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
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