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My goal was to get 100 entries this year. Made it to 99, then found out if you use last year's STAR ruler in your photos, they don't count. That dropped me to 88 entries. As I tell my students...follow instructions to the letter!

My number also fell when I learned you can’t enter the same species twice in one day ( except conservation). That hurt. You still have a really hi number Gary, I bet you end up with something to sell.

Dang Gary, that's unfortunate. You work harder than anyone and battle gators for those entries. That should count double.

You guys can imagine how nervous I was last year. Had I followed all the rules? Was my fishing license up to date. Do I take the picture then call or call then take the picture? What about uploading it with the phone app? Do I need to do that first or last? What if.......

I was a mess. lol

The nice young lady who answered the CCA STAR hotline was new, and excited, and said this was her first winning fish call. I thought jeez I'm a basket case and she is a newbie, if this does not get fouled up it will be a miracle.

Congrats on a fine effort, Gary. You're a machine. Sorry you lost those extra entries, but I can see why the rules were written that way.

Too busy with work travel and chasing tarpon the few times I could go to score any entries (no poons to the leader for photographs). Oh well, my donation helped fund a scholarship.

I screwed myself out of some entries also. I had a few fish that were not very cooperative and I ended up taking a pic with them backwards on the ruler. They ended up not accepting them. The inshore fishing has been prey and for me the past few weeks.

I will say the CCA STAR staff has been polite, professional, and always quick to respond. Ms. Gillespie was downright apologetic when I called to get a ruling about my pics with the wrong device. I'm thinking maybe my dear wifey switched rulers on me, since I promised her I would not enter next year if I didn't win anything this time.

Rocky, I was thinking of you last month, when I hooked a red that had a big sliver of eel grass hanging off the dorsal fin. For about 10 seconds I thought it was a tag. Was shaking so hard I could barely turn the reel crank.

Good luck to all locals who had submissions. Let's see if the Big Bend represents again!

I met with the CCA ladies at the Big Bend Saltwater Classic and my wife anyI talked to them about 1/2 an hour. Very polite and helpful. I sent a pic of a redfish I caught to my wife while fishing and it had a blade of grass on the side. She thought it was a tag also.

Guess we will find out tomorrow if anybody local gets lucky this year. This was my wife's and I first year and we didn't sign up until about a month after the tournament started. Between that and all the rain we didn't hit 100 entries between the both of us and only ended up with 75. I had hoped to get a few entries in the fly division since it was not very populated, but didn't have any luck.

Good luck to all who had entries. Hope the STAR mojo comes through again for Big Bend anglers!

Anybody on here win? Didn't see anybody from Tallahassee but there were 2 from Crawfordville.

Our little town of Monticello's luck keeps on keeping on. A good friend won the Grouper Division and his wife won second place in the same category.

However, I really feel for my friend Gary D. He works so hard for his entries and I didn't see his name on the list. Sorry Bud.

Gary zellnar won a power tech prize package

No worries, Rocky. I brought fresh fish home to my high school & college runners all summer, and at least one local (Gary Z) won. So Big Bend came through.

Retiring from high school coaching after this year, so I'm going for 200 STAR catches in 2019. Hope my pretty wife doesn't file for divorce!

Except for Gary, anyone with big numbers must be retired or self employed?
Luc, Savannah and i fished hard, often twice each weekend, and between Redfish, Trout and Women divisions may have had 50+.
No winners. When I won the Cast and Blast I think i had 12 -14 entries out of about 1400. Didn't like the odds, but loved the result!
We doubled our entries this year with the addition of the non-tagged redfish, hoping they add a few more categories we sometimes catch (blues, flounder?)
It's funny, the tournament provides a whole new barometer to a good day Summer's fishing. Entries=good, double=Great, no entries not so good.
We were doing pretty well until the last few weeks, as I have lamented in other posts.

Will test your theory next year. REALLY hard to get entries all summer this year while I still had to work. Risked a happy marriage. Next year I have the whole summer off, and will push the limits to see how many catches are possible with no other obligations. Even bought a fly rod to work that division (I will certainly suck, but life is all about going for it!).