I want to take a moment to wrap up a few thoughts and tie up those loose ends that always seem to exist…

Overall the 17 Rivers Striper Tournament was a lot of fun and the photos we posted on the website effectively illustrate how beautiful the region is and how great the fishing can be. We are lucky to live here in the mid-coast region and we have a truly world-class fishery right in our backyard. Their are some huge stripers out there and we illustrated that by posting such fish photos on this site. The anglers who caught these stripers should be pleased… many of the contending catches represented “once in a life time” fish.

With respect to the website… The development of this site was done very quickly. We didn’t actually start work on the site until early July. Aaron Pastor and I really “busted it out” to design and implement the sites structure which morphed into something pretty neat! Thanks so much for your help Aaron… I couldn’t have done it without you. Personally, I am very pleased by the end result. The blog structure allowed for a dynamic environment in which to develop posts and communications to all visitors. The photo slide-shows were very slick bits of code we inserted that allowed for ease of viewing with respect to a large number of images. And the rotational ad banner was a nice addition which helped promote the businesses that directly sponsored the event.

Now that the tournament is over, I want to share some of the statistics regarding website use… To date we’ve had 1,784 unique website visitors, many returned repeatedly,… some 4,120 visitor’s in total. On average, the sites had 52 distinct visitors per day. Those visitors viewed over 46,000 pages and the website has recorded over 215,000 hits. For a local striper tournament, that was conceived in mid-June and didn’t have a fully functional website until mid-August, these numbers are pretty respectable. We will keep the site up for a while while we determine the future of the tournament.

Many have inquired about whether we will do the tournament again in 2008… Personally, I’d like nothing better than to make the tournament an annual event. It is my intent to seek funding and pledges of support for a 2008 tournament. Much of the infrastructure needed to support the tournament we now have in place, and running the event this year has provided insight into how we could do it differently to make improvements and achieve a greater level of success.

Over the winter, I’d like to ask for input from those who participated, as either sponsors or fishermen. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this. In order to do this again, we certainly need broader corporate sponsorship, State and local support and broader angler participation. Ultimately, we need to cover the costs. Please use the Contact Us form to send us your comments. I will share those comments openly and post them to gain greater perspective and add to the pool of knowledge. I look forward to hearing from you and hope a robust dialog develops.

Yesterday afternoon we held the Awards Ceremony for the 17 Rivers Striper Tournament and the event went over with only a few small glitches… but overall their were many happy faces. 

First we want to thank all the tournament sponsors who helped with financial and like-kind contributions of tackle. Their support was key to making this tournament happen. Also, for the Awards Ceremony, First Federal Savings sponsored the appetizers and Kristi & Gene, the owners of the Kennebec Tavern put out a nice spread. Thanks!

In the Junior Division we gave out a boat-load of tackle. All the kids who attended left with at least two prizes, but the big winners were Charlie Gill IV (2nd Place - 22″ striper) and Cameron Guth (1st Place - 24″ striper). These two boys scored spinning rods and tackle boxes loaded with gear!

In the Adult Division, the “scoring system” created a problem that jumped out and derailed things at the last minute. A mistake on one of the fish registration forms resulted in the final award being incorrect. In the end, the recipient pointed out the error and we were forced to recalculate the award standings and re-distribute awarded prizes. In the end it all worked out… and the awards were distributed as follows.

LL Bean Orion Fly Rod Outfit - Dan Shiells

2nd Place - $500.00 - Dan Soule

1st Place - $2,500.00 - Ed Gauvin

Congratulations to all who participated in the tournament. The fishing was a lot of fun, the month lasted a long time, and some great fish were landed. We truely hope the images we’ve posted illustrate the value of this sports fishery to the region! Please check out the new photo slide-show posts.

Cheers! Robert Fernald - Event Organizer

The Awards Ceremony is slated for Saturday October 13th @ 3:30 PM -5:30 PM… That’s tomorrow afternoon! Any interested persons are welcome to attend, but for those who participated in the tournament, please try to attend to show your appreciation to the people and businesses who supported and organized the tournament.

If you registered a striper, you will definitely want to attend. Primary awards will only be given to those in attendance and all attending participants will be eligible for additional tackle & prizes.

This event will be held at the Kennebec Tavern located on the river-front in Bath, ME. The restaurant is 400 yards up-river from the bridge. You will find us in the banquet room. First Federal Savings is sponsoring appetizers and a cash bar will be available for those with a thirst. We are planning to put on a photo slide-show, play some cool “blues” music and award the prizes. It should be fun! See you there.

Who says stripers can’t be caught using flies after dark? It’s just a bit more difficult managing the line, but when you find the fish, they can be caught. Ed Gauvin proves this point by registering another nice striper (33.5 inches) caught the night of September 27th using a fly. 

 ”If you bite down hard on the cork before removing the fly, it won’t hurt as much”. Nice one!

As of 4:00 PM Oct. 30th, 2007… The 17 Rivers Striper Tournament officially ended. Phew! Congratulations to you all. We do hope you enjoyed the fall striper fishing and caught lots of fish.

Anglers have through Oct. 2nd to get their pictures developed and fish entries submitted. Any fish entries submitted after this date, will not qualify for prizes.

Over the next couple weeks, the Event Organizers will aggregate the fish submissions, determine standings and prepare for the tournament Awards Ceremony. We will be sending out an invitation to all anglers who registered for the tournament inviting you to attend. The event will be held at the Kennebec Tavern (Bath) on October 13th @ 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend. Anglers must be in attendance to receive awards they may have won.

With respect to the tournament standings… as in the reality TV show “Survivor”, you will have to wait until the Awards Ceremony to learn who the winners are. So, if you registered a striper, you should definitely plan to attend… PS. “I don’t have a helicopter, so will be arriving by car”.

The white flag is out and their’s one lap remaining in the race. September 30th has finally arrived. At 4:00 PM today, the tournament officially ends, and from what I’ve heard, many anglers participating in the tournament are glad the months ending. Several individuals have commented on ”how tired they are of fishing”. The odd hours of the tides and the late nights take a lot out of you and require understanding and support on the home front. A month of fishing is a lot of fishing,… and those of us with supportive spouses owe big-time!

Those hardy anglers still working the waters, until the checkered flag falls, must keep in mind fish submissions need to be e-mailed, dropped off at an official registration site or post marked no later than October 2nd, 2007 to qualify for prizes.

Good luck!

This morning I was anticipating less than good conditions due to the heavy showers, but the waters seem to have cleared quickly and the stripers are right back on the bait.

The tides right now are huge flood tides and big drains. This water movement really gets things moving around. With such an abundance of bait the stripers are holding off the mouths of tidal rivers, streams and flats just waiting for the bait to get flushed to them.

This evening as the tide approached low, I watched a huge school of stripers corral a bunch of bait by taking up feeding positions off the mouth of a flat and cutting off their escape. As the tide neared low, the stripers progressively worked the bait back up into the ever shrinking drainage. The feeding frenzy that ensued was awesome! Water flying everywhere… pop, pop, splash… craziness!

With low tides at 7:00 AM & PM it’s definitely time to get out and fish either end of the day. The fish are keying in on small 2″-4″ bait fish, so fly fishermen can count on deceivers or minnow patterns working well and spin fishermen can go right to small rubber shad. That should do the trick.

Only three days of fishing left for those participating in the 17 Rivers Striper Tournament and heavy rains, a result of tropical storm “Karen”, will likely have an impact.

Fresh water from heavy rains doesn’t mix well with salt water and sits on top of the ocean until wave action can mix the concoction. Ever add water to scotch? It’s the same effect. The rain run-off also muddies the water of the tidal bays and rivers, further confounding the stripers ability to see. These factors give the cornered bait a chance to escape and result in the stripers feeding patterns changing.

Yesterday morning and last night we had two major downpours which deposited at least two inches of rain in very brief periods. These types of showers tend not to soak into the ground, but instead run off. Such run offs result in a quick rise in river and stream levels and muddied water. Often these dramatic changes put the stripers off and change their feeding patterns.

Expect action to be slow over the next 24-36 hours. The closer you can get to open ocean, the better. Fishing the slosh near deep waters might be a productive option until the waters begins to clear.

However, as the waters clear the stripers will be hungry and will feed with added intensity. They will work to round up schools of bait and the feeding frenzies will being. Chaos is on the near horizon!

Expect action to pick up Saturday and into Sunday as the weather improves. A Canadian high is expected to push into the region overnight bringing cool dry air and bright sunshine to the areas. Bright days in combination with clearing water can result in hot action during almost any point on the tide. So, don’t be discouraged, get out there and fish hard!