STAR is barely underway and the leaderboard is starting to fill up. The fish are biting so its time to register for STAR before you get out on the water!

Speaking of fish biting, the 50 tagged redfish are swimming and ready to be caught. Three tagged redfish have been caught already, just none by STAR-registered anglers. Two were caught just days before the tournament. Capt. Beau Weber Jr. caught one in Lafitte. Being that he is a captain and is ineligible to participate in STAR, combined with the fact that the tournament had not begun, he promptly released the fish with the hopes of one of his customers catching it in the future. A few days later Annie Heath caught one from the bank off Highway 1 near Elmer’s Island. This fish was immediately replaced by another from our redfish tagging team. Once the tournament began, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Mr. Jim Wright of Baton Rouge caught, what would have been a fish worth a brand new Chevy Silverado thanks to our Super Chevy Dealers, while wading-fishing at the Grand Isle State Park. Jim had forgotten to register for the summer-long tournament and released the fish. So don’t let this happen to you, register today!

In addition to our signature Tagged Redfish Division, we have over 20 other divisions up for grabs with some great prizes. Sheepshead, Red Snapper and the new Mississippi Division have joined the line up this year and all the divisions are still wide open.

If you want to increase your odds in winning STAR, make sure you sign up your youth anglers. With their $10 New Tide CCA Membership, entry fee into the tournament is free courtesy of Academy Sports + Outdoors. Youth anglers can win one of 5 great youth prizes as well as compete for all of the adult divisions. To make it easy to register a fish, parents can email a photo of your youth angler with the fish on a ruler directly to me for instant entry.

And for you kayak and fly fishermen, there is some exciting news! Temple Fork Outfitters and Laflyfish.com have once again added bonus drawings for anglers weighing fish in those divisions. Check out laflyfish.com for all the details.

The addition of the Mississippi Adult and Youth Trout Divisions just got better. Now anglers can register at the Gulfport location of Academy Sports + Outdoors in addition the four great weigh stations across the Mississippi coast. Check out the weigh station map for all the locations!

So get registered and get fishing! Good Luck.