I found out yesterday that this 16″ speck, caught July 4th, just won me a TFO BVK fly rod.

I entered the fish in the Fly East division of CCA’s STAR tournament, which runs throughout the summer. The fly division rules require you catch one speck on the fly (14″ minimum) and have it weighed at a registered weigh station. No, the fish didn’t win the division, it actually got 3rd (which I found surprising because it only weighed 1.37 lbs). It won me a fly rod because this fish was my ticket into a bonus drawing that is held in both the fly and kayak divisions for all non-winners of the fly and kayak divisions. The winner of the drawing gets a TFO rod, a BVK for the combined fly divisions, and a Saltwater Series baitcaster for the kayak divisions. According to an email I got yesterday afternoon my name was the one that was drawn!

This is a tournament I sign up for every year, but never really fish for because I’m not really a speckled trout fisherman. I sign up because it’s like an insurance policy in case I catch a tagged red. That day, Blake and I just happened upon a school of specks that day in the marsh while we were heading out for redfish.

We almost didn’t even weigh the fish in. I knew it was smaller than the fish that was in the lead, so I would only be weighing it in for a shot at the raffle. Compound that with the fact that there wasn’t a registered weigh station on the way home and it being July 4th meant nobody would be open to weigh it in anyway, we pretty much had made the decision not to weigh it. I made a few phone calls to places slightly out of the way, just to check and sure enough someone answered at Eschete’s in Houma. The guy lived next door and had no problem walking over to the shop to weigh my fish. So a big thanks goes out to him for being receptive. Also a big thanks to Blake because he was driving that day.

You can check out the CCA leaderboard here: http://www.ccastar.com/current-leaderboard