Joe Contreras
of Corpus Christi
5th Tagged Redfish Winner
CCA Texas STAR Tournament
With less than seventy-two hours remaining before the close of the 2015 CCA Texas STAR Tournament, Corpus Christi resident, Joe Contreras, made plans to go fishing after work with a friend on Friday, September 4. After several hours waiting at his friend’s house for him to get off work, the friend decided not to go after all. Contreras was about to go back home, then decided to go check out the tide for bait. The finger mullet were in close so Contreras caught some and went wade fishing. After two hours of catching several Ladyfish, Contreras was down to one last mullet. Contreras’ leg was really starting to kill him, so he decided he would make one last cast and count to three hundred, then go home whether he caught a fish or not. Between the pain in his leg and trying to count, Contreras wasn’t paying attention, then suddenly looked up and realized his cork was gone. Contreras reeled the line tight and after a short fight, he landed a nice red. The fish was covered with grass, so Contreras cleaned the grass off, but there was one more piece that would not come off of the fish. Upon further examination, Contreras realized it wasn’t a piece of grass… it was a CCA tag covered in moss! “I couldn’t believe my eyes!” Contreras called his brother-in-law to tell him about the fish and asked him to look up the phone number so he could call and find out where he needed go weigh-in the fish. The next morning, Contreras took tagged redfish #TA723 to get it weighed in at official STAR weigh station, Roy’s Bait & Tackle. “Glad I went fishing!” Contreras exclaimed.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FIFTH TAGGED REDFISH WINNER! Fortunately for Joe Contreras, he remembered to register for the 2015 STAR Tournament and went fishing without his friend. He’s now the fifth lucky winner of a 2015 loaded Ford F-150 “Texas Edition” XLT SuperCab, pulling a brand new 23’ Haynie Big Foot boat rigged with a Mercury 150L Pro XS OptiMax motor and Coastline trailer prize package, which will be awarded to him at the STAR Awards Ceremony in October.
At the close of the tournament on Labor Day (Monday, September 7), a total of ten tagged redfish had been caught, but only five were confirmed winners. Each will be presented a 2015 Ford F-150 “Texas Edition” XLT SuperCab, 23’ Haynie Big Foot boat rigged with a Mercury 150L Pro XS OptiMax motor and Coastline trailer at the STAR Awards Ceremony on Friday, October 9th.
Major sponsors for the 26th Annual CCA Texas STAR Tournament include Texas Ford Dealers, Tilson Home Corporation, Capital Farm Credit, , Academy Sports + Outdoors, Whataburger, Ozarka, Rio Ammunition, Hoffpauir Polaris, Mercury Marine, KTRK-abc13, Houston Community Newspapers, Fox Sports Southwest, Haynie Boats, Shoalwater Boats, Dargel Boats, Blue Wave Boats, Texas Fish & Game Magazine, Texas Oilman’s Charity Fishing Tournament, Coastline Trailers, McClain Trailers, Chris’s Marine and Mt. Houston Marine.
Visit www.ccamembership.org to get signed up today. For more information, including a list of weigh-in stations, instant-entry registration locations in your area and weekly leader board updates, go to http://www.startournament.org.
