2016 Winter Open Results

[mwardncsu]

We had a great tournament this past weekend with 45 teams coming out to fish - about twice what we had in the December event last year!

Congrats to the winner's in today's Striper Mafia Winter Open Tourney presented by Striper Soup event!

1st Place - Team Topwater Rushers - 73.75" - $1900
2nd Place - Team Lawrence - 72" - $865
3rd Place - Team Live Bait JunkEE - 72" - $500
4th Place - Team PrimeTime - 70.5"- $365
5th Place - Team STRIKE ZONE - 66.5" - $225

Big Fish - Team Lawrence - 38" - $1125 + $250 Green Top Sporting Goods gift certificate


Once again we had some great kids brave cold conditions to help keep their parents in check and enjoy some fun, competitive time on the water. Congrats not just to our winners but all those youth who came out and participated!

1st Place: Matthew - Team Lawrence - 38" - Striper Mafia tackle bag with tackle
2nd Place: Camran - Team Claytor Kings - 36.25" - Okuma Magda Pro reel
3rd Place: Kylee - Team Prime Time - 35.75" - Ugly Stik Striper Rod
4th Place: Bella - Team Eat Fish - 26.75"
5th Place: Carson - Team Sea Jay - 26.5"

Others: Jake - Team No Nonsense

We had several lady anglers post fish today in the series long Ladies' competion for the nice sport watch donated by Haywood's Jewelers. Holly Foster landed her 1st ever striper in today's tournament and Renee Kissella strengthened her lead with a 35" striper today. Two more events remain (March 18 & April 22) for our lady anglers to compete for the watch!

[mwardncsu]

1st Place - Team Topwater Rushers

(Their 3.75" citation which pushed them over the edge into 1st place)


2nd Place and Big Fish - Team Lawrence

Team Lawrence's 38" citation and big fish of the tournament


3rd Place - Team Live Bait JunkEE


4th Place - Team PrimeTime


5th Place - Team STRIKE ZONE



Youth Participants



We collected an incredible number of toys for Lake Christian Ministries to distribute to those familes in need in the local community. We collected 225 toys overall of which included 14 fishing poles and 34 books! A great response from a tournament with about 120 anglers participating and we put a big dent in Sea Tow's goal of 600 toys! A Big Thanks to Sea Tow SML for their assistance in this effort




Thanks also to the Smith Mountain Striper Club for their work in preparing the food & beverage during the event!

[mwardncsu]

One correction to the results table - there are two 31st places - the second should be listed as 32, and should show Team Wahoo. Will update the official results table later.

[FishON]

Congrats, to everyone in the tournament... I might donate some of my money to one of the upcoming tournaments... I am dead money...

Just curious if most all of the big fish that are caught in the tournament are coming exclusively from big bait? No, sure if anyone even wasn't to share that info..

[ghostcomanche©®]

Dec 10, 2016 11:29:17 GMT -5 FishON said:

Congrats, to everyone in the tournament... I might donate some of my money to one of the upcoming tournaments... I am dead money...

Just curious if most all of the big fish that are caught in the tournament are coming exclusively from big bait? No, sure if anyone even wasn't to share that info..

This is an excerpt from an  article written by Bill Cochran, of the Roanoke Times.


"Small shad produced the most catches, Ward observed, while large shad brought bigger fish to the boat."

[mwardncsu]

Think that was from the Oct tourney (and by small shad I meant "dollar bill" sized). However, the same basically held true in December.

[ghostcomanche©®]

Dec 10, 2016 15:46:51 GMT -5 mwardncsu said:

Think that was from the Oct tourney (and by small shad I meant "dollar bill" sized). However, the same basically held true in December.

The article states that this was from last Saturday's tournament, and the information was posted to the Roanoke Times (online) on December 9, 2016.

Here is link to his field reports, where it is posted.

www.roanoke.com/sports/outdoors/bill-cochran-field-reports-tis-the-season-for-freshwater-stripers/article_06cf32e4-be26-11e6-897d-b79e22bacc03.html

[mwardncsu]

Ahh - thanks - I could not find the article for some reason and remember providing that info for the Oct (maybe did for Dec as well as the same did hold true )

[mwardncsu]

Press Coverage:

Laker Weekly
www.smithmountainlake.com/community/striper-mafia-continue-tournament-series-with-winter-open/article_7d8e4c3f-49b9-500c-813e-193e01c536cd.html?TNNoMobile


Roanoke Times - Bill Cochran Outdoors
www.roanoke.com/sports/outdoors/bill-cochran-field-reports-tis-the-season-for-freshwater-stripers/article_06cf32e4-be26-11e6-897d-b79e22bacc03.html?TNNoMobile%E2%80%8B