The 17 Rivers Striper Tournament is a catch & release tournament, so anglers catches will be judged based on photo entries. These photo entries establish the length of each fish and also provide a great record of all the catches submitted during the month of September.

Scoring will be more than just the length of a fish. We’ve designed the scoring system to level the playing field for all anglers. This scoring system involves two additional categories Method and Style, and weighting factors are assigned to each of the respective variables within the categories.

Method - reflects how you fish,… from a boat or shore.

Since anglers who fish from shore are limited by access and mobility the wieghting factor favors the shore fisherman.

Style - reflects how you caught your striper.

Some anglers use bait, others artificial lures or flies. Two considerations influenced our dicission with respect to the weighting factors in the style category.
1.) Bait fishermen have a distinct advantage over all other approaches to fishing. Bait reflects a natural food source for stripers and includes a scent element.
2.) Bait fishermen often employ a strategy of letting the striper swallow the bait before setting the hook. This can result in damage to the fish.

The style weighting factors are therefore designed to favor the use of fly and artificial lures, since these approaches to fishing are more difficult and less harmful to fish.

Here’s an example of how this scoring system works. Score = Length X Method X Style. This picture shows a nice slot fish of approximately 21.5 inches and the fish was caught from a boat using a fly.

Fish Score = 21.5″ X .85 X 1.0 = 18.275

Note, because the angler fished  from a boat, the weighting factor (Wf = .85) resulted in the overall score being reduced. If the fisherman had fished from shore instead of a boat, the overall score would have been maximized and a score of 21.5 would have resulted.

Anglers are encouraged to review the Tournament Rules and note the differences between each category and the respective weighting factors.