Don’t miss your chance to win a share of more than $2 million in prizes in the CCA Texas STAR Tournament. Boats, trucks, UTVs, and scholarships! Multiple adult and kid divisions.
The CCA Texas STAR tournament runs through Labor Day.
Making plans for the July 4th weekend and summer fishing trips? Don’t forget to register the entire family before heading out. Tagged Redfish are already being caught.
Unfortunately, several have been landed by anglers who were not registered for the tournament.
With 120 Tagged Redfish released along the Texas coast, this could be the year you catch the fish of a lifetime and reel in an incredible prize.
We are approaching another exciting weekend of the tournament. The inshore and offshore submissions are rolling in, and the tagged redfish are being caught.
After a few phone calls from some potential winners, a couple of stories really stuck out with one glaring similarity…MOTOR ISSUES. Unfortunately, we’ve all been there quite a few times. Even preventive maintenance doesn’t always guarantee the perfect day on the water.
One of our potential winners began preparing for his trip two weeks before dropping his boat in the water. The anxious angler ran through his Spring/Summer checklist, which included installing new batteries. Fast forward 2 weeks. It’s a beautiful early morning, and he’s rolling up to the boat ramp as the sunlight begins to paint the dawn sky. He backs the boat down the ramp so perfectly that he deserves a spot on ESPN’s Top 10 Plays of the Week. As he opens the truck door, he’s met with the oh so familiar whiff of saltwater cologne and high hopes for tight lines. He boards his boat, trying to stay calm and cool while hurrying not to miss the bite. All is perfect. All is right. Then, he turns the key.
Nothing. Turns it again, with a little more intent.
Nothing.
How can this happen when he JUST ran through his pre-fishing season checklist?! He then makes a decision that separates the fair-weathered angler from the hardcore salty. Fast forward 2 hours, and the NEW battery, that had somehow gone bad, has now been replaced, and once again, he drops the boat back in the water, and finally hears that sweet, sweet purr of the trusty Merc!
By this point, the sun is up, and he’s missed the early morning top-water bite, BUT there’s time to flip the script.
While making his run to his spot, his buddy says, “The best days I’ve had hunting and fishing usually start with something going wrong…there’s a good fish waiting for you today.”
Our lucky angler had no idea how right his buddy was. An hour later, he is listening to his drag scream from a tagged redfish of a lifetime!
Another potential winner shared a similar experience. This young salt finally got his boat on the water that he and his father had been restoring for some time. This maiden voyage was about to become a core memory…what could go wrong? I think y’all know where this story is headed. Boat enters water and floats…check! Motor turns…check! No incoming water from a missed plug…check!
This is the start of a day that he and his father will remember forever. They roll about a mile from the ramp, and that trusty motor makes the gut-wrenching “putter” that can turn a trip south FAST. They dropped the trolling motor (that, fortunately, they installed) and pulled up to the nearest shoreline for a quick diagnosis of the failing engine. Before making the slow, somber roll back to the ramp and cutting what should’ve been a full-day fishing trip in half, they decided to throw a few lines in the water and give it a go.
Three casts later, the young angler’s popping cork disappeared, and the fight was on! Knowing this trip would be ending shortly with a slow troll back to the ramp, he let the fish fight so he could hang on to that feeling just a bit longer. The fish decided to pull some acrobatic moves and wrap around a PVC pipe, BUT with no real reason to get this fish in quickly, our angler played it cool and rolled up slowly to the pipe to begin the attempt to untangle the fish and pipe. No jerking, no nerves, and no panic as he calmly freed the fish and pulled it into the waiting net extending from his father’s hand. As the redfish lay on the floor of the boat, the father grabbed the pliers to take the hook out.
Odd…something was protruding out of the back of the redfish. He wiped the thin layer of algae away.
Could it be??
Every STAR angler knows it CAN happen, and, in this instance, it did! Some neanderthal style screams ensued, along with the chest bumping and high fives we could expect. Nearby wade fishermen thought a 30-inch trout was just landed. After a quick clip of the tag and safe release of the fish, the angler and his father knew they’d never have to mess with that junker motor again! As they started the slow troll back to the ramp, coming off the highest high they could imagine, they knew they had an experience they’d remember forever.
The takeaway from these two stories? Don’t let a small bump in the road ruin what could be an incredible experience; patience can pay off.
As STAR continues on, there are currently 2 tagged fish that have been certified – 1 Texas Ford Dealers Red Tag and 1 Tags of Texas Tag (Purple Tag sponsored by our GREAT friends at AFTCO). There are still TONS of prizes and tags to be caught! If you get out on the water this summer, PLEASE make sure you are registered for the STAR Tournament, and your CCA Membership is active. Please don’t be on the other side of the phone explaining you just caught the fish of a lifetime, and you didn’t sign up because you didn’t think it would happen to you!
And one last thing – even if you don’t fish this summer, it’s still worth registering for the tournament. Sign up anytime during the tournament to be entered in our Member Bonus Giveaways! We are giving away 2 incredible prizes just for being entered – a 2026 F250 4×4 Super Duty Truck, and a Dargel Attacka Flat w/150 HP Mercury motor. We are also giving away two scholarships, $25,000 and $50,000, to 2 lucky registered Kid/Teen anglers!
To all of our STAR Anglers – get out on the water, enjoy our resources, and make those memories of a lifetime! That’s what it’s all about!
CCA Texas STAR Tournament
May 23 – September 7
