2011 Striper Shootout VII Recap

The weekend of August 19-21 the 7^th Annual NEKF Striper Shootout was held at Winter Island in Salem Mass. The tournament is pretty simple; the biggest fish wins. There are 3 classes; Open, Artificial and Fly and you have from 5pm on Friday until Noon on Sunday to do it. This year the forecast called for possible thunderstorms in the afternoon all weekend, and on Friday just prior to the captains meeting a large storm blew though. Luckily after that the weather cooperated the rest of the weekend. After the captains meeting it was time to fish. In this tournament there are no hours off limits and fishing in the dark is the norm. Over the next 43 hours I would spend over 20 of them out on the water in my Malibu X-Factor. My efforts would net me 18 keeper bass but none of them would come close to the eventual winners.

The tournament brought in nearly 150 anglers from as far away as Canada a large portion of the anglers camped in the Winter Island Park where the off the water time was split between BBQ’s, hanging around campfires, and now and then even a little rest. It was great to see that many people from many different walks of life all come together and have a good time. In addition to fishing and having a good time the tournament raised over $7000 for the charities; they were Heroes on the Water, Casting for Recovery, Sofia’s Fund, Greater Salem Boys & Girls Club and the Floating Hospital for Children. And as always I have to give thanks to all the sponsors that donated lots of great prizes for the raffles, including kayaks from Hobie and Cobra. There was also a special raffle from Hook 1 for The Ultimate Fishing Crate that was stuffed with tackle and gear.

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 After the photos were submitted at the weigh in the results were tallied and the winners were announced at the final BBQ and the raffle prizes were passed out. And the winners are:

Ocean Kayak Pro-Staffer Mark Nelson with his winning 46" Striped Bass

Billy Eicher and his first mate Brady and their class winning 44" Striped Bass

And there were no fish landed in the fly division this year.