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Disclaimer: I am not participating in the tournament, mainly because I never catch fish big enough to enter and also because I’m not a “social” fisherman, not interested in the outing/competition. I’m also a catch and release fan (not to derail!!), except for the purpose of eating fish.
That said, I do get psyched when S-B is in the lead and all of you catch and enter fish.
My take is from the OTW perspective, there is certainly a marketing and exposure element for the magazine, it gets there name out there and helps keep subscribers engaged. But mostly, I think this is a true effort to bring the striped bass community together. The tournament is supposed to be FUN.
If I was at OTW, and kept getting all this feedback, its obvious that the tournament has not brought the community together, its pulled it apart and lost its purpose of having FUN. OTW may just say F’em, we tried but this is too much work and cancel any future tournaments.
That said, I may have already ruined the future sponsorship from Harpoon. I was visting my friend in Maine who’s sister in law works for Harpoon and helped coordinate the striperfest last year. She is VERY earthy (aka PETA) and I was surprised she was involved. She told me its no big deal, it’s a catch and release tournament. I told her its not and that I have been there when fish were weighed in, they were dead. HSe argued with me for awhile. She was pretty upset, so……maybe I screwed that one up…….
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