It isn’t that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better

-Sir Francis Drake

Another month moored on the Island. I can’t help myself. It’s just too much fun. And it’s OK to be in the high rent district at least one more month. Anyway, that’s what I keep telling myself.

The first of August means that the Texas International Fishing Tournament (TIFT) will be held this weekend. It is the oldest and grandest of Texas saltwater fishing tournaments. Lots of transient boats from all over the Gulf of Mexico, not to mention hundreds and hundreds of bay boats all intent on scoring BIG.

There are booths at the convention center, games for kiddies and a general carnival atmosphere prevails.

TIFT is the biggest pain in the ass that was ever conceived for us marginal sailing types, Islanders and Coastal folks in general. It always makes me aware of my social and economic status, and makes me thankful that I never grew up enough to play in the big leagues.

General crowding and bad manners on the water will be observed this weekend, along with a healthy dose of unsportsmanlike conduct. You will not find me there.

It is a time for upper and lower Rio Grande Valley-ites with little experience and blue blood captains and crews alike to converge on this sandspit and the mainland en masse to get sunburned, consume great quantities of fruity flavored alcohol and beer, dress in loud Hawaiian shirts, dockers and flip flops and act like they think that Jimmy Buffet would act.

My friend and former boss at the University Coastal Studies Laboratory, DH’s father came up with the idea for this event in the early part of the 20^th century, calling it the “Tarpon Rodeo”. At one time, deep South Texas had the largest (and only) population of tarpon on the Texas coastline. The tournament started out as a way to promote Port Isabel, which was a relatively neglected port at the end of the line, way down on the Mexican border. Sportsman from all over would arrive by train in Port Isabel to try and land the biggest, and the most Tarpon. But Tarpon are highly sensitive to water quality and over time, the population of this regal game fish started dying off as more and more industry was added to the local area, industries that discharged vast quantities of contaminants like cadmium, mercury and lead into the pristine waters of the Laguna Madre, which eventually lead into the Brazos Santiago pass where the Tarpon roll and roam, hunting for food, finally  mixing  with the open Gulf of Mexico waters. By the late 1960’s the Tarpon had all but disappeared. A change in focus, in venue was in order when this happened, and the organizers started targeting less sensitive species like redfish, trout and flounder, along with offshore fish as a way to continue the tournament.

The event carried on. A name change was all that was needed to protect the guilty.

No matter, Port Isabel is firmly rooted in Tarpon mania, and even the Port Isabel High School football team is named “the Tarpons”, although they have come to be called “the Tampons” by rival teams…

Eventually water quality improved when more stringent regulations were imposed, along with the general collapse of industrial manufacturing in the coastal area, and the Tarpon started coming back. But the focus of TIFT remained the same, and today, it is just another opportunity to fleece the public along with Spring Break, Semana Santa and Winter Texan seasons.

All week they are sandwiching multi-million dollar yachts in the local marinas in anticipation of the event.

I met the other sailboat owner on our dock. As I have ranted about in the past, sailing is a subordinate sport here. On my dock of about 25,  there’s only two sailboats. In fact, there’s only about 10 sailboats in the entire marina. Most of the rest are offshore sport fishermen, Bertrams, Luhrs  and the like.

The owner’s name is Juan and he’s from Monterrey Mexico. He’s the only Mexican I’ve ever known who sailed, although I’m reasonably sure a population exists. Juan owns a 2005 Alerion Express 26. Very nice boat. Every gadget known to man aboard. Juan is 67 years old and singlehands her all the time. Says that it’s just too hard to come up with crew, so that’s why he specified the boat especially set up for singlehanding.

We talked for quite a while the other afternoon while I prepped dinks rub rail for reattachment. Juan learned to sail on a lake in Guadalajara Mexico with his brother who was a racer. Later he bought a small sailboat and sailed on some of the lakes around Monterrey, which takes a lot of doing as Monterrey is in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert. After buying a condo on South Padre Island, he got a Hobie 17 than a Hobie 21, finally buying the Alerion so that he could keep on sailing. He likes the mooring here on the Island for the same reason that I do; it’s proximity to the open Gulf. Less than two tacks and 30 minutes to the mouth of the Brazos Santiago Pass.  Then it’s open water.

I like his attitude and promised to crew with him the next time he goes out. But not this weekend. I think I'll go to Houston or somewhere....someplace less congested.