For weeks, die-hards have been tying flies, pouring over maps, gauging water depths, and preparing all the necessary gear to increase their odds of taking top honors at the 13^th Annual Cheeky Schoolie Tournament presented by Simms.

The tournament began as a simple excuse for a few buddies to get together and fish. Over the years, what started as a casual gathering has morphed into a force for striped bass conservation and a must fish event for arguably the most ravenous angling community in the country — shore-based striper nuts.

The tournament is a great American story for a great American fish. Like Google being born out of a garage, the Schoolie tournament formed in the sandy parking lot of West Dennis Beach on Cape Cod. Fresh out of MIT, co-founder of Cheeky Fishing, Ted Upton, needed to get on the water to clear his head to cope with a major life decision. Upton boldly left a good paying finance job to start a reel company. Crazy, or brilliant? You decide.

With a couple of calls, he got a group of anglers together convincing each to throw down $20. The rules were simple: most fish and longest fish with the caveat that all eligible fish had to be caught while wading Cape Cod — and, all fish had to be released. Honestly, very few ventured more than a few miles from the parking lot in the first year. The winner took home half the pot with the other half going to food and beer.

After that inaugural event, friends wanted to invite friends, and Cheeky Reels was growing. They were launching reels with vibrant colors, ridiculously large arbors, and buttery smooth disc drags. Cheeky had also created a devout following of young-at-heart, buck-the-system type anglers who now craved a get together. Thus, Schoolie was born.

The name has always been a funny one. While many think it’s because Schoolies, the name of the smaller fish grouped together who descend on the Cape in late spring, are the pursuit of the competitors. They are actually the fish you are trying to avoid. Schoolie is about celebrating and protecting these young fish. The Schoolies also define the health of the fishery. Some years, large fish are hard to come by but you could catch dozens of small fish. Those who have been fishing the tournament a long time can see the stock mature over the years. Currently, small schoolies that are needed to sustain the fishery are in short supply. The organizers of the event work closely with conservation organizations to make sure that the awareness and funding for conserving these fish is worth encouraging anglers to chase them. So far, that has been a resounding yes, but if those tides turned, Schoolie would take on new meaning as a festival event. 

It is hard to pursue a fish, year after year, and not fall in love with them and focusing on wanting to protect them and their habitat. Shortly into the life of the tournament a number of issues came up with stripers including some mismanagement and issues with spawning areas. As Cheeky began to look into the situation, they soon realized Schoolie could be a mechanism to not only raise awareness, but also a mechanism to raise meaningful funding for conservation as well. One organization that kept popping up as they talked to anglers was the grassroots organization Stripers Forever. Stripers Forever advocates to list striped bass as a gamefish which would protect them from commercial harvest and manage them for their sporting virtue and recreational value—much like largemouth bass or bonefish who never make it on the menu. Schoolie had found its first beneficiary. Thus, the modern tournament was born and Schoolie began giving all the proceeds to conservation. 

From the beginning, Schoolie aimed for the event to be affordable and accessible so that just about anybody could fish it. In essence, ff you have a rod and reel, a fishing buddy (Schoolie is for teams of two), and a handful of flies, you can fish and contend. Couple that with it being a wade fish, catch-photo-and-release only affair, and you have the makings of something the everyday angler could get into. The tournament is one day with a team scorecard consisting of the combined measurement of the longest four stripers caught by the team. If you are over 100 inches you have a shot. For a short time, there was prize money, but that was quickly abandoned for a gear package that would make a fly shop blush. Plus, financial gain was never what the event was about — the tournament is really about getting together with other like-minded anglers, fishing the beautiful waters of Cape Cod, and protecting and preserving the resource.

Stripers are the great American fish. They migrate up and down the eastern seaboard entering every nook and cranny in search of food and spawning grounds. They spawn on many  great American rivers. This includes the Hudson, sometimes setting up shop on the piers of Manhattan. You can also find them landlocked in rivers and lakes across the country as well as the brackish and salt as far away as the California Delta. Although some may say they aren’t real stripers unless they are part of the East coast stock, I was taught to never yuk anyone’s yum. They grow big, are great predators wherever you find them, and can be as fickle as a spring creek sipper. What’s not to love?

Stripers have also played an important role in American history. Much like Lieutenant Dan’s family in Forest Gump, a striper has likely been killed and eaten by soldiers in every major war on American soil. We know that they were eaten by American soldiers in the Revolutionary War and by both sides in the Civil War. A Tax on striped bass funded the first public school system in our country,  which started in —you guessed it — Cape Cod, Massachusetts — home to the Schoolie tournament.

As the tournament progressed and grew, sponsors like Simms came on board, prize packages grew as did the money for conservation. Cheeky was also becoming more adept at understanding the plight of the striped bass. A couple more conservation organizations where brought on board to round out what the fish needed. Keep Fish Wet educates and advocates for proper fish handling. They have been instrumental in helping us understand how little tweaks in how we treat these fish once on the line, can go a long way in helping ensure that the fish are released to swim away to spawn another day instead of going belly up or becoming food for any number of watery beasts that call the Atlantic home. Keep Fish Wet helped Schoolie to update its rules for the betterment of the fish in a number of ways. With their guidance, rule changes include the requirement that all fish are measured at or below the waterline. This insures minimal handling while a quick photo captures their length. It is important for the health of the fish that they have minimal air exposure, allowing them to filter water through their gills to revive them easily before release. The slimy coating, which works as a defense against injury and disease, is also protected with minimal handling. They also suggested anglers not measure fish under 20 inches in the tournament. For the past two years, Keep Fish Wet, Schoolie, and Cheeky have been supporting efforts from UMASS scientists who are conducting the most definitive and expansive catch-and-release study ever undertaken on striped bass. Even when carefully released, some of these fish can die. In some situations with some species, this can be as high as 10-12%. If that can be lowered by a percent or two that can keep hundreds of thousands of fish in the system to reproduce.

The newest Schoolie partner, and a newcomer to the conservation world, is the American Saltwater Guide Association. ASGA has quickly become a force in national and state fisheries policy management. They have worked with lawmakers to ensure greater protection while advocating for science-based approaches to management. They began working primarily with striper guides but now have members up and down the eastern seaboard keeping close tabs on management of important fish species including false albacore and redfish.

Over the past 10 years, Schoolie has been able to donate more than $100,000 to these three groups. Last year, the checks were more than $10,000 a piece, over $30,000 in total. This year, the hope is that number grows yet again.

The Cape itself is magical. The variety of water to fish is vast and varied. Linking different areas up for a perfect day is an art. Tides fluctuate and are different at every stop. You can head from the southern beaches and inlets, into the salt ponds, swirling with sand eels and cinder worms. Traveling through inland rivers and canals to the fabled sand flats of the north. On a sunny day, when the tide is right, you can fish an incoming as the water fills in around you forcing you to move as the fish come in waves. You would think you were in the Bahamas and they were giant bonefish. The flies vary as well, eels and baitfish patterns might be the ticket. Crabs or squid could make an appearance in certain situations. The weather however will certainly throw in a curve ball or two into the equation. Those that choose well and adjust, just might go down in Schoolie lore as champions. And for the rest of us, fun, fish, and friends surely await.  

Peter Vandergrift is a veteran guide who worked at Simms Fishing Products and Costa Sunglasses. He is curently the CMO or North Point Brands ( Cheeky Fishing, RepYourWater, Wingo Outdoors, and RepYourWild). He has competed in the tournament, sponsored the tournament with other brands and for the last 4 years has been tournament director. He lives in Missoula but migrates to Cape Cod the third week of May nearly every year.