Striped-Bass Tournaments

Only a few hours from now the proverbial bell will ring on yet another Striped Bass tournament to help raise money for M.S.  This tournament known as the Surf Fishing Club Challenge was established in 1993. The main purpose is to bring together Atlantic Coast Surf Fishing Clubs, in an effort to unite members from different clubs and regions, to meet each other, discuss fishing and conservation in their respective areas.
All proceeds are donated to charity in the name of Surf Fishing.

DATE AND TIME START -FRI. OCT.19, 2012 - 6:00 PM

ENDS - SUN. OCT. 21, 2012 - 8:00 AM

The one thing I do not like about the tournament is that is a catch & kill tournament.  The minimum length for a "keeper" is 32 inches which is 4 inches larger than legal size, however I would much rather compete/participate in a catch, photo, & release tournament.  There are a couple components of this tournament that work against keeping the catch fresh for the dinner plate.  First is that we tend to fish at night and for long hours, and the weigh-in stations are not open 24hrs to accommodate the need to weigh-in fish close to the time they are caught.  After completing this task, then it is the angler's duty to clean their catch which may have been caught at 7pm the night before & after being up all night.  The recent "Tournament for Chuck" was a catch, photo & release which had anglers place a measuring tape next to or under a fish and photo the fish with a tournament "tag" on the fish or at least visible in the picture.  This allowed for the fish to be released or kept if desired.  The pictures were then turned-in via email or in person with each picture being labeled with the fish length.

Take this year's Martha's Vineyard Striped-Bass and Bluefish Derby.  "The Derby" as it is referred to ran for 30 or 31 days where participants fished what time they could, maybe the duration, maybe just a weekend.  In that time a tally of Striped Bass, Bluefish, False Albacore, & Bonito were harvested amounting to two pounds short of 21,100lbs or about 680lbs of fish per day.  The number of fish taken were 1144 Bluefish, 226 Bonito, 311 False Albacore, and 466 Striped Bass. Looking at the individual fish numbers is not as drastic compared to the weigh, for example this tournament averaged only 15 Striped-Bass weighed in per day. It is a combination boat and shore tournament and has been running for many years, steeped in history, etc... and I admit that I thought it would be nice to be a part of the tradition and experience the derby first hand... yet I am beginning to doubt the necessity of such large numbers of fish being killed.  The major indicator of why harvest tournaments pose a problem for fish population health comes from the fact that the largest Striped Bass weighed in from shore was only 32.12lbs.  In the past a 30lb Bass might not have won a daily prize as paraphrased from a long time Derby contestant.

Am I participating in the "Surf Fishing Club Challenge"?  The answer is yes.  I can promise that the Connecticut Surfcasters will be taking advantage of cell phone use to find out who is catching what, and who should weigh-in a fish or turn it loose.  Yet, we will still be keeping and killing fish.  I personally would like to see the rules modified towards a catch and release structure, so I will ask around and get a feel for what other participants think about this idea.  After all, there will be an excellent representation of clubs in the surf casting community in attendance and I know they want to catch fish now and in the years to come.  There is nothing wrong with taking fish, I do keep and eat 2 to 4 Striped Bass per year, but I believe it should be on our own accord and not for the sake of a tournament.