BABES ON THE BAY A HUGE SUCCESS! MAY 7TH. AND 8TH. 2010 ROCKPORT, TEXAS

Almost 1200 lady anglers in colorful fishing shirts adorned with bling and lots of pink registered Friday night, for the worlds largest all women's fishing tournament. Starting with only 30 teams in its first year, the tournament now is in its 11th. year, with women now competing from many states such as California, Florida, Oklahoma and Colorado. It has become a big event! One gal told me she heard an old saying by an author unknown that "Men and fish are alike. They both get in trouble when they open their mouth."

This fund raiser is put on by the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA). A huge swarm of feminine anglers and their guides, handlers, and friends were rocking out under the big tent Friday to a great band and ice cold beer. These ladies know how to have a good time and teams wore matching shirts with creative names such as "Chicks of the Sea", "Size Matters", "Hookin is Hard Work" and "Aqua-holics".

As registration was coming to an end the party was getting very lively. One of the members of the band was giving directives as "sway to the right, "sway to the left", "lift the leg", and "circle around." Thousands of bodies were mesmerized and tilting every which way. Then to a lively tune was "Last Call for Alcohol" and the night started to shut down. Lights out, music stopped, bar closed..............the next day was for serious fishing. Gotta wonder if all the teams made it to the 6:38 am starting time. One local fisherman called the tournament "Women Gone Wild".

The next morning I checked out the City of Rockport, Texas and asked around about what kind of place this was. One native told me that Rockport "had a serious fishing problem". The local Chinese restuarant has BYOF on its door and that means "Bring Your Own Fish" and they will cook it to your satisfaction. The local celeb is George Strait and they say you know when he is in town because there are lots of white SUV's.

Rockport, Texas is located about 30 miles east of Corpus Christi on the Gulf of Mexico. Fishing and birding and lots of activities. There were funky art galleries, lots of great little boutiques in bright colors, and tacky-chic tackle places with live bait. Some of the ships looked like they had quite a history. Looking at the hulls made me wonder where they had gone and and what stories they could tell. This is a City I plan to spend a lot more time exploring as it is rich with history and charm.

Saturday afternoon and the ladies were coming back in. It had been a pretty rough day out there and the winds had really been blowing and the boats had taken a pounding. The ladies had fished hard and to the last minute. In the weigh-in line there were still a few beauties with perfect hair and makeup and then thre were others that didn't look so good with sweaty red faces, hairdo's gone crazy, and dirty pastel shirts. They all had a smile on their faces! Yep, needed those sun shades bad.

Babes board member Rebecca Lee said over $24,000 in prizes were awarded to the winning teams. $2,000 was given to Texas Parks and Wildlife Go for Fish, Not Drugs fishing tournament.



The winners in the four divisions are:


Guided Artificial:
lst. (13.22 pounds) Watkins' Women Fishing Team

Non-guided Artificial:
1st. (17.96 pounds) Waterloo

Guided any bait
1st. (18.84) Original Reel Screamers

Non-guided any bait:
1st. (19.26 pounds) Chicks of the Sea

FISHINGEYES.COM rose to the occasion and had polarized glasses with lots of bling in great lady colors of pink, white, and black. Yep, bring on the BLING. On the site this month we have added many new ladies polarized glasses with fun styles. We have also added a new Category: Children's Polarized Glasses for they will be the next generation of anglers. The corneas of children are even more sensitive than adults.

Parents need to make sure you get those kids in protective eyewear and just like dad they can see the fish underwater with the polarized glasses. There will be be plenty of motivation when they look into the water and see the shapes and movements of the fish they are about to reel in.

If I could fly a plane I would get a little Cessna, wrap it in FishingEyes.Com, and head south on the weekends to Rockport. It won't happen though as a car is a challenge for me. Who knows though, maybe a little beach house, one room. One can only dream.

Thank you anglers for all the business you have given us. Let us know what you want and we will do our best to find it for you.

FishingEyes.Com/Julie