Ok I've not participated in this tourney before, but I know what I'm seeing for "large" stripers in my area, so I'm predicting a 38 lb striper & 10 lb blue will be needed to win this thing. Or if the gods are lucky, I will land me a 50 and a 1 lb blue and life will be good :).

My guess is there will be a good amount of larger stripers stuck, but the bluefish will be the ticket to the big money behind door number 1. I have to say I have mixed emotions about this thing. On the one hand it's been a while since I've been in a money tournament (freshwater club/fed tourneys), but on the other hand those past tournaments were all catch & release and this one isn't. I do keep those smaller 28-30 inch fish occassionally for the table, but those aren't the big breeding females, the ones you DON'T WANT TO TAKE FROM THE GENE POOL!

I'm going to give this more thought next time around, because I'm going to have a hard time killing a big female, just for a shot at that $1000. Does anyone know how we can keep tabs on an hourly basis on the fish being weighed in? It would be nice if you could call someone from MSBA and get the top weights before bleeding out a 35 lb striper.

There you go, food for thought, John and I will discuss this at length on Sunday :).

I agree and hopefully there will be a coordinated effort to keep the big gals somewhat unmolested by every pinsticker in a boat...

I would greatly like to see a major C&R but how could one possibly be run even if 9 out of 10 are honest?

I would consider avery big fish that has spawned numerous times but I'll still need to think about it... And yes, we'll discuss it at length. I would have said debate but it's tough to debate when you're primarily in agreement...

If we kill fish for money, do we waive our rights to criticize commercial fishermen? Yes, we may only kill one or two fish, but we are participating in any event which may kill a considerable number of fish.

On a very basic level... there is no difference.

I guess if you support a managed level of commercial fishing and are only against over-fishing and decimation of fish stocks, then you probably are ok with it.

But if you are 100% pro-conservation, against commercial fishing, then fishing this tourney is a bit hypocritical.

If you're a tree hugging, veggie eating, cow loving, dues paying member of PETA, well, what the hell are doing reading our board! GET OUT!

If you go to the tourney page they talk about posting the leaders somewhere.