Tournament Report: 2016 StriperFest
With a total of 15 stripers tagged and released, Capt. Jason Dail took home Team Champion in the 2016 Cape Fear River StriperFest, with Alan Held and Grover Canady joining him on board. Dail, who operates Silver Spoon Charters, was the 2013 Team Champion, and this year he returned to reclaim the top spot.
Dail pre-fished for the tournament the week before, but he found the bite slow on tournament day. With only one fish landed before noon, the crew came into a school in the early afternoon. “We landed the rest of the 14 fish within one hour,” Dail explained, “using Z-Man paddlers on jig heads. We doubled up several times during the hour. It was great.”
Alan Held and Grover Canady, guided by Capt. Jason Dail, with a double hook up. Dail took home Team Champion in the 2016 StriperFest Tournament, landing a total of 15 fish throughout the day.
Once the bite slowed, the crew headed up river, and although they had two strong bites, there were no additional releases to be added to their day’s tally. However, the 15 prior releases ended up being more than enough to land the crew the Team Championship honors.
The award for Largest Striper of the Tournament, with a 26 5/8” striped bass, went to Nathan Edwards, guided by Capt. Seth Vernon.
Vernon, operator of Double Haul Guide Service, doesn’t pre-fish for this particular tournament. “Perseverance and luck are key,” he explained. “Keep that line in the water. I’m lucky I had an angler on the boat that is such a dynamite hook.”
Vernon’s strategy that day included fishing shallow, between a 2-6 foot water column, and using weedless and semi-weedless rigs. A large Mustad weedless hook with a quarter ounce weight and a bright Saltwater Assassin chartreuse fluke ended up being the lure that snagged the big fish.
“We had no idea what the field was doing. We were just glad to have a fish in the boat,” tells Vernon. “At first I was disappointed it fell short of the required 28 inches for Marine Fisheries to tag it with an acoustic tag, but it ended up being a winner.”
Striperfest is an event that is gaining ground every year, according to Tournament Director Capt. Jot Owens, “The money raised in the tournament goes straight into the Cape Fear River Striped Bass Foundation, where it can be focused on the fisheries themselves.”
Having an event like Striperfest, Owens added, is a great way to get people and families involved in the outdoors and vested in protecting our local fisheries. “It can really bring to light why the fishery is important, and what it would do for the economy if it was rebuilt,” says Owens.
Striperfest 2017 has already been planned for the same weekend in January, and those who are interested in participating can contact Owens for more information at (910) 233-4139 or visit www.capefearriverwatch.org for more information.
