Landing big fish and more
Tagged catches earn young girl, college student scholarships, prizes
Marilyn Monroe didn’t have to wait long for the fishing trip of a lifetime.
The 8-year-old was with her mom, dad and 5-year-old brother Clint when she caught a fish worth a fortune June 3.
Marilyn snagged a Coastal Conversation Association Texas STAR Tournament-tagged redfish, good for a $25,000 scholarship and a Haynie boat, Mercury motor and Coastline trailer package.
She did this on her very first fishing trip on a boat.
Bob Monroe said his kids’ only previous fishing experience was catching piggy perch out of the rocks at Sea Wolf Park. They begged him to take this trip.
There was another first-time experience before departure: Bob registering his kids for the CCA STAR Tournament. He knew it was extremely unlikely, but that it would also be devastating if by some miracle they caught a tagged redfish and weren’t registered.
A buddy recommended Sammy Guerrero, who has been guiding in the Galveston area the last three years. The Cypress family met him early in the morning at the Texas City Dike and away they went.
Overcast, not too busy, the conditions were perfect for a family to grow memories. Guerrero took a short drive to a hot spot for redfish he’d keyed in on the previous three weeks.
Marilyn was a natural.
“The first fish she caught, I thought was going to pull her into the water,” Bob Monroe said.
He hung onto her lifejacket for that first redfish, one that had more than 100 spots. She then hauled in a sheepshead by herself. When the moneymaker bit the shrimp, she fought it alone. “Don’t help me. Don’t help me!” her father recalled her saying.
Guerrero spotted the tag when the redfish came near the boat. He remained silent, though.
When the fish was netted, tense moments surrounded an algae-covered tag. A prayer went up that it would read “2020.”
When the slime peeled away, celebration ensued.
“I don’t think anything can get more exciting than her catching that tagged red,” said Guerrero, who once saw a tagged redfish as a teenager but never as a guide.
“I won’t ever forget it… That just doesn’t happen.”
For both guide and family, the experience is surreal. For young Marilyn, though, it may be years before she understands what truly happened.
“She knows what $20 is because sometimes she gets to buy something with $20, but she doesn’t know what $25,000 is,” Bob Monroe said with a laugh.
After three local guides congratulated Marilyn at a restaurant and asked to take her picture, Marilyn asked her mother, Andrea, how they knew her. She was then informed of her celebrity status.
With a scholarship, boat and early bragging rights as a world-class angler in tow, Marilyn is set up for a lifetime of great fishing memories.
She was only the second winner in the tagged redfish division of this year’s STAR Tournament.
Katy’s Jake Bozeman broke the ice.
The 19-year-old was fishing with a friend in the Upper Laguna Madre when he hooked his redfish using croaker.
He has registered for the STAR Tournament every year since he started fishing. Five tagged redfish were caught by unregistered anglers this tourney before Bozeman landed his on the evening of June 2.
Bozeman, like the Monroe family and Guerrero, faced a moment of truth when he saw the tag in the water.
“The redfish was all torn up, and it was blind in one eye. It was all nasty looking, like half its tail was gone. So, I thought for sure it was going to be an old tag. The tag was about to fall out, too,” said Bozeman, who studies business and will be a sophomore next semester at Texas A&MCorpus Christi.
It was a golden ticket, though, and now Bozeman will be the recipient of a Ford F-150 4x4 and the boat package. He is most excited for the new vessel. He had long wanted an upgrade to the boat he used to haul in the tagged redfish.
For Marilyn Monroe and Bozeman, lucky catches have changed their lives.
For everyone else, opportunities still await.
Sixty redfish were tagged for the tournament and every coastal county in Texas has them. One was caught twice, so 53 are still out there. The first 10 entered will be awarded prizes.
The 31st tournament runs through 5 p.m. Sept. 7. CCA members can register for the tournament at any time. In addition to the tagged redfish division there are categories for biggest fish by species: speckled trout, flounder, sheepshead, gafftop, dorado, king mackerel and cobia.
For rules, the leaderboard and more information on the tournament, go online at www.startournament.org.