Announcing a new Striper Derby - For Kayakers!!!!

A Striper like Matt's could very well be the winner!

In recent weeks some of the folk who work for the City of Bathurst on NB's Eastern shore contacted me to get my thoughts on a proposed new fishing tournament.   The idea was to put on a Striped Bass tournament in and around the Bay of Chaleur in mid-July when the annual run of stripers is in full swing in the area.

Already in the nearby town of Miramichi, the Striper Cup is held in late May and is one of the biggest fishing tournaments in all of Canada, bringing in an amazing 20,000 people!    Now the Miramichi River and the Bay of Chaleur are two very different bodies of water, and there was no expectation of replicating that type of turnout.   As explained to me, the Bay of Chaleur has some main channels that are deep enough for motorboats, but much of the bay is very shallow and ideally suited to boats like kayaks.    I don't see why we couldn't bring in 100 kayakers to this event in the first year, what do you think?

Here is the Catch n Kayak Facebook Page.

So to help differentiate their event from the Striper Cup, they proposed making this event a kayak fishing tournament with a shore based division as well!   I ran the idea by some friends, got their feedback and gave our thoughts back to the town.

From the discussions I've had, I can promise this is going to be a very well run event with lots of logistics considered and planning in place.    There were some ideas thought about such as teams, making it multi-day and so forth which will not come into play this year, but there may be a questionnaire for participants at the end of the event so that as much feedback as possible can be gathered to ensure next years event builds off this inaugural derby in all the right ways.

Right now there is only a Facebook page in place, but a website is going to be up soon with all the information you will need to understand the rules, prizes, when to be there, where to stay...etc.

Here is what I can tell you.    There are going to be big cash prizes as far as kayak tournaments go.   Over $2500 in cash, plus the chance to win a new kayak or possibly other prizes, perhaps even a guided fishing trip with me in the Fall.   The event is on July 15th, a Saturday and you are going to want to be there on Friday to register and be ready to launch early Saturday morning.    There will be a lunch break midday when the tide switches, and the event will wrap up Saturday evening.

Check out their Facebook Page, and keep an eye out for the website.   I hope to see you there!!