Outdoors Commentary: Thames River Tourney has lost something special
By BOB SAMPSON
For the Norwich Bulletin
Wet and windy weather made this year’s Thames River Challenge Striped Bass Tournament a challenge — like it always seems to be.
None of the anglers I talked to had any favorable comments about this year’s event. It also was surrounded by a great deal of confusion.
Basic tournament information that is generally received by the Norwich Bulletin never arrived, and if these last minute changes were posted on the Ctoutdoors.com, they were not easy to find. All I saw were rules that weren’t even up to date for last week’s deadline, so it was difficult to print any last minute changes.
The primary weigh station was at Thayer’s Marine in Norwich.
When I called Tuesday to find out who won, I was told that the organizers of this year’s event — Ctoutdoors.com — were angry with me for echoing the complaints about the lack of communication from tournament organizers.
This year’s tournament was not the conservation-oriented, river-front event that its original founders, the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce and the Dime Bank, had created back in 1999.
In the tournament’s early years, there were river-front events for non-participants to attend.
A focal point at the awards ceremony and banquet each year was the presentation of an award to some one from the area who had invested time and effort to promote and enhance conservation measures in the Thames River watershed.
It was local business interests creating a venue to promote and show off a wonderful resource that people in this region enjoy: The Thames River and its incredible year-round striped bass fishery.
The tournament didn’t have a sponsor in 2001, but was resurrected the following year, but in recent years, the spirit and focus of the Thames River Challenge has changed.
Call it evolution or de-evolution, but from what I’ve been told by a few of those who competed this year, it was run like a largemouth bass tournament.
This once excellent fishing-tournament experience has become another weigh’em-in, collect-a-check, go-home event with nothing to stick around for after the fishing is over.
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By BOB SAMPSON
For the Norwich Bulletin
Wet and windy weather made this year’s Thames River Challenge Striped Bass Tournament a challenge — like it always seems to be.
None of the anglers I talked to had any favorable comments about this year’s event. It also was surrounded by a great deal of confusion.
Basic tournament information that is generally received by the Norwich Bulletin never arrived, and if these last minute changes were posted on the Ctoutdoors.com, they were not easy to find. All I saw were rules that weren’t even up to date for last week’s deadline, so it was difficult to print any last minute changes.
The primary weigh station was at Thayer’s Marine in Norwich.
When I called Tuesday to find out who won, I was told that the organizers of this year’s event — Ctoutdoors.com — were angry with me for echoing the complaints about the lack of communication from tournament organizers.
This year’s tournament was not the conservation-oriented, river-front event that its original founders, the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce and the Dime Bank, had created back in 1999.
In the tournament’s early years, there were river-front events for non-participants to attend.
A focal point at the awards ceremony and banquet each year was the presentation of an award to some one from the area who had invested time and effort to promote and enhance conservation measures in the Thames River watershed.
It was local business interests creating a venue to promote and show off a wonderful resource that people in this region enjoy: The Thames River and its incredible year-round striped bass fishery.
The tournament didn’t have a sponsor in 2001, but was resurrected the following year, but in recent years, the spirit and focus of the Thames River Challenge has changed.
Call it evolution or de-evolution, but from what I’ve been told by a few of those who competed this year, it was run like a largemouth bass tournament.
This once excellent fishing-tournament experience has become another weigh’em-in, collect-a-check, go-home event with nothing to stick around for after the fishing is over.
_________________