With predictions of  weekend full of thunder storms and 10-20 knot NOAA forecasts it looked like the 3rd annual Mass Bay Striper Shoot Out to benefit the local Boys and Girls Club might be a wash. Instead anglers were greeted with a weekend of calmer than expected seas, warm breezes and hungry bass.

 
Over 80 anglers from all over New England, PA and NY descended on Salem and found their hot spots. Many launched right off of Winter Island and found schooling bass, but many others put their kayaks on the racks and headed up to Joppa flats off of Plum Island. For 2 nights Joppa flats gave up many fish in the 20-30# range. Eels, tube and worm and large plastics seemed to be what the stripers gobbled up. Beyond the occasional bass towing a kayak into the side of another kayak the VHF's were full of laughter and guys screaming about their new personal bests , including a 45 and a 43 inch pulled in by Rick LaRiviere and Marty Lechleider both on eels.

Knowing he had to get a really big fish Gary Horne of Gloucester used a little bit of his local knowledge and armed with a tube and worms made his way out to some rocky areas Saturday am and muscled in a very impressive 50 1/4" monster for first place. Amid all the eel slingers was Bob (Lefty) Harnish with his fly rod pulling in a nice 33 inch fish to take first place in the fly division followed by Christopher Borgatti and Marcus J. Soule.

At the end of the tourney over $6,000 in raffle prizes were awarded- the big winners were Brian Sullivan who went home with a new Hobie Revolution kayak and the boys and girls club which received close to 2 thousand dollars in donations.