A fishing contest is implemented by entering a plurality of lures in the fishing contest, receiving fishing data used to judge the fishing contest from the plurality of lures, and determining a winner of the fishing contest in response to the received fishing data. Each lure includes a memory that stores a unique identifier value. This unique identifier value is stored in a database when the lure is entered in the contest. The fishing data that later becomes associated with the lure during the course of fishing (e.g., fish size, time the fish was caught, ambient conditions) is subsequently downloaded along with the unique identifier. The unique identifier stored in the data base is compared with the unique identifier downloaded with the fishing data to verify the fishing data. The verified fishing data is analyzed at the end of the contest to determine a winner.
