By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
More than 20,000 armored catfish have been pulled out of the San Felipe Creek, thanks to what’s become a tournament in a joint effort between the Casa de la Cultura and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
“We’ve done the Armored Catfish Tournament for six years,” said Nora Padilla, a park interpreter with the TPWD.
She brainstormed the idea of the tournament about eight years years ago. “I asked Lupita (De La Paz, executive director of the Casa de la Cultura) if she wanted to go on this wild ride and she was crazy enough to say yes!”
Typically, TPWD staffers don’t try to eliminate species from Texas lands or waterways, but the armored catfish, a native of South America, is deemed an invasive species, meaning it has no predators and can wreak plenty of damage.
The fish are seen as a god-send to aquarium owners since they keep the aquariums pristine. However, when aquarium owners decide to get rid of the first, they wind up in the creek and wreak havoc on the ecosystem.
However, Padilla said it wasn’t irresponsible aquarium owners that caused problems here, but the Flood of ‘98. Most of San Felipe was underwater during the massive flood that killed many, and obviously turned the fish loose in the San Felipe Creek.
“They were never seen in the waterways until after the flood,” Padilla said.
So, Padilla’s wild ride consisted of an annual tournament that had fishermen pulling invasive species out of the San Felipe Creek. First place was $500, 2nd place $300 and 3rd was $200. The biggert armored catfish and smallest were worth $100 each.
De la Paz said usually there were 12 to 20 teams in previous competitions and just like the past, 12 teams entered this year’s tournament that kicked off at 5 p.m. Friday, giving teams 36 hours to net the most fish before count-in Sunday.
Many tournaments worry about the weight of the fish. This tournament wants you to just catch as many as you can.
Most of the fish are less than a foot long and competitors use nets to pull them out.
The first team stepping up to count in was the Penaloza family, a dad and four kids, with mom nearby snapping pictures of the kids weighing in. While they were counting up, Jesse Mendoza, captain of The Suckers and a three-time champion watched the Penalozas count in. He watched de la Paz and Padilla count Team Penaloza, they asked Mendoza how they’d done, he shrugged and said, “We caught a bucket full,” he said.
When the Penalozas finished their count of 118, Mendoza had gone to his van and was lugging in a large ice chest.
Padilla and De La Paz howled with laughter when they saw the three-time tournament winner come through the Casa de la Cultura gates straining with the ice chest.
“I knew you were holding back,” De La Paz yelled at him. He smiled and shrugged.
Each one of the tiles on the Casa’s outdoor counter would hold five fish. So, once all the fish were organized and on the one foot tiles on the counter, organizers would just count the squares.
Mendoza’s catch took 20 minutes to count up. As De La Paz starts counting, the Casa courtyard grows quiet as onlookers knew Mendoza’s The Suckers had the early lead. Some know their chance at $500 is over, others are adjusting their hopes to $300 or $200.
His final count was 706 catfish out of the creek. That was more than all of the day’s fish count combined — so far.
While Mendoza counted in, Jesus Lopez and The Soaked Suckers lugged in two ice chests and two five gallon buckets of fish.
As it gets to Lopez’s turn, they start tossing fish on the counters.
“We are smoked,” Mendoza says, as he watches them fill the counter.
“You never know,” a friend says to him.
“I know,” Mendoza said. Lopez and Mendoza have each won the tournament three times, they each said in different interviews.
As his lead disappears and the Lopez family, consisting of grandpa, dad and two sons, takes over the top spot, Mendoza says, “Second isn’t bad,” as now he’d adjusted his goal. He’d joked earlier that $500 was gonna pay for his kids’ school shoes, now, they are having to adjust their shopping list.
His prediction ends up true as he slid to second behind the Lopez family’s 955 fish.
However, for many of those who competed, the win wasn’t about the payoff, but about the fun of the competition.
“It’s just a chance to do something different,” said Hannah Samson, a Legal Aid attorney who moved here from Baton Rouge. “It’s a chance to stop an invasive species and any weekend in the creek is a good one.”
Padilla defined winning quite simply.
“If someone pulls one fish out of the creek, it’s a win,” she said.
For nearly all the teams, it was a weekend spent in the beautiful San Felipe Creek with family and friends, helping the environment and enjoying nature, always a winning combination.
