A Rock STAR Performance
The CCA STAR Tournament has been a summertime staple for anglers in Texas and Louisiana for many years. This past Memorial Day weekend, anglers in Florida finally had the opportunity to get in on the action with CCA Florida’s inaugural STAR Tournament.
Thanks to the successful STAR blueprint developed by CCA Texas and Louisiana, Florida had a proven formula for anglers and sponsors, but as Florida’s STAR Tournament Director Leiza Fitzgerald stated, Florida put its own spin on the tournament.
CCA Florida STAR presented by Yamaha ran from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, for 108 days of fishing. STAR anglers had the opportunity to catch one of the first six prize-winning tagged fish—out of 120 tagged redfish—released from Pensacola to the Florida Everglades National park. The prizes included a new GMC Sierra 1500 pickup truck provided by Conley Buick GMC, a Contender 22 Sport, Pathfinder 2200TRS or Hell’s Bay Waterman. Other division prizes included $100,000 in college scholarships, Bad Boy Buggies Recoil 4×4, River Hawk and Stumpnocker boats, Power Pole shallow water anchors, Costa Sunglasses, Shimano fishing tackle, Humminbird electronics, MinnKota trolling motors, Raymarine electronics, Bass Pro Shop and Simms gift certificates, LIVE Watersports paddle boards and Marathon fuel gift cards. That’s nearly $500,000 worth of prizes in all. Perhaps the most exciting of all, youth anglers won a share of $100,000 in scholarships. The Youth Division presented by Bright House Networks included kids ages 6 to 17 and awarded 12 college scholarships.
By working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Florida STAR added a few unique features such as the Marathon Petroleum Conservation Division that helped FWC study Florida’s fisheries by providing over 3,600 catch records for an assorted species of fish.
CCA Florida also worked with the Snook and Gamefish Foundation to create a state-of-the-art smart phone app for STAR. Membership application, registration and logging a catch could be made right from the dock, boat ramp or boat using the new app. The catch-and-photo format was another new twist that allowed all fish that were caught to be eligible for prizes as long as the photo entry included the catch on the official measuring device. The official measuring device was free to all STAR participants and was distributed at 34 locations along the west coast of Florida.
Best of all, prizes for STAR were not awarded based on the largest fish of each species. The winners were determined by a random drawing of all eligible catch entries. The Open Snook, Trout, Cobia and Sheepshead divisions were complimented by kayak, fly, ladies, youth and the guides division, other distinctive features of Florida STAR. The licensed Yamaha Guides Division, designed to recruit more participants, awarded over $17,500 in prizes to the three guides who registered the most anglers for STAR.
The CCA FL STAR Awards Banquet presented by Citrus County Visitors Bureau will be an event to remember, awarding a truck, first-place prize boats, Yamaha motors and scholarships. Enjoy a fun-filled night of dinner, open bar, raffles, silent and live auctions, and so much more on Oct. 17 from 5- 10 p.m. at Rock Crusher Canyon in Crystal River. For more information and tickets to the awards banquet go to the website www.ccaflstar.com
STAR, a non-profit organization, is focused on attracting people to Florida’s outstanding saltwater resources. By getting families and friends on the water fishing, STAR has helped educate thousands of anglers, new and seasoned alike, about the importance of conserving and protecting their coastal resources. Maggie Torres, a single mom, had this to say, “My son was not interested in sports. I wondered what I would keep him engaged in over the summer. Then I heard about STAR and the Youth Scholarship Division. I bought my son a fishing rod and we went wade fishing one afternoon. He loved it. We both registered for STAR and fish together all summer. My son fished every day. I would never have gotten him into fishing if it had not been for STAR. Thanks CCA!”
Chris Mason said, “STAR was the first tournament that I had ever entered. I really did not know what to expect, but I had such a great time. I loved the format, lots of species and any angler, regardless of their skill level could have fun with an opportunity to win. I can’t wait until next year when we get to do it all again. My son came down visiting this summer from college and I registered him too. Thank you so much for this wonderful format and experience.”
CCA Florida had over 3,200 registered anglers participating in STAR, and it will be even larger next year. “This tournament represents the most exciting opportunity in our history to educate the public about Florida’s marine resources and how we can best preserve the future for our children,” said CCA Florida Chairman Bill Camp.
Much of the excitement over STAR stemmed from the enthusiasm of the sponsors that provided overwhelming support to launch Florida STAR. “Maverick Boat Company has been an integral part of the success of CCA Florida for more than 25 years, and they stepped up once again with another donated Pathfinder bay boat,” said Brian Gorski, CCA Florida executive director. The newer boat sponsors, Hell’s Bay Boatworks and Contender, lent incredibly strong support as well. In addition to the boats already donated for Florida’s banquet program. These corporate stewards of our marine resources each donated a second boat for STAR tagged redfish prizes. River Hawk Boats and Stumpnocker boats also donated boats for first-place prizes in some of the other divisions.
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