Photo Credit: Wayne Gustaveson

Press Release
By Bill Hutcheson
WON BASS Tournament Director
185 Avenida La Pata
San Clemente, CA 92673
949.366.0030 ext 29
949.366.0804 Fax
714. 393.5656 Cell

For the past quarter century, Western Outdoor News has been pleased to bring to the anglers of the Southwest the Lake Havasu Striper Derby. Now in its 26th year, the Striper Derby has brought nearly 20,000 anglers to the shores of Lake Havasu for fun in the sun.

The Striper Derby is a family oriented contest that is open to all. This year’s two-day derby is slated for May 16-17th, 2009 and will be based out of the Nautical Inn & Resort.

The premise of the Striper Derby is simple. Anglers will fish in two person teams on Saturday and Sunday, catching a maximum of 10 striped bass each day. These fish will be brought to the official scales at the Nautical Inn and weighed each day. The top 15 teams at the end of the contest on Sunday will win prizes. In addition to these top 15 teams, we will have a special big fish award and special category awards for the top Father-Son, Father-Daughter, and Husband-Wife teams.

The striper derby festivities kick off on Friday afternoon at the captain’s meeting held at the Nautical Inn convention center. Anglers will check in during this time at which they will receive their event shirts, event hats, and sponsor provided goodie bags. After check-in, a brief meeting will take place to go over event rules and then it is on to our always popular raffle prizes that are awarded to the participating anglers.

During the check-in, Striper Derby contestants may also enter the Blind Bogey contest which awards up to $20,000 in cash to 30 lucky teams on Saturday and Sunday. The premise of the Blind Bogey contest is simple: 30 weights are selected many weeks prior to the tournament and sealed in envelopes. 15 of these weights are opened on Saturday and 15 weights are opened on Sunday. The angling team that gets closest to this weight without going over wins $1,000!

Additionally, this year’s Striper Derby will feature an added chance for each of our anglers to win up to $50,000 with the Nautical Inn “Striper Derby Stimulus”. Each angler at the time of check in will receive a scratcher type card and if they scratch off 5 of a like symbol, they will win $25,000. Nautical Inn and Western Outdoors will award $25,000 to two lucky winners should they match 5 out of 5 for a total of $50,000 in cash before you even set a line in the water!

Saturday morning at 5am marks the start of the competition with the weigh in scales opening at 11am. Anglers are able to fish until 2pm and must have all their fish brought to the official scales no later than 3pm on Saturday, May 16th. After the weigh-in, all participants are treated to the Striper Derby Beach party featuring a BBQ, live band, and casting contest. All while this is going on, the Striper Derby Staff will be awarding raffle prizes and Blind Bogey Contest money to the tune of $10,000 to our anglers.

Sunday angling also starts at 5AM with scales opening at 9:30AM and closing at 1PM. The event awards ceremonies take place at the Nautical Inn Convention center around 3-3:30PM with all awards and raffle prizes being given away, including the grand raffle prize of a new Nitro X5 bass boat equipped with a 115HP Mercury motor valued around $23,000.

Despite the tough economy, we are holding the price of the Striper derby to the $160 per team rate it has been the past couple of years. Throw in the two days of the blind bogey contest at $40 per day per team and $240 will get you in across the board. Entry forms are available to print out off of this website.

The Nautical Inn Beach Resort located at 1000 McCulloch Blvd in Lake Havasu serves as our tournament headquarters. The Nautical offers special rooming rates for Striper Derby participants and we recommend getting your reservations in early as they always sell out during the Derby. To get in touch with the Nautical Inn, please call (928) 822-2141 and mention “Striper Derby’ for your special rates.

The Striper Derby is a great time for all whether you are an experienced angler or just out with the family to have fun. For further details or to get specific questions answered regarding this event, please feel free to contact tournament director Bill Hutcheson at (949) 366-0030 ext 29.

For more information visit www.wonews.com/california-outdoor-event-715-2009-Lake-Havasu-Striper-Derby-.aspx