Don’t Miss the Catch of a Lifetime!
By Leiza Fitzgerald, CCA Florida STAR Tournament Director
Beginning on May 23, you could be just one cast away from nearly $500,000 in prizes and college scholarships offered by the inaugural CCA Florida STAR Tournament Presented by Yamaha. The ways to win are almost too numerous to count and there is only one small catch – you have to be a member of CCA and must be signed up for the Tournament.
The CCA Statewide Tournament and Angler’s Rodeo (STAR) has been a summertime tradition for anglers in Texas and Louisiana for many years, and on May 23, anglers in Florida will finally have an opportunity to get in on the action with CCA Florida’s inaugural STAR Tournament presented by Yamaha. The blueprint developed by CCA Texas and CCA Louisiana is a proven formula, but Florida is putting its own spin on the tournament.
Like the other STAR tournaments, the CCA Florida STAR will run from Memorial Day through Labor Day, allowing for 108 days of competition. By catching one of 80 tagged redfish, anglers could win a truck or boat motor and trailer package powered by a Yamaha motor, like a Contender 22 Sport, Pathfinder 2200TRS or Hell’s Bay Waterman.
Other division prizes in the CCA Florida STAR will include Yamaha motors, Power Pole shallow water anchors, Shimano fishing tackle, marine electronics, Costa Sunglasses, gift cards – nearly $500,000 worth of prizes in all. And perhaps most exciting of all, youth anglers are eligible to win a share of $100,000 in scholarships.
The Youth Division presented by Bright House Networks includes kids ages 6 to 17 and will award at least 12 college scholarships. Youth Division species include cobia, speckled trout, snook, sheepshead, jack crevalle and ladyfish, giving even the youngest anglers the opportunity to compete for scholarships.
By working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the Florida STAR has added a few unique features of its own, such as the Marathon Petroleum Conservation Division that will help FWC study Florida’s fisheries. In the Conservation Division, anglers will record and share data about all of their catches to give FWC even more information to better manage the resource.
CCA Florida also worked with the Snook and Gamefish Foundation to create its own state-of-the-art smart phone app that will allow anglers to enter fish right from the boat. The Catch-and-Photo format is another new wrinkle that allows all fish that are caught to be eligible for prizes. Best of all, prizes are not awarded based on the largest fish of each species.
STAR is a nonprofit tournament focused on attracting people to Florida’s outstanding saltwater resources. It gets families on the water and helps educate all anglers about the importance of conserving and protecting their coastal resources. Last year, Texas, with less than 400 miles of coastline, had 45,000 people fish STAR. By comparison, Florida enjoys more than 1,300 miles of coastline and boasts more than 1.2 million licensed saltwater anglers.
With numbers like that, CCA Florida hopes to reach thousands of new anglers every year through the STAR Tournament. This year the first 4,500 anglers will receive a Marathon fuel discount card sent to them at the end of the tournament as a thank you for participating.
During its first two years, CCA Florida STAR will release tagged fish on the west coast of the state providing an opportunity to catch a tagged redfish from Pensacola through the southern reaches of Everglades National Park. After those first two years, Florida expects to expand STAR tagged fish to the entire state and will potentially include more species.
For complete rules, a full listing of divisions and all the great prizes, and to enter Florida STAR, visit www.CCAFLSTAR.com , and make plans to get in on the action this summer.