Striped-Bass.Com Tournament

[JohnR]

OK ladies and gents... I'm looking to do a Striped-Bass.Com Tourney of sorts this year (with prizes to be determined later but maybe a MagElite or Custom Rod or something like that) for members of this board. What I would like to do is a tournament where catch and release is preffered but that makes it VERY difficult to administrate. I would hate to see some individual join this tourney and enter a fictional fish or to have someone that we don't know abuse an honor system so to speak. Fish that are kept and weighed in with an official weigh slip will probably be OK but that is open to discussion too.

I'm thinking along the lines of either photo with length/girth measurements or photo with digital scale picture, signed affidavit but OBVIOUSLY this could be hard to keep legit.

Personally, I would not be able to win :'( and #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& will probably be removed for entry to make it fair for everyone else :P and one would need to be a fairly regular member to enter. No tackle shops, charters or websites (sorry Juls }> )

Differentiate between boat and shore? Just bass or Blues too?

This could also happen over a course of various "meets" too but that may not be convenient for everyone too...

Whatcha all think??

Thanks,

John

[Saltheart]

Sounds like fun. I personnally don't see why you or #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& should be left out. Anyway , I would suggest that you keep the prize nice but not worth lying about the fish to win. Secondly , what would be good is if a fish entry must be verified by someone else in the tourney. We using inches or pounds? So if you catch Mrs Big and you are alone , you got to keep it so someone can witness it. If you are fishing with someone else in the tourney , they just got to witness the weight or measurement and sign a ticket to send in. That would help keep it honest and it would encourage people from the board to fish together and / or encourage people who have fishing buddies to get them to come and post on the board.

Unfortunately i think a picture requirement of the fish will end up causing delays in the release and therefore would result in fish that will die being thrown back.

[JohnR]

OK, I like the board buddy system for signing an affidavit verifying C&R fish. Participants need a minimum of 10 posts/replies and one month membership??

I would like to go with poundage being the the determining factor but it may need to be inches because of catch and release. If we went with pounds it would need the length and girth measured for the formula (I have it somewhere) on all fish which could be more confusing too. Or settling on a speceific scale like the Berkely digital. Inches might be the best with weight the tie breaker??

Unfortunately, it does not help if you are fishing alone but what tournament will accept a C&R fish with no witnesses??

You are right about the photo requirement. Let's say encouraged if not adverse to a quick release of the fish but by no means necessary...

OK, I'm still working out the rules on who can and who can't. So, let's start with if someone takes a guide/charter out and succsefully meets the other requirements, they can enter the fish. So if Slipknot hired BillnJuls and he got a 48" fish, they could sign it and he could enter but if Bill or Juls got one and they had clients with them, they couldn't. However, if they were just fishing without clients that would be OK. Howze dat...

[eelman]

Hey there John boy!! Sounds like Discrimination to me?? Why am I left twisting in the wind???

Just yankin yur chain.

I have to add my too cents here about your honor system.You should definatly have legit weigh slips from tackle shops that You pick out and let the tackle store know of the tournement.

If you dont you will without any doubt in my mind have a mess on your hands.There simply isnt any other way to prove who caught what.Just my two cents.

I officially state that Im no way involved in this tourny and will not participate in any way shape or form!!!

Besides,you already tossed me out!!

[Saltheart]

The party of the second , having witnessed the catching of a fish , henceforth called "The Catch" , by the party of the first. Hereby swear and bear witness to that fact that said fish call "The Catch " was actually caught , weighed and released by the party of the first and that all weighing and measuring was actually witnessed by the party of the second , do hereby affix my signiture to the henceforth called "The Official Striped-Bass.com Entry Form". This attachment of my signiture certifies that the information contained there in wa sactaully witnessed by me and therefore the said entry form is valid and should be used to cause the affore mentioned "The Catch" to be reclassified as a bonified contest entry and should therefore henceforth be called "The Entered Fish" and that if said "Entered Fish" should over the courseof time designated as "The Contest Period" prove to be the largest fish as defined in the rules of the contest hencefoth called "the Contest Rules" shall be declared the winner entitling the party of the first to claim the prize for the contest henceforth called "The Grand Prize". However , if the party of the second should at any time be declared ineligible for "The Contest" because of a lack of complete compliance to "The contest Rules" , including but not limited to the proper length of board membership time or the minimum number of posts , the party of the first shall forfit all rights to "The gRand Prize" and shall immediately return "The Grand Prize" to John R henceforth Known as "The Chief Cook and Bottle Washer for The Contest". It shall then be the responsibility of "The Chief Cook and Bottle Washer for The Contest" to determine a new contest winner as outlined in "The contest rules" and that the Dumb Arsed Party of the second who signed the original winning "The Official Striped-Bass.com Entry Form" either fraudulently of do to his or her own ignorance shall be staked out to the rising tide at the East End of the Cape Cod Canal , henceforth called "The Execution Grounds" for a period of 24 hours or until the crabs pick his bones cleans , whichever shall occur first. I'm glad you're writing the rules John!!

[JohnR]

Bill, I could see you not fishing for a month and run out and will a 45 pound bass onto your line and take the tournament :P . Seriously, I didn't think you'd be interested. Besides, if you won many would, jokingly for the most part, say it was rigged as you might be considered the favorite by some...

As far as the tournamnet goes, it needs to allow for catch and release. I'm not against keeping a fish for tournament when the fish will get eaten, certainly not a waste. I've done that myself too. But I don't want this site to foster a tournament that requires all fish be kept. I want to enhance catch and release in this tournament if at all possible. It really is a tough call but if it is abused it probably won't happen again. I would like this to be the start of at least an annual and perhaps multiple tournaments per year but we need to see how this first one goes...

[schoolie monster]

Another possibility is too have 3 or 4 Striped-bass.com get togethers and count the results from those trips only. That would limit you to surf only, but it would also even things out a bit geographically... i.e. Chunker of Death fishes 90% of time in Maine, I fish 90% of time on South Shore of MA, Slipknot on Cape Cod, Saltheart in Rhody, etc.

COD and schoolie would have major disadvantage due to fewer large in our waters. And this is just an example, I'm not scheming or anything as I will be splitting time between MA and Rhody with my bestest fishing a few scant yards from the suds.

This would also eliminate need for the no doubt brutal slaughter of thousands of huge bass in the name of a few prizes.

And dude, you and #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& should count... especially under this format. If we're all together, its an even playing field.

And as saltheart mentioned, as long as the prizes aren't outlandish, it'll just be fun.

Just a thought...

[JohnR]

ROTFLMAO Saltheat. I was actually thinking a keel haul but it wouldn't be those East End crabs that a "delinquent entrant" should be worried about but that resident Seal which Mr Powers refers to on occasion :P . On the other hand, death by bungie...

I'm really trying to find an honest set of rules that everyone can be satisfied with. Setting up an Internet honesty tournament ain't no easy thing }>

[Saltheart]

An internet tournament is easy. An internet Catch and Release Tounament is tough. I think The Cause is worth the extra effort though , even if it menas someone may cheat. I honestly think that if the prize is just something to distinguish the winner but not too valuable , people will not have an incentive to cheat.

I think they have a big catch and release type of tourney down in Jersey. I'll try to find out how they run it and what steps they take to attempt to keep people honest.


Disregard everything above , I've decided that no self respecting fisherman would ever lie about the size of a fish they caught!!

[JohnR]

I agree, but catch and release, while not mandatory, will be the preffered method. It will be hard to do but if we do it right, and I think we have a collection of good people, it should work.

I do like Schoolie's idead about several meets too. We need to take this into consideration as well. Two Mass legs and two Rhody legs? Spring run, summer, or Fall run?? As long as the ledge lizards don't practice witchcraft on us, we'd do OK...

As far as the prize(s) go, that will depend on a couple things but should still be pretty good. Better than a shirt saying "I won this T-Shirt when I caught a big fish with stupid ->" but probably something like a decent reel or a custom schoolie rod yadayadayada. I am thinking of making it regional too. New England only or New England plus NY/NJ? Seeing that most of the people are NY north it might be just New England plus Long Island. Another thing to consider.

[Clammer]

John ,I see , no reason why you and Bill can't fish, I thought this was going to be a fun season. I saw and heard about plenty of cheating in the larger tournments of years past. I saw nothing different so the prize must be for the largest Striper. We could have a one or few get togethers and that would take care of some of the concerns. Years ago the Roddy Flyrodders[ and maybe still now] in season use to have their monthly meeting in different places and fish together, the winner got something small ,like fly tieing gear// hey what/ever//

[mikecc]

John

Count me in for either a ABU CT or CS Mag with a matching 1088 Custom or a Shimano Stratic 5000 or 6000 with a Matching Custom 1088
Choice would be up to the winner.

I will let you define the rules.

Mike

[JohnR]

BiG FriEkin' gRiN!!! Mike... I'll be by your shop in the next week or so anyway so we can talk... Are you open Monday, Presidents Day?

Thanks,

John

[Blitzseeker]

Unfortunatly, I think you need to make a distinction here, John. I think there are two options.

Option #1 is that there is a prize of relatively low value...in other words something that any person holding down a job could easily buy on thier own without stretching the budget too far. If you do that, I think it's likely that nobody would cheat and you could have a tournament that was based on catch and release. You could base this on pictures, pictures with digital scale numbers or even the honor system.

Option #2 is when you have a decent prize. Call me a cynic, but I just don't see where in an anonymous forum somebody doesn't cheat to win a decent prize. I think with a decent prize you have to start killing fish and getting official weigh in slips. Even with pictures of a digital scale, you can drop enough lead sinkers down the hatch to push you up that extra pound or two you need to beat out the current leader. As mentioned above, I just think there is a high probability you end up with a mess on your hands.

Option #1 could be work similarly to my, "What's the biggest fish you caught this year" post from Nov or Dec, except it would be ongoing from April 15 until Dec 1. Option #2, I think you end up being the clearinghouse for weigh in slips and posting the results

Count me in either way...sounds like fun. I'd mostly be in it just to see what kind of luck everybody was having...which leads me to another thought. You wouldn't have to say where you got it, would you? Maybe just what state?

[East Tide]

Hey Hey, I'm in. Hope I qualify. Saltheart what was that post all about !!! I had to stop reading it beacuse I was going crazy...

John, weight of fish slip. If this was a schoolie based tourney (like Plum Island Invitational) than thats one thing, but... WHo here is against a few steaks to celebrate winning (my fish, my house, my grill ... No freakin boats, period. No guides. Say month of June with weight slip. No fish under 40" can be weighed in. That will keep the kill down... If no one weighs a fish then it carries over into the first week in July or something like that. Maybe a few "illegal" calcuttas on the side to keep things interesting...

I don't think C+R is an issue, oh yeah it's such a big deal let the poor fishy go. Then I'm going to hit up the Stop and Shop for a pound of fish that has been on ice for a week.....

[Slipknot]

Sounds like fun. If you want my opinion, if fish are going to be killedfor official slips then at least during the tourney the leading fish will be posted so we will know what to shoot for. Therefore less fish would be killed since there will be only one winner.

I like the idea of catch and release. It would be great if you only need length and girth measurements. If I get a large fish it takes less time to pull a fabric tape measure out of my pocket and get 2 quick measurements of the fish then it would to get a scale and risk harming the fish by weighing it(not everyone has a Boga grip with a scale). As john pointed out the weight could be determined by formula.

Whatever you do make the rules so we can read them without needing a law degree.

Is this tourney going to be all season long or what did you have in mind?

I tend to agree with the point about the honor system and the prize being small. But I can't see how someones conscience wouldn't bother them if they lied or cheated.

[Got Stripers]

Sounds good to me, just hope it's not all surf meets, because it's been a long time since I sold off all the long rods. Just give me a good ramp in the area of the meet, lol. I like the idea of getting together to fish and a pick-up tournament will make it interesting.

Like others have said, the more pricey the winning prize, the more likely we will have problems. Personally, I'd rather have no prize, than require a bunch of dead bass be weighed in. In fact, even thou I keep a few fish during the year, I don't think I would participate if it goes that route.

Maybe buddy tournaments, with a blind draw for your partner and you must fish with or near your partner. One of you must have a Berkley digital scale for the "team" to fish and it's a simple matter of weigh & witness. Better you than me, I was tournament director for a year in my B.A.S.S. club and that wasn't a "fun" year.

Tight lines.

[Marc Z]

I think its a great idea too, but with a valuble prize people always seem to cheat. The way I think catch and release could be done is that you have to have it in a certain area and link people up together so each could be the judge of the other. Like we all meet before, get together then go out and fish for the night, then get together at the end to compare. The only problem is that if you have it in a certain area it give an advantage to the persons who live in that area and have had a chance to fish that given area in advance of the tournament. But then you could match up the people who know the area with people who don't. I also feel that there is no need to keep you or #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& out, you both are the biggest contributors to the site and it wouldn't be a competition if you guys were not in it.
MZ

[mikecc]

John
I'LL be there monday .
I have to go up north on tuesday ,i'll explain later.
Se ya then.

Saltheart
The All-Star 1265-2 (originals) came in today.

[Saltheart]

I will make a Loomis 1087 conventional Heavy Canal Jigging stick and donate it as a prize.

Mike T , set one of those 1265/2 blanks aside for me. Thanks

[Chunker of Death]

Fishing? What's fishing?.......................................... .................................................. ................................................So rry guys, keyboard iced up again...........Work out the details and I'll be there. Maine is never going to thaw out som I'm gonna have to fish down yonder this year. Just to make it fair, I'll cast left handed.

[JohnR]

Saltheart, your offer is certainly appreciated but you don't need to do that... We'll tawk...

Cowboy, whereas catch and release will be encouraged it won't be required. If you choose to keep the fish and weight it in, that's OK too, as far as the bar-B-q, hehehe, a couple bass steaks may be in order...

Maybe if the wife allows it, we'll have a roast with a couple grills at the house...

Blitz, you could be on to something, a two category tournament. One based on a series of get-togethers which would allow one type of prize and one year long with the biggest weigh slip and a minimum size limit...BUT, I don't want a fish being weighed in purely for the prize from this tournament which is why the gist of this contest is being developed with everyone. It's really a tournament for all of you... As far as where you got it ??

If it were to become two parts, say 2 June meets, one in Rhody, one in Mass and 2 September meets, again, one in Rhody and one in Mass, meets and locations developed well ahead of schedule with the best prizes going to the finalist of the meet and other prize going to the more independent yuear long...

[Fisherwoman]

Hey JohnR, This tournament thing sure has gotten alot of interesting reply's. As for Baitcaster and I, we will not participate, only because we don't want people thinking we might have cheated being it wether we might have been guiding or not, and believe me I don't like to be looked at in that light. Fishing for me is more improtant than any tournament, as you know me well.
But we would like to donate, maybe some lures, tackle and teaser rigs, if you would like.
As far as people cheating, I think it is a sad day when people feel they need to cheat to win and rod and reel or whatever the prize may be. What is the fun and excitement in that??? I do feel that if you are going to have a catch and release tournement things may be a little tricky unless they have a witness that was actually there to see the fish released, it may be hard to prove. I can't see someone stuffing weights in a fishies mouth, weighing it and then releasing it without killing the fish. Besides how pathetic is that!!! You may want to set a size limit on the fish like someone else had previously metioned, then at least you are protecting a certain class of fish. That may be your best bet or having that tournament both in RI and MA, and doing the buddy system. You may want to have, length, girth and weight. as I remember a long thread about the actuall weight of a fish last year, and how it turned into a pretty long discussion. Just my own opinion. If we can help in any way, just let me know. We would be glad to donate some stuff for ya. If you need a copy of the actuall weigh slips for MSBA let me know I can scan you a copy, maybe it will give you a few more idea's. As I will be the MSBA derby chairmen this year.

[Canalratt1]

I think if we buddy up and do measurements with a signed slip from the buddy it would work. If you are fishing alone it would have to get weighed in but use measurments for the tourny. Cheating does happen but these ideas would lessen them. Ok John now we'll have to trade our spots in from Hull to Scituite so we can measure our fish!

[JohnR]

I agree on alot FW. I don't think anyone here would cheat or even think that you were cheating but kind of like when Publisher's clearing house says that none of their employees or affiliates are allowed... I'm just saying that in the course of business... The more I think about it the more I think we can get a set of rules that everyone will be happy with and allows for a certain amount of honesty. Again, I'm not worried about anyone here now but to have just one individual sign up with the purpose of falsifying a report purely to win, that is where the problem would be. I think everyone here is pretty stinking honest. I'm really leaning towards a two part tourney and with all of the excellent suggestions I'm getting from everyone, I think things will work out great. Again this is your tournament (the collective you) and I want it to be fun and equitable!!

C-Ratt!! Ayup! Although I do think we fished some of the same spots at different times...

[Patrick]

I guess I'm excluded too because it would be like betting on the Globetrotters

[Harrible]

Sounds like fun to me...but I like East Tide's thinking: no boats, no hiring of guides to put one into fish. Heck, one hour of dragging a tube and worm over Sow and Pig's during the day in June is often more productive in terms of big fish, than a week of moon tides on your best beach after dark. Should not be able to buy a victory...

I'd even like to see a bait/no bait division...chunkers vs. those tossing lures/jigs...no killing fish under 40" or 20+ lbs, etc.

My .02...

H

[Harrible]

duplicate...but how?

[Saltheart]

I think we should be more inclusive here. No site owner , no #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& , no FW , no bait guys , ...??? Everyone who frequents the site should be able to get in on this. There is some truth that the boat guys have a big advantage so maybe a seperate prize but I really don't want to see anyone drop out do to perceived conflicts.

Half the fun of winning would be beating John and #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& and FW and BC and everyone else. I'd get a bigger kick out of winning if I had beaten all comers than if I beat a culled out , watered down field of competitors! So owners , pros , legends , etc , start fishing for second place cause my entry will be legit and its going to be A BIG ONE!!

And BTW , I know I don't have to... but I am building and donating the Loomis 1087 Heavy Canal Jig Stick as a prize. The thing is perfect for throwing 3 , 4 and 5 OZ jigs at the Ditch. Put a reel on spooled with Spectron and you'll feel everything that touches your jig. Best 9 foot Canal Jig Stick out there IMO. Hope someone who needs it , wins it.

[Slipknot]

So Saltheart, does that mean if you win , you get to keep it? Or does it go to the second place finisher since you plan on winning? Good luck , I hope you do get that 50 this year. By the way that is awefully nice of you to do that.