Being new to fishing, I value everything I read here. I'm very excited to join the S-B team in the cup. I release 95% of fish I catch. I teach Tyler about conservation and whats right to do, but we eat fish and like to do so. He's stoked to go fishing, so arent I. I'm looking forward to fishing with other members of the team and those that aren't.

To each their own. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind.

I'll buy this year's T-shirt at StriperFest. Every shop in the area hands out free admission tickets, and I can't afford to pay the taxes on the boat anyway, if I were to win it. I won't even have to stay till the bitter end for the drawing, to boot. :grins:

There seems to be a good amount of conversation on whether or not the Striper Cup and On-The-Water are doing the appropriate thing for the striped bass fishery.

In my opinion, as recreational anglers we do not have the right to criticize anyone for keeping a legal fish and entering that fish into a tournament. If you feel the need to complain about that, your argument is not with the angler or the tournament organizer as they are organizing an event that is within the applicable regulations and their rights. Fishing tournaments were around when we were born and will be here when we die. The recreational angler should complain and apply pressure to the individuals responsible for the fishery management (or their bosses), which is another story for another day.

What I feel the recreational community has the right to complain about with the tournament organizer concerning conservation is:
- the absensce of technology in avoiding overkill, and
- the absence of catch and release participation.

Since this topic is about the Striper Cup, I will say that the Striper Cup does not use technology to avoide overkill. This is the 2011 fishing season, technology to avoid overkill is here and at worst it would be a daily update of up-to-date standings to avoid overkill because there are weekly, monthly, team and angler of the year prizes. Additionally, on the catch and release front their is zero participation in the Striper Cup. Allowing someone to win a pin when you are literally handing out prizes worth in excess of $50K is not participation. Those are the facts as I see them. I work for a marketing/advertising company and I know that you can spin anything the way you want it to be seen, but every now and then someone will state the simple facts and you can't argue the facts. These are the facts, and to me it doesn't appear that On the Water takes conservation seriously.

I am often asked what is the answer. Obviously, the answer is to do the right thing in your mind. In my opinion, we as recreational anglers support the vast majority of the fishing industry, we purchase the magazines, we pay the tournament entry fees, etc.. If you agree with the conservation practices of On The Water than you should support them by purchasing their magazine and entering the tournament. If you do not agree with the conservation policies of On The Water and the Striper Cup than you should boycott their magazine and their tournaments until they change their policies to align with your personal beliefs. I do not believe as the recreational angler we should rationalize a reason to support a magazine or tournament that doesn't align with your personal beliefs. Their is no reason to justify that a tournament will do less harm than a party boat or another tournament. This is rationalization and people rationalize thier actions when they feel they are improper or unethical.

This is just how I feel. We are discussing On The Water and the Stripercup. This could be talked about with many other tournaments as well, but I look at them all individually and determine from there what tournaments and sponsors I would like to support and participate in. Do not get me started on fisheries management because that is just a crazy topic that I could go on forever about.

Im still questioning whether or not i will participate this year. I would prefer that the striper cup be canceled due to the fishery being in trouble. That would make it an easier decision for sure. Im thinkin that if the participation is down they may cancel it next year, i know it has to be a money maker for them. Maybe they will cancel it because of the state of the fishery.
On the other hand i want to join for chance to help us bring the cup back. It also wouldn't be bad to win a Van Staal, sure beats buying one.

I'll be joining up, just didn't get a chance at the msba show. I really enjoy the team aspect of the cup and having the top 10 team fish listed in our stripercup forum ensures no one is killing anything needlessly. I know I have not weighed in a single fish for the cup the past 2 years. Not from a lack of trying and I've had plenty of good fish, just not the fish we needed.

I'd really like to see OTW do something in terms of posting weekly/monthly leaders to date. It does not need to be anything fancy, heck they are on facebook maybe they could just update something there. If people knew what was leading for the month/week it could help people conserve a lot of fish too.

Thousands? Doubtful. Many, yes.

I see your point that every little bit helps, but the point of the other thread was that putting back small fish will be healthier for them if we use circle hooks.

Point being, I think most people that fish the tournament do not weigh a fish and most people that do weigh in a fish are weighing in a fish that they would take home anyway. In most cases anyway.

Too many fish killed if ya ask me, OTW should reconsider the tourney as a whole, or update their reporting methods.

You New England guys are'nt the problem, it's the greedy pigs here in NJ who catch and keep multiple 25-40 pound fish daily during the big bunker run off our coast every June. It's a massacre to say the least.

I agree that in NJ we do more than our share of killing the resource during the bunker blitzes of recent years and allowing someone to walk off with 3 fish all being 30 plus pounds is not good for anyone. I also know many people who fish in certain spots in RI, MA, etc. that have sent me pictures of massacres as well, so we all need to evaluate how we conserve the fisheries from Carolina to Maine. Just my opinion, but many states (including NJ) are doing damage.

Sea Flat,

It probably is thousands killed. I don't know the number that entered but Over 4000 attend the tent party alone. If you assume most of them fished, then add all the no shows from across the East coast you could have upwards of 5000 or far more. Further, if they fished for 5 months ...the release mortality rates alone indicate that they killed thousands without even weighing in a fish.
Most have said that this tournament drives them out to fish it so I would say that most have fished it. Then you have a large commercial contingency that basically culls their 30 daily fish commercial catch to weed out a good one to weigh in the cup. You have 4000 commercial SB fishermen in MA alone a good number of them enter this as well. Most of these guys kill a 30-50 fish a day easy apiece. (I don't know if you have seen they way they fish ...they are pretty rough with the discards and many use yo yo set ups) That said, they would be killed anyway if the tourney stoped, it is just a added bonus to enter for them.
So yes it is easily thousands of killed fish in the name of the striper cup just for this tourney.

In an email from OTW posted in the other site awhile ago they said that 625 fish were weighed in in 2010 for the tournament. Between commercials and people who would have kept the fish anyway. Im sure well over half of those fish werent going back so I think the actual number killed just for the tournament is probably around 300 or less...
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

625 was what were weighed in...you had thousands of fishermen fishing "because of the contest" for 5 months. The catch and release mortality (driven by the event) exceeds what was weighed in.

Most fishermen admit," if I was not in the event, I would not fish as often or as hard", that is why many of them they join. Most trips do not produce a weigh able fish but most likely they produce dead fish either taken home or die due to injury. If you break off a yo-yo'ed or gut hooked fish and it dies, it is an unweighted dead fish.

Numbers aside, for me they are walking a fine line claiming they are conservation minded tourney...yet allow commercially harvested fish that are headed to market for money to be entered. This is not conservation. Also, the on-line aspect is so poorly run you can not see what size fish it takes to make the board. This should be almost real time, certainly no more than 24hours after it is caught.

All that said...the impact of ANY TOURNY is small IMO. Even if they killed "Thousands" of fish in the name of the striper cup, that is small compared to the coast-wide killing from commercial and recs. Better steps could be taken to reduce the overall kill.

Other questions I have: Is this a non-profit event? Exactly how many people fish it? Where does the $ go? Are the prizes bought or donated? Do they give back to the community or fishery? I looked on the website for the info, all this is a secret.

Im out. I never weigh anything big enough anyways...

I am sure that the OTW people make a nice amount of money for the tournament and that is fine with me. I like the guys there and they work really hard to make the tournament fun.

To your other point, I still do not buy the mortality rate that you and NOAA think is the case on released fish. I really think that we would see fish floating all over the place if it were the case.

Maybe we should start a new thread, I think we are straying quite a bit from what this thread was meant for.:)

Are you sure it's 4,000? That number may be right, but it seems high to me. Keep in mind that not everyone at the party fished the tournament. Each participant gets 2 tix and some bring a spouse, child or friend. Most of the local tackle shops also give out free tix. To get an accurate count, you'd need to know how many golden tickets were entered for the boat raffle.

Pretty much all the money goes to Mike!

Looking forward to it again this year.
 

I disagree as well about the mortality issue of C & R'd fish. Unless they are cut open they will float shortly after death because of the gases that form inside thier bodies make them rise to the surface. Never ever see any floaters.

I'm not feeling guilty about signing up. Ever fish I took last year year, which with the exception of three times fishing, was every time I fished I took two fish home for the first year of my life fishing. My father-in-law, mother-in-law, my mother, and my wife and I enjoy stripedbass cooked every way imaginable, and it was all delicious. Oh a few of my friends as well enjoyed fish I caught. I really liked the fish stew my wife cooked up in January after she made broth from three bass heads that had been at the bottom of the freezer.

I am in for Team S-B.

As far as the fishing stocks don't worry everyone.. I wont catch anything worth weighing anyway...

Although,,, I have a new fishing style this year,,,:ninja::ninja::ninja::ninja:

per their web site: On The Water - Striper Cup


Honestly, I know these posts sound bitter (it is really more emotion than bitterness) but don't have a problem with most fishing tourneys , I fish a few different things myself from time to time, most are fun and you meet some cool people along the way. The coast-wide/duration/commercialism factor and the true intent with this one is a little hard to swallow under the eyes of "stewardship of the resource", in a time when things are not going that great for the fish, that's all.

Like all of you I love fishing. I am done discussing this topic.
See you On The Water :)

The webpage said that nearly 4,000 people enjoyed the party. Per my earlier post, I'm guessing that there were a lot of people there for the party and didn't fish the tourney.

I also think that the anti's try to make things seem worse than they actually are, just as the pro's try to make it seem like everything is fine. The reality is that the fishery is in trouble, but I don't think this tournament is doing nearly as much harm as some would have you belive. I think there's much more damage done by people who are careless releasing fish (especially small ones) and by people who poach.

I am in. I haven't weighed anything in the 3 years I've signed up. I figure I am out there fishing all summer anyway, and I like the team aspect. I keep 2 fish a year on average for the table, everything else gets released, so if one of the fish I decide to keep gets me a prize, or helps the team then even better.

i'm undecided. but I'd recommend changing the minimum weight to 38 or even 40 for surf caught fish. that's what it'll take to win, and second place is worth nothing.

i think that you have your balls lodged in your eye sockets!!

the Striper Cup impact on the migratory stock is far less significant than the by-catch kill by the fleets of draggers and the refusal by the ASMFC to adress the ACMenhaden issue, IMHO!!

fix the forage, 1 @ 36"~~ release more than YOU kill!

but iffin i get blessed with a COW big enough to win myself a VS250,
then there is no weigh in HELL i'm throwing her back! besides,,,,,,,,,,it's not US, it's the weather~ MIKE~ haven't you been keepin' up on yer Winter readings??
:wavey: :hihi: :hihi: :wavey:

and i]m INNNN~~

for sb.com, surf only,,,,,,,,

gonna be a GREAT year for us,
WE ARE DUE, MEN, FISH HARD!!!

and there we have it! :smash:

Jess, Mike has been through the moratorium and has also caught a ton of fish as well. He is not biased. He calls it like he sees it. When he talks about the stocks I listen...

and spends more time on the water in a month than most do in a year

in, if still open.

How many guys kill a fish, take it to a weigh station for an accurate weight, and decide not to enter it because it won't affect the team/weekly/monthly standings? How many guys stash a good fish in a cooler for a few days, hoping they'll catch something bigger, and then get the bigger one, as you can only enter one a week? I'd love to see the stats on how many fish are weighed in on a Friday or Saturday, as opposed to a Sunday or Monday.

What's winning worth, in the grand scheme of things. A chance to drink cheap beer from the Cup? At least when we won it, the beer was Harpoon. Two years ago, the winning team got to drink warm Gansett. At least the 10 monthly winners get a shot at 10 grand.

Sorry I opened a debate .

I,ve been there /done that &

I could argue to the end of time / but everyone is entitled to their opinion /& with that they justify their reasoning .I could do the same & go on & on .

But until you witnessed it / to most it sounds like crying wolf .

For everyones pleasures & enjoyments , income & whatever . I h0pe Im wrong /, Im getting real tired fishing nites in the winter ,because its better that nites in the season >>>>> don,t jump on it .... that is better for me .:fishin:

Starting to get a little bit :topic:


In or out is starting to turn into rants and raves

the writing's on the wall for all to see. also been there seen that as have a few others.

Mike, you are entitled to your opinion. You know I lived thru the moritorium with you. You know when I was in the surf with Bryan and before I fish 100 night a year all in the surf. Cape, Narr, Napatree and everything in between.
Bass Dawg you are also entitled to your opinion and so is Mike and myself. I believe you are wrong. The fact of the matter is the stocks are down for whatever reason. The assigning of blame does nothing to solve the problem. Oregon Inlet in the Winter. Comms in Virginia all year. Comms in MD, RI, MA during the commercial season. Recs all the time. 2, 28" (which is absurd to begin with). They are all contributing factors to the demise of the Striper. Until the beauracrats smarten up and declare the species a game fish and restrict the take to either a slot or 1, 36" we will see the further destruction of the Stripers.
You guys can believe anything you want but the facts are there in plain view. The species is again in trouble. Who caused this re-occurance doesn't matter. Someone has to fix this quickly or we will all be pissing in the wind trying to catch bass.
You young guys don't remember this but in 87 or 88, if we caught a couple of schoolies, Tom Mead in the ProJo would write a whole article. I remember catching 6 schoolies, (and I'm talking 16") at Deep Hole one morning. There use to be a bait shop in Narragansett at Monahans called Top of the Dock. I went in and told Joe about the fish and he called me a bold face lier and told me to get the *^&@* out of his shop because I was spreading BS.
You guys don't believe this but Mike and I and guys like Slip and AH and Makai will remember the total despair of fishing for DAYS & DAYS with out a bass.
Personally, I am in the OTW Cup and will participate. I killed 2 fish for the table last year. This year I will fish for the Catch and Relaese trophy and will not kill Stripers.

I'm In.

Together we can do it...
 

I'm In. I going to focus on contributing at least one cow to the board.

Crawler - still open ;) - just add Team Striped-Bass.com when registering.

This is good to talk about this stuff. For those that want to abstain because of conservation, I'm perfectly understand. If things go south, this may be the last year to fish the tourney for S-B. Depends on the stock assessment.

nothing really, maybe bragging rights. but the same could be said for the gibbs tournament you already stated that you were fishing. not trying to start anything and i respect your point of view, just pointing out that the similarity. everyone has the right to decide how much of an impact they want to have. i'll probably end up registering and fishing catch and release (i like the pins, i think i'll be glad I have them someday), and if I get something that I think may go 50, I'll weigh it in because I'd be doing that anyway.

just figure if the site is going to enter a team, might as well make the goal winning and to make as little impact as possible. a few 35 lb fish that keep the team near the top of the board early on are just a waste as they either get bumped later in the tournament or become irrelevent because one of the pro teams kicks our ass anyway.

I'm in.

Not entering the cup won't do much to change things. If you really want change in Mass look at these two bills presently in the Mass house and senate. S00392 and H01145.

The bills look to both reduce the recreation limit and stop commercial fishing for stripers.

NH is looking at their striper regs this week and been asking for them to reduce to one fish.

There's a few major differences. One, the Gibbs tournament runs for a month, and only 185 people are in it. It's limited to the Canal. It's not spread from Maine to Cape May. It probably has less effect on the health of the stocks than the Vineyard Derby. And in any given year, no more than 10 fish get weighed into it.

More importantly, I can walk into Canal B&T any time that it's open, and find out what the leading fish is. It's one fish, one grand prize. That grand prize is a fleece top that's embroidered, and a small plaque on the trophy, which you don't get to have even for the year that you've won it. If there's a 42 pound fish leading, there's no need to weigh in anything that's clearly lighter. Second, third and fourth place get you a mention at the awards breakfast, and maybe a free sweatshirt, which most people don't bother trying to win. The lesser fish are usually those that get bumped down from the lead over the course of a month. At minimum, each team in the Striper Cup kills 10 fish. Most teams kill many more. In all the years that I've fished the Gibbs--since 2007--I've entered exactly one fish in it. Of the 185 people in it, probably 120 haven't ever entered a fish.

The only real similarity is that you need to kill fish to win it. But, in my tournament, you only have to kill one, and there's no real incentive to kill a smaller fish just to enter it towards an aggregate weight total.

Yeah, we do have a team thing in the spring, but it runs for all of 36 hours, and only a few guys seriously fish it. And team captains aren't calling other members all winter trying to "recruit" them for the sole purpose of winning a $25 gift card from #^&#^&#^&#^&'s. The raiding of other teams, and cherry-picking your team for the target goal of winning the Cup, has soured me on it as much as the mortality factor.

This is about having fun.
If one is worried about this practice, let all of your fish go this year. This will make up for the weigh ins and make you feel better.
If that doesn’t work, make a sign up and go down to the show and picket outside this will make you feel better.
John could create a new forum and keep everyone separated pros & cons... Then no one would know what the other ones are saying about each other.
However a thread just to weigh in your thoughts about this subject.
Group therapy sessions. This could solve every thing.
OTW/ or SB could raise the minimum weigh of fish to 45 pound and higher! This would eliminate 99% of all weigh ins!
I can’t believe this is an issue!! Get it out of your system before the fish show up.
I want you to think of nothing else when you are reeling in your next fish other than this thread!
NOTHING ELSE!!!
Life is short!

I'm in.
I was supposed to do it last year. If I had, my one fish would have put you in 2nd place.

I'll try to replicate. :smash: I suck.