By Louis Zylka
The 830 Times
The annual armored catfish tournament took place June 13-15, inviting new and past
contestants to help remove the invasive species from the San Felipe Creek.
The 42-hour tournament was a collaboration between the Casa De La Cultura, the San Felipe
Creek Coalition and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, with the objective to remove as
many armored catfish as possible from the San Felipe Creek.
The tournament was created 10 years ago with the goal of putting a dent into the armored
catfish population. Armored catfish originate from the Amazon River basin in South America and
were first detected in the San Felipe Creek in the late 1990s.
Lupita De La Paz, executive
director of the Casa de la Cultura, said nine teams competed in this year’s tournament and
collected a total of 2,288 armored catfish.
De La Paz said the first-place winners won $300, second second-place winners won $250 and
the third-place winners won $150.
Winners of the 36-hour tournament were the Cherry Bombers who grabbed 603 of the hard-headed catfish, the Saked Suckers with 502 and Zayas with 484.
Luis Martinez, Eric Baena and Derek Sanchez participated in the tournament for the first time
and shared their experiences with The 830 Times.
Their team was named Large Rig, and they
spent the majority of Friday hunting down armored catfish during the day and night.
Martinez said they discovered the tournament through Facebook. He said the three of them
were both interested in the cash prize and finding something to do over the summer while
hanging out together.
They said their plan was to capture armored catfish by going to places they knew would have
the most armored catfish, including sites along the creek they remembered from visits when
they were children. On Friday afternoon, Martinez and Sanchez went to the parts of the creek
near the Rotary Park and near Moore Park to hunt for fish using fishing spears.
Martinez said they didn’t have the best of luck during the day and decided to go fishing at night.
Around 10 p.m., Large Rig met up near an area close to the Dr. Alfredo Gutierrez Amphitheater,
and with their joint efforts, all three members had better luck, catching many more fish during
the night.
“In the dark they are slow and kind of silly. I think it is easier to catch them in the dark because
they can’t see you as easy so you have more time to get them before they know what is going
on,” Martinez said.
Martinez and Baena arrived at the Casa de la Cultura on Sunday afternoon with the 30 armored
catfish they captured during the weekend. Although they did not win first place, the team
expressed how they still had fun and they would enter the tournament again with more friends to
help.
