History of the Rhode Island StriperTournament

[DZ]

Since the recent threads concerning OTWs new Striper Cup Tournament I have felt compelled to write a little bit about the history of a few striped bass tournaments I have been involved in. It was clear that many of the members of this board were “a lot younger than me” and may have been wondering what all the fuss was about. For those and others I offer the following paragraphs. For those of you grey beards like me (Clammer?) feel free to chime in.

The Rhode Island Striper Tournament: I first got involved in this tournament during the late 1960s. At the time it was the largest tournament in Rhode Island and was for striped bass only. It was an annual week long event that was run in October around Columbus Day.
Many fishing clubs from all over New England entered this event along with thousands of anglers. There were various divisions for surf and boat, women’s, juniors, and even a military division. Prizes were plentiful and included boats, motors, fishing gear, TVs, and just about anything else that was donated. There was also a very competitive inter-club contest that awarded a prize to the club that weighed in the most fish by weight. And also individual aggregate weight prizes. Now you have to remember there was no bag limit for bass back then and the minimum length was 16”. Anglers would bring in loads of bass of all sizes to have them weighed, after weighing a portion of the tail fin of each bass was clipped to prevent fish being weighed twice. Cheating was not unheard of. There was even a State of Rhode Island weigh-master in charge of weighing the bass, Ed Fisher was his name, he was a state employee in the dept of weights and measures. All bass belonged to the angler at that time. Right after weighing them most were taken right down the street to the fish market for subsequent sale. Remember this was a different era, all this completely legal, and almost EVERYONE sold their fish. “Catch and Release” was not even in an angler’s vocabulary. You only threw a bass back because it was undersized. The club competition was especially competitive. I can remember one particular instance where our club thought we had the club title won – that was until members of a Connecticut club came in on the last day of weigh-in and dropped two pick-up truck loads of large Fisher Island stripers. Had to be a thousand pounds of bass – just blew us out of the water.

Our club (Newport County SW Fishing Club) and the Portuguese Sportsman’s Club of Providence ran this tourney. There was even a tournament Queen (although they didn’t look much like a queen to me ) and a tournament dinner dance/ball.
Most of the proceeds from this event went to the Meeting Street School and the Maher Center, both advocates for developmentally challenged children and adults.
It received LOTS of press and was a big tourist draw to the city of Newport.

As the striped bass stocks began their decline in the late 1970s tournament officials added bluefish as a species to take up the slack. As striped bass became even scarcer the market price for them increased. Tourney officials instituted a rule change that stated that all bass entered became the property of the tournament. The tournament kept all the bass in a very, very large cooler at the weigh station and sold them to the general public. This was so popular that many non-fisherman would wait at the weigh station for hours until someone would enter a fish that they could then purchase. Even the local radio station would make an announcement when bass were being weighed in real time. Any bass not purchased by the end of the day were taken to the fish market.

Eventually the shortage of bass took its toll – guys who caught them got a lot more cash for them at the market than any tournament prizes were worth. And during some years most of the participants couldn’t find any bass to catch. The tourney died a slow death as did its sister tournament, the Point Judith Striped Bass and Bluefish Tournament which ran every June.

This was just a little history for you - hope you enjoy it. Although I cherish these memories, I also know that times have changed and we’ve changed with them and hopefully, learned from them.

Lastly, thanks to everyone for your thoughts and concern with that "other thread" , its over, we made our points, now let's let it die.
We really have a great group of fishermen here!

Thanks again.

DZ

[RIROCKHOUND]

DZ..
thanks for the story!
I remember seeing some old memorabilia from my grandparents attic from I think that tourney... shame is I dont know where it is anymore...

[tattoobob]

Dennis thanks for sharing that, good read

[shadow]

a good read with a good lesson to learn.Tournaments can be fun and exciting but at what price? The rules should show some effort towards conservation.

[JohnR]

Thanks for posting that Dennis...

[Offshore]

DZ,
Thanks for posting that. Did you guys or other in your area also fish in the Schaefer Tournament ? Is that another story ?

[Clammer]

Ya we fished Schaffer also

DZ --I fished for the portuguese Sporting club then =========it was fun & we sold //but like you said the rules changed----The other thing was that the fish had to be caught in RI waters /// Right //I knew of a guy that had a CUTTY captain charter for approx the whole week== talk about a mixed bag === he,d have fish from 3# to fish in the 40,s ..
My wife won the woman,s division /boat 40# caught up the bay // That made for a long winter .The next year i took the whole division with a 42+ /It was caught going east & Bob pureni was going west at Fisher,s Island that,s after the expanded the fishing area do to in fact that many were already fishing outside RI /we both hooked up at the same time & landed the fish 5 minutes apart /// we fished the rest of the -towed back home & then weighed in at Newport ////for some reason he didn,t weigh up until late that nite or the next morning // I won bt something like 11 oz.

[Sea Dangles]

Could that be Clammers first post resembling a paragraph?!!!!

[Bill L]

Could that be Clammers first post resembling a paragraph?!!!!

The people at the Narragansett Beer booth at the show said they were bringing back the Point Judith Bass and Blue tournament. Be interesting to see what format they use

[afterhours]

clammer...wow...no interpertation needed,did'nt need decoder ring. nice read dennis. .

[DZ]

Offshore,
Maybe we can have a Schaefer Contest discussion once things settle down from the other thread. Really don't want to go that way right now.

Clammer,
I have an old Projo Clipping from Oct 11, 1975. "McElroy Leading Striper Tourney" Would you like me to scan it and post?

DZ

[PI guy]

If history such as this was taught while I was in high school I never would have ended up a machinist. Great stuff!

[Clammer]

Dennis - this is John typing on the Clammer's computer - he says yes, post it. It was either him or his wife, they each won in a consecutive year...

[Skitterpop]

Love the remembrances .... Thank you for the interesting post

[Raven]

when you rode the horse and buggy to the beach.

[DZ]

Here you go Mike.

No, that's not Clammer or DZ riding that bass. We were young(er) but not that young. Clammer was/is a sharpie.


DZ

[RIROCKHOUND]

Mike...
you hide behind all the @%#%#%#% bloofish posts... but good to see the truth....

[JFigliuolo]

Dennis, this was an awesome post. I love hearing the old stories. Thanks for sharing.

[NIB]

Thats pretty cool.

[Skitterpop]

Clammer

You go dog

[Clammer]

DENNIS THANKS MEMORIES ++ THAT<S WHATS LEFT

BUT WHAT DO I KNOW ??????????? I<M THE F #$%^&* CLAM MAN

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by Clammer

DENNIS THANKS MEMORIES ++ THAT<S WHATS LEFT

BUT WHAT DO I KNOW ??????????? I<M THE F #$%^&* CLAM MAN

You know alot more then you let on old man

[smac]

Why doesnt someone come up with a dogfish Tourney?