The 17 Rivers Striper Tournament - Awards Ceremony is to be held October 13th (3:30 PM - 5:30 PM) at the Kennebec Tavern located on the water front in Bath, Maine.

Tournament organizers, representatives of the “Official Host City” of Bath, professional fishing guides, affiliated business sponsors and participating anglers, will be attending.

We are being lent the use of the cities AV equipment and plan to show a photo slideshow of some of the notable fish registered during the tournament. We will also recognize the best of the nature photographs.

Prizes will be awarded in both the Junior Division and the Adult Division to those anglers achieving the greatest fish score. These awards represent prestige and some great prizes! Angler attendance is required of prize winners. We will also be awarding a number of additional prizes to youth, so junior division participants should plan to attend and bring your fishing buddy-parent.

The Kennebec Tavern is generously providing the banquet facility for this function.  The restuarant is putting out appetizers and a cash bar will be available for those wanting a beverage. We’re excited! It’s a nice venue and a great location. Thanks to the owner’s, Kristi and Gene.

We are greatly anticipating the 2007 tournament. The awards ceremony will formalize the near-end of the 2007 striper season and finalize this years fishing event. We are appreciative of those businesses, organizations and individuals who have contributed to making this event a success and want to recognize their contributions. Please plan to attend, to show your appreciation and to have a fun time!

On Wednesday August 29th organizers are planning an informal meeting for the 17 Rivers Striper Tournament. Tournament participants and interested anglers are invited to join the tournament organizer for a social at The Cabin Restaurant which is located at 552 Washington St, Bath. For those not familiar with Bath, this road runs parallel to the river and along side of BIW’s ship building facility.

The Cabin Restuarant boasts some mighty fine pizza and they have a nice variety of beverages on tap. So please do stop by.

If you’d like to meet to discuss the format of the tournament, submit angler registration forms or review the tournament rules, we’ll be there from 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM.

Weather permitting, look for us outdoors on the patio. Alternately, look for us in the room at the front of the building, to the left as you face the cash register.

Hope you’ll drop by… Cheers!

Register Early!

Anglers who register for the 17 Rivers Striper Tournament are to be issued a distinctive Angler Identification Card. The purpose of this card is two fold.

1.) Participating anglers are being offered differing discounts by local merchants. Those discounts are posted on the tournament website. Anglers are encouraged to visit these merchant locations during the month of September to receive the offered discounts. This translates into savings for the consumers and business for the merchants. Cool! We thank them for their generous promotional offers and in supporting the tournament.

2.) Anglers participating in the tournament are required to submit photos when registering fish. Photo II requires anglers to include the Angler ID Card in the photo to establish authenticity with respect to dating the catch.

Since the majority of Angler ID Cards are to be sent out by mail, we encourage anglers to submit their registration forms as promptly as possible to ensure they get the ID in a timely fashion.

For those anglers registering late in August or into September, we will be providing “Official Registrations Sites” with Angler ID Cards. Anglers leaving the completed registration paperwork and a check at those sites will be issued an ID Card at that time.

Note: LL Bean will not be taking receipt of completed registration paperwork nor will they have Angler ID Cards on site. Also ID cards will not be given out or mailed until August 25th, 2007.  This predates the start of the tournament, but is necessary to ensure anglers have the required ID card before the official start date.

The question always comes up,… “what about cheating”? As tournament organizers, we want to address the topic of cheating.

This tournament represents a recreational sporting activity with prizes. Whenever their is prestige or valuable prizes on the line, the potential for cheating exists. Examples are all around… whether it be the Tour D’France, the Olympics or professional Baseball, certain individuals cheat in an attempt to gain advantage over the competition. It’s really sad!

With respect to the 17 Rivers Striper Tournament, event organizers will do everything within their power to protect the interests of the competitors participating in the tournament. It is our intent for anglers to be assured the process of determining prize winners is fair and equitable. But we can’t guarantee against individuals trying to cheat! What we will do, is take the following steps to prevent cheating… 

1.) When individuals register for the tournament, they are asked to define the Method and Style by which they will fish. These two categories include several variables with assigned weighting factors. The scoring system used to determine prize winners is a mathematical formula where a fishes length is multiplied against the weighting factors for both Method and Style, thus determining the fishes score. The selections anglers make when they register will be used to calculate the score(s) for fish submitted by individual anglers over the course of the tournament. However, if an angler uses a differing method or style when they are fishing and register a fish, they would note the method and style that did apply. So if an angler says they landed a fish using flies, they should be prepared to demonstrate their skill at casting with a fly rod and have the gear to prove it.
2.) Photo manipulation is another concern individuals have raised. With technology, people can and do manipulate photos or elements within a photo. As event organizers, we will scrutinize all contending photos before awarding prizes and will look closely at each image to determine whether a photo has been graphically manipulated. The individuals, who will assist with this review, have worked as graphic designers for 22 + years. They work with photos day-in, day-out and in aggregate have over 100 years worth of experience to draw from.
3.) Since this tournament is a catch & release tournament, the photos submitted should reflect fish that are alive. We will assess each contending entry to determine whether the fish shown in the image appears to be freshly caught and alive. Those of you who have taken photos of live fish recognize their is a distinct difference in a fishes appearance. So even if you intend to keep a fish for the dinner table, take the required photos while the fish is alive.
4.) For a fish submission to qualify for prizes, Photo II- depicting the fish laid out on a flat surface, showing the angler ID and a readable tape measure, is a must. Having these elements in the photo prevents unscrupulous anglers from submitting images of fish caught in years past for tournament prizes.

If individual fish entries are rejected for any of the above reasons, the entry will be disqualified from prize contention.  This decision resides with tournament organizers and is at the sole discretion of said organizers.

If an anglers fish submission is shown to be blatantly falsified, this action would clearly represent fraud. If an angler attempts to perpetrate fraud, the angler will be “black-balled” from the tournament and future tournaments organized by Maine Striper September. Fraud is also a punishable crime and event organizers are prepared to press charges with local law enforcement against said individuals attempting to perpetrate crime. We clearly hope this course of action will not be necessary!