Texas International Fishing Tournament
If you are the spontaneous type, how about signing up for one of the biggest saltwater tournaments on the Texas Gulf Coast?
The Texas International Fishing Tournament is one of those events I used to fantasize about entering when I was about twelve, and I may have even sent off for the paperwork a time or two. When you’re twelve, it takes a little more than paperwork to enter a tournament of the magnitude of the TIFT.
It looks like there is the possibility I will be in the area for that event, working for the non-profit Fishing’s Future. Then my mind starts to work; the Fishing’s Future events cover two days, and the tournament lasts two more days … hmmm. Is this the year when childhood fantasy meets middle-age reality? The two hardly know each other anymore, and in fact are mostly estranged.
One thing for sure, the TIFT turns South Padre Island, Texas, into a veritable fish stinking zoo of activity, where the rich come to deep sea fish, and the off-shorers and in-shorers bring their A game. If I could make that A bigger, I would. The whole Valley focuses on the event in their own ways, and at seventy-one years and counting, the tournament appears to show little sign of waning under the state of our Union, and its economic woes.
Make sure you take a look at the TIFT fly fishing category of winners from last year, and browse the whole list of TIFT winners while you are at it. The TIFT entry form can be found here as well.
I really wonder if someone could enter the tournament, just drive down there, say with a kayak, and a quiver, and run the PINS, or do a two day vigil on the Jetties, and actually have a shot at this thing. I wonder.
Category: Causes, Culture on the Skids, Events, Fishing Reports, Life Observed, On The Road, Texas Gulf Coast
