Those of you tracking tournament postings are aware that Tom Guth and Dan Soule have registered some pretty decent fish… well, it’s obvious these two know what they’re doing. Both weekends they’ve consistently registered fish in the 34 inch - 41 inch range and the photos prove the beauty of these monster stripers. 

Just imagine having photos like these hanging on your office wall or in the home study! Some very fine memories there and great conversation pieces.

So we are officially recognizing the two leaders in the 17 Rivers Striper Tournament. To date, they have caught the “most” large stripers and have also landed the “biggest”! Hat’s off two these two hardcore fishermen. You humble the rest of us!

Tom Guth, the angler wearing the yellow rain slicker, displays a 38 inch striper caught on the coming tide Sunday morning.

Dan Soule, is the angler wearing the orange jacket and lovingly hugging a 39 inch striper, also caught on the coming tide during a rain shower.

Congratulations!

Things are starting to get exciting and the low-tides are coming around to early morning again. This mornings low was right about first light and that’s perfect for striper fishermen.

The weather feels a bit like a fall hurricane is ready to influence our local weather and it’s moist and hot out there. The weather reports indicates “rain” in the five day forecast, and rain will certianly sweeten the water, muddy things up and change the fishes behaviors.  And such changes definitely influence the feeding patterns and behaviors of the stripers.

In the last 48 hours we’ve noticed a distinct change. Although the “bite” is still oriented towards a short low-light window, surface action is beginning to pick up and the stripers are feeding more aggressively. On three different occasions we’ve seen large schools of stripers moving in on the coming tides and as the tide has turned, chaos. Bait’s readily available, and the stripers are beginning to school up and are starting to chase bait to the surface. This represents the beginning of the fall feeding frenzies we anglers look forward to.

Last evening on the tides turn, we saw stripers busting up the surface and major gull activity in the Kennebec River. This AM, as the tide turned, a good bite was experienced and 25-30 fish were caught in a 30 minute window… So keep the faith and spend some time fishing. It’s just starting to get good!

Wednesday September 5th, 2007 Doug Rafferty aired a nice news piece on the tournament. For those of you interested in viewing the piece it’s posted on their website. Click here to view the report.

Tom Guth and Dan Soule get the “fishermen of the weekend” designation. This dynamic duo got into a bunch of good stripers over the weekend. Dan, in casual attire, here proudly displays a 41 inch striper.

Since both work at BIW, we’re thinking they had all shifts chumming off the dry dock, so they could slide in there at first light and ding the big ones. Tom shows off a nice 36 inch striper. Beautiful fish!

Dan Soule, a local resident of Phippsburg was in the right place at the right time over the Labor Day weekend. He landed 34, 35, 36 & 37 inch stripers and here’s the proof!

He and his fishing partner Tom Guth of West Bath, both BIW employees, landed some very nice stripers, fishing the morning tides.

These photos illustrate how big these fish can be. It’s what keeps us casting again and again!

Note the rock star appearance.

The angler exudes confidence as he displays his catch and the ultra cool sun glasses add to the look. Love it! The reality is, when that sun crests the tree line, the reflective glare is a killer. Good sun glasses are a must. 

Thanks for showing us how it’s done - great photos!

September 1st, 2007 has arrived and with it some fine Canadian air and the start of the 17 Rivers Striper Tournament! We were out on the water at daylight. It was a beautiful start to the day. We caught some stripers (schoolies), took in the scenic vistas and saw a sturgeon that was easily 8 ft long. This is why we live in Maine!

 We are very excited to watch this event unfold. Many anglers have registered for the tournament and we want to thank all of you for your interest and support. It is our hopes you all experience some very memorable moments out on the water this fall and we wish you the best of luck; tight lines, bent rods, big fish and big grins!

We want to encourage anglers to frequently submit their photos of fish, fishing, youth and fishing, nature and scenic photos. We’ll be posting your shots periocially throughout the tournament, so do check out the website to see the updates. It will be a lot of fun to see the imagery which reflects what’s important to you all! I’m certian it will be an impressive compilation of photo imagery.

The morning of August 30th, Doug Rafferty, News Anchor for WGME News 13 went out on Casco Bay to do a little striper fishing with Eric Wallace of Coastal Fly Angler. While on the water we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise, did some fly fishing and shot a news piece on the tournament. The news piece is slated to air September 4th on Doug’s Discovery. 

Here’s a little video clip depicting our excursion.

The 17 Rivers Striper Tournament will run the entire month of September. Anglers who participate stand a great chance of catching lots of stripers, and just maybe one fish will be the derby winner.

Event organizers anticipate hundreds of anglers will take part in this years tournament all vying for the adult division grand prize of $2,500. Anglers can fish as much as they want during the month of September and will employ many different techniques to catch fish. Some anglers will use bait, others spinning lures and a few hardy souls will break out the fly tackle.

During the month, anglers may submit as many striper entries as they want. We are excited to receive such photos as we want to recognize the fishermen and their great catches. These fish submission photos will be posted on the tournament website and provide a unique forum for viewing the anglers achievements. And wouldn’t it be great if a new State record of 67 lbs was set ? That would be a huge fish!

For anglers sitting on the fence, consider this… assuming 500 anglers participate in the adult division of the tournament, your odds of winning are 1 in 500. Those are really great odds! Compare that to Power Ball or lottery scratch tickets. So all you need to do, is register for the tournament, then get out there and land some fish. The more time you invest, the greater the chance is you’ll boat a contending striper, so register early and fish hard. 

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!