Tough day for surf anglers

By Tony Vindell

For Lone Star outdoor n

It was perhaps the longest surf fishing tourna ment held along the Texas Gulf Coast.

The South Texas Anglers Tournament, a non profit event, stretched some 30 miles from the South Padre Island jetty on one end to the Port Mansfield jetty on the other.

But out of nearly 100 participating anglers, only two brought fish to the weigh-in held at the White Sands Restaurant on Port Isabel.

Naturally, the two anglers, Valient Rodriguez and Issac Flores, took first and second places, re spectively.

Rodriguez caught an 18-inch speckled trout while Flores’ speck measured only 17 inches.

No redfish or black drum came to the scales dur ing the eight-hour event, perplexing event orga nizers.

“Two fish,” Richard Hitchcox said in disbelief. “Those two trout were it?”

Officials deposited all the unspent prize money