Gary Miertschin (Center) won a full truck and boat package just two weeks into the 2025 CCA STAR Tournament.
Photo: Marina Bay Harbor Marina
Gary Miertschin of Houston, Texas got on the water just a few days after the May 24 opening of the 2025 Coastal Conservation Association of Texas (CCA) State of Texas Angler’s Rodeo (STAR), caught an incredible red-tagged redfish, and then turned the red tag in at Marina Bay Harbor Marina – an annual official weigh station and registration point for the CCA STAR Tournament.
The tournament is summer-long – nobody expects to win big fast. But they’re always hoping.
Gary reeled in a redfish and protruding from its silver-copper, glimmering back was a red tag that resembled a thin straw. That tag was one of the most sought-after summer prizes on the Gulf Coast, a tag so treasured that before receiving their prize, winners take a polygraph test.
Mr. Miertschin was awarded a 2025 Ford F-150 XLT SuperCrew Cab. That’s plenty, right? Trailered on the back atop a brand-new Coastline trailer was a 23-foot Haynie Amigo bay boat, equipped with a Mercury 150-horsepower L PRO XS Optimax engine.
Gary’s redfish was one of 126 tagged redfish along the coast, cruising through the cool shoal grass, unknowing that they are centerpieces of the grandest annual fishing tournament in all of Texas.
May 24, 2025 – 6 a.m. – Marina Bay Harbor Marina – The CCA STAR Tournament begins
Marina Bay Harbor Marina, Clear Lake Shores, Texas
The horizon simmers in slate gray and washes to a stark cool blue. The Marina Bay Harbor Marina bait shop door swings open and a pair of anglers walk out with aerated bait buckets. One swears by live shrimp, and the other carries live mullet. The smell of gas and salt and fish is on the water. The summer cracks open.
Nothing else matters right now, because it’s a Saturday, it’s summer, and anglers leaving Marina Bay Harbor’s docks feel the electricity of knowing that at 18 official weigh station points from South Padre Island up to Port Arthur, others set out right at this moment with the same enthusiasm.
What does the Coastal Conservation Association of Texas do?
A list of CCA Texas’s conservation programs in 2025.
Graphic credit: Coastal Conservation Association
Back in the 1970s, the redfish and speckled trout were being annihilated by commercial over-fishing. The way that the Great Plains buffalo were once diminished to scant pockets, the redfish were being cleaned out without regulation. Former Houston Chronicle outdoors writer Joe Doggett once wrote in Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine that after a deep freeze in the winter of 1978, commercial trawlers swooped into the Houston Ship Channel and pulled out over 220,000 pounds of speckled trout.
The coast was suffering, and Texas anglers knew it. Doggett wrote that he was one of about 50 signatures by dedicated anglers in a pro shop in Houston in 1977, as they formed the Gulf Coast Conservation Association, now known as the Coastal Conservation Association. They fundraised, lobbied, and fought for redfish and trout regulations. CCA chapters now exist all along the United States coastline, with the mission to preserve habitat, foster marine sustainability, and stand up in the best interests of coastal anglers.
The CCA STAR Tournament is the Coastal Conservation Association’s biggest annual membership drive. Anglers must be a member to participate in the tournament, and dues support their ongoing mission.
The CCA STAR Tournament prizes literally change lives
A 2025 Ford F-150 XLT with a 23-foot Haynie bay boat and trailer. The CCA gives out five of these packages.
Photo: Coastal Conservation Association
A few weeks into the 2025 CCA Texas STAR Tournament and a five-year-old from Beaumont, Texas was in line to win a $20,000 scholarship if their five-pound, 12-ounce gafftop held up through the summer in the STAR Kid’s Scholarship Division.
“Life-changing prizes” isn’t an exaggeration.
The Coastal Conservation Association does not hold back in promoting the biggest coastal Texas fishing tournament. CCA STAR Tournament prizes include trucks, Haynie bay boats, Tran Sport Boats, Shoalwater Cat Boats, ATVs, and Lone Star Beer sponsors three green-tagged redfish. The prize is beer for a year.
In the kid’s divisions, the CCA awards over $300,000 annually in scholarships. These range from $30,000 grand prizes for each species to fourth-runner-up prizes of $2,500.
What types of fish are caught in the CCA STAR Tournament?
An angler out of Marina Bay Harbor Marina catches redfish with Captain Allen Welch of Clear Lake Fishing Charters.
Yes, the redfish are a tournament center of attraction. However, CCA Texas designs so much variety into the tournament that you can compete for a wide variety of Texas coastal gamefish species.
CCA STAR Tournament kids and adult categories are separated into an “Inshore Division” and the “Hoffpauir Offshore Division.” The Inshore Division division tracks weight for sheepshead, gafftop, and black drum. The Offshore Division awards anglers for the heaviest kingfish, dorado, ling/cobia, and red snapper. The leaderboard is updated weekly all summer long.
Don’t get caught on the water without a registered CCA Texas membership
Okay, nobody is going to arrest you if you don’t register for the CCA Texas STAR Tournament. What happens is the unregistered angler is out fishing in Galveston Bay or Port O’Connor by the jetties and they pull in a tagged redfish. That’s what happened in the above Instagram example. An angler on a local charter pulled in a tagged redfish and would have won a 2025 center-console Tran Sport Boat with a trailer. They were kind enough to release the fish for another registered CCA STAR Tournament participant to have a chance.
CCA memberships are just $40 for a one-year membership or $10 for a one-year youth membership (kids 17 and under). Membership categories go up to the “Lifetime Membership,” a lifetime allegiance for $1,000.
Marina Bay Harbor Marina is a dedicated partner and home to your CCA Texas membership
Texas anglers gravitate to tradition. One fella might exclusively enjoy getting his gear from The Tackle Box in Victoria, Texas, while another might drive an hour down from Houston because they love the bait shop and ship store right here at Marina Bay Harbor Marina.
The staff at Marina Bay Harbor welcomes the tradition of CCA Texas participants starting here on these docks. We are an official CCA Texas weigh station. Those interested in joining the Coastal Conservation Association of Texas from home can visit their membership page. Anglers who simply show up to the marina – we’ve got them covered, too. Marina Bay Harbor Marina is also an official CCA STAR Tournament registration station.
When dusk falls on September 1 and the tournament becomes another year of lore, it really doesn’t matter if you reeled in a truck-winning redfish.
The experience is fishing with sons and daughters, gliding along the coast, sunned breeze and sea salt in the nostrils. It’s a summer Saturday, and nothing else matters.