I ahve been to a few kid's tournaments where every fish counted... The fish were weighed and then assigned points based on the percentage ratio between the fish and the state record for that fish.... So a one pound crappie would be worth 25 points if the state record was 4 lbs Ilb/4lbs = .25... Then the "points" for any three (or four or whatever) fish were totaled for each kid... Or, the highest point value fish for each kid was used to place...
But, as pointed out... everybody should get a trophy/prize... We got nice little bass trophies with real engraved plates for about $5 a kid... THose smiles were worth way more than $5 a kid...