Corpus Christi angler wins big prize worth over $60,000

This is Adrian Gutierrez who caught a tagged redfish in the CCA Texas Star Tournament fishing tournament.

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Gutierrez couldn’t help but smile from after re-watching his catch on June 22.
"When you talk about emotions, I talked about that morning, I thought, ‘I just don’t want to have a heart attack if I catch a tagged redfish," Gutierrez said.

While Gutierrez didn’t catch a heart attack, he reeled in his fish about 1 mile out from the boat dock near Laguna Madre right here in Corpus Christi.
"I looked up at the sky and I said, 'C'mon God, put us on a fish. Uncle Rudy if you’re really up there… and it happened right after that," Gutierrez said.

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The tournament goes all along the Texas shoreline, spanning 600 miles from Louisiana to Mexico so Gutierrez caught just one out of 126 tagged redfish released.

"It’s like a bowl of sugar and that one grain is inside that bowl of sugar and it’s hard," Gutierrez said.

Assistant Director of the CCA Texas State Tournament, Ryan Towns, put it into perspective how difficult it is to catch one of these fish.

"So we released 126 tagged redfish up and down the coast. That’s about 1 every 4.7 miles. Our annual recapture rate for tagged redfish is between 14-20 percent," Towns said.

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Not only was Gutierrez extremely lucky to catch a tagged fish, but he renewed his membership with the CCA tournament first thing that morning, which granted eligibility for prizes valued up to 1.9 million dollars.

"I totally forgot that I wasn’t renewed, let me go ahead and renew that [before I go fish]" Gutierrez said.

Without that renewal, Adrian would have missed out on his big prize worth over 60 thousand dollars.
I [will] take home a 2024 transport, 22-foot SVT Cat with a coastline trailer with a mercury pro x series," Gutierrez said.

The Star tournament is scheduled to run until September 2.

Each summer, Texas anglers compete in the CCA Texas STAR Tournament for a chance to win big prizes, including 18 boats, 5 Ford F-150 SuperCrews, 5 UTVs, and $325,000 in cash. Since 1995, the tournament has awarded over $8 million in scholarships to young anglers, who are seen as the future of conservation.

For more information visit their website.

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