venue are entered into Peg-Master by the match official. The match anglers then take turns to press the ‘Peg Draw Button’ to receive their random peg numbers for the match.

Peg-Master is completely fair to each match angler and cannot be tampered with once the draw has commenced. Pegs are drawn in full view of all anglers and officials.

Designed to industrial standards, Peg-Master is waterproof, robust, reliable and easy to use.

Peg-Master will handle venues up to 256 pegs in size and the actual peg numbers used can range from 1 to 999.

Venue peg numbers can be entered one-at-a-time or in blocks (e.g. all pegs from 10-90). Unused peg numbers can be omitted or deleted in the same way.

The draw is controlled by the match official using the ‘Draw Control Button’, this has to be pressed by the official before the next angler in line can draw their peg.

Anglers draw their pegs by pressing the large ‘Peg Draw Button’, their peg number is shown on the large Peg-Master LED display.

Uses / Applications:

Peg-master was primarily designed for the allocation of peg numbers during fishing matches and tournaments. However, as a product it could be used for other events, competitions, lotteries, raffles etc.

Also, the random number generator technology and PIC program could be transplanted (and re-programmed) into another housing or product to suit other applications using different number ranges etc.