Quote:
Originally Posted by Clogston29
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.
|
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.