Heavily perfumed with repellent,
the murkiness of the trodden forest path,
is erratically illumined by our bobbing headlamps,
which magnetize a bevy of moths.

The three joggling rods with reels
and our essential tackle, swing back and forth
as if keeping time with our steps.
On the edge of the path sits a burly porcupine.

Upon arriving at the shore
I listen to the diminutive sounds of the low tide current.
First cast, second cast, third cast,
I feel delighted when I hook a schoolie.

Soothing sprays of ocean water,
occasionally dust my face with salt.
From the distant boulder of the jetty,
I hear their muffled voices,
jesting and joking about bears.

I recline in the solidarity of darkness
and gaze at pinholes of star light
in the otherwise ebony colored sky.
I ponder a prior discovery of engravings…
were they a hoax or was the area visited by Vikings?

Soon we retrace our steps
and go home for the night.

Two rise in the predawn darkness,
leaving our half consumed coffee and partially eaten bagels,
we don our rubber bibs and boots.

In the truck I place a cooler containing bait.
Creepy, crawly, wiggly, slimey.
Navigating along the curving road,
a brief journey, we arrive at the new spot.

Beyond a distant island,
the sky is intensely tinted in crimson.
Single file…
We navigate the shoreline…
Edge…

In the threatening, semi-overcast glow
I begin to see evidence of lavender sea heather.
A multitude of hoof imprints from deer.

We gently maneuver our gear amongst the brush.
Then, with the sea water up to my waist,
I troll back and forth, casting between
my make shift boundary of protruding ledges.
He captures a twenty-two inch fish.

Scattered rain drops forming tiny rings,
upon the retreating tide.
Bam! Hit! The squealing line pulls forward.
Water splashes, radiating reluctance.

My catch is a thirty-three inch strong.
A striped bass.
We take photos and release the fish.
She glides off into the murky waters.

With jovial attitudes our gear is packed.
Prudently…
We retrace our earlier steps,
within halos of ferocious mosquitoes.

Comment: Hi… I’ve been watching this tournament unfold. When I first saw the posters I thought about signing up, but ultimately I didn’t… I fish in Casco Bay and over the years have learned the area pretty well. I have never fished in the mid-coast waters and decided it was doubtful that I’d be able to compete outside my home waters. Thanks! CJ

Notes by Event Organizer: The regional nature of the tournament was defined as such due to the event being in it’s first year. We felt a need to narrow the geographic scope of the tournament to make it more manageable. We also wanted to highlight the quality habitat and unique geographic characteristics of the mid-coast region. This area is huge and the untapped potential is really significant.

With respect to CJ’s comments… Since the posters went up, we have heard similar comments from tackle shop owners and other anglers. Having year one under our belt and 20 X 20 hide sight, we are confident the infrastructure is now in place to support a tournament that is much broader in geographic scope and allow anglers to fish their home waters. The possibility is there to make such a tournament state-wide, but doing so offers many new and different challenges. But, maybe refining the model locally makes more sense?

We would appreciate your thoughts and comments… Please submit them using the Contact US form.

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.

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

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.