CCA support vs. STAR participation?
 

I'm struggling with the difference between participating in the STAR tourney and supporting CCA. I would like to enter the STAR to have a chance at winning the prizes. However, I'm not the biggest fan of CCA anymore and don't care to support them. Is participating in STAR for personal reward the same as "supporting" CCA?

Think about it this way..

If a political party/figure whose views you don't support or agree with was hosting a raffle with prizes, to which the raffle money would be used to advance his/her agenda, would you buy those tickets?

Great point

Maybe I'm wrong but....
 

.....I thought membership in CCA was mandatory if you want to sign up for the STAR tournament?

It is.

You should form your own opinion about whatever it is you support/don't support and not let a few mouth breathers with bro science dictate it. Go to a meeting and see for yourself. Remember that many non-profits are bound by how much money they can bring in. No single organization will ever be able to fix every issue. There is not enough time or money to do it. The money raised by the STAR tournament is very little in the grand scheme of things. Coastal work is EXPENSIVE. Also there is no such thing as a perfect organization. Every organization does certain things that I do not agree with but if the overall cause is a good one the good outweighs the bad. I still support the NRA even though they pizz me off by sending all this spam mail Don't care for everything DU does but they do good trying a overall. Dand aure don't care for every Republican in this country (or even our governor for that matter) but.....:rotfl:

Go to a meeting and ask why they won't do something you believe in You will be ignored and the subject will be changed before you get an answer. Been there done that .

Whoopin cranes

I see duck butters point and agree with a lot he said. I'm not saying they are a horrible organization like some on this site. I just don't know how I feel about "supporting" them anymore. I have been at cca meeting n the past where certain people's questions were ignored. To be honest, I probably would have ignored their question to. It would be a lot nicer than the answer their question deserved. I've asked W before if he thought CCA was so bad, what could I do with the money I was giving them. Is there another organization, in his opinion, where my money would be better spent. I'm still waiting on an answer. There is no perfect organization, for profit or not for profit. And I do think CCA does some positive things. That's why I don't think I mind them getting a little of my money so I could possibly benefit from the tourney.

DU does more for coastal restoration Louisiana. Without estuaries there is no fish. Although building oyster reefs isn't badit isn't a long-term solution for stopping coastal erosion. I don't disagree with everything about CCA,but I choose not to give them my money anymore.

There was that one organization whose entire mission was to get rid of CCA. They were saying all CCA did was put on fishing tournaments. Their response was to start their own tournament called the Galaxy or something pretty unoriginal.

There are other nonprofits that all work for the betterment of coastal Louisiana but none of them can combat coastal erosion by themselves and none would want to take on the oyster industry. we as sportsmen can't even all get on the same page. Bring up he word "diversion" and some people in SELA come out the woodwork. . Some of the things that people think CCA should be doing are a bit out there. They are not perfect by any means but a perfect organization does not exist

What did you ask them if you don't mind sharing?

A LOT of people despise DU for their coastal work also. Saying that restoring private marsh is not helping anyone or anything but the landowner to kill ducks! It is comical. A duck does not know if it's on private or public land. Marsh is marsh and restoring it whether its on private or public benefits us all. Hurricanes don't discriminate

The DU reference is going to add 5 extra pages to this:grinpimp:

Give your money to a family member that needs help, or give it to yourself.

Lotteries are taxes on dumb people and those who can't do math (one in the same) - Dave Ramsey

CCA is scared to stop oyster dredging
CCA is scared to stop erosion
CCA has done ZERO on Lake Calcasieu in 100 years

1st time was way back when the posting of the marsh started getting bad. Asked point blank was CCA going to support Fishermen or Landowners? Ignored asked again Ignored Asked the third time and the subject was changed to the Star tourney.
Second time was I had gotten wind of CCA going against the bow fishermen when it comes to shooting redfish. Went to a meeting and asked if it was true? They looked at me like i was a space alien and went right on to the next question.
After the first time i realized that the CCA Had an agenda and that it really didn't matter what the regular members said or wanted. So they lost my support. And yes when you enter the star you are supporting CCA and its agenda.

What's CCA's "agenda"?

"ZERO"? Come on man. They may not have done the things On your personal wish list, but would you call banning gil nets nothing? Again, what do you suggest I do in place of CCA?

CCA did not ban gill nets

GCCA which was ran by a whole different breed of people. People who actually fish

What is your stance on bowfishing? A lot of people are against it.

I look at it this way. The CCA is a way for the county club types to smooze and live high on the hog under the guise that they are a non profit who's main objective is costal restoration and preservation. The way they fund their extravagant get togethers and annual salaries is the star tourney. Anything they do for coastal restoration probably comes from large private donations and government grants. They secure these grants by lobbying for them and I am sure you can find a few politicians at any their dikpullings. Do they do some good? Yes. But they also were the primary ones responsible for lowering the trout limit on BL to 15. And for they they can go F themselves. When they send Billy Bob Z71 his sicker for signing up for the star tournament, Billy Bob feels like he's one of the big shots as well, although in actuality all his membership fee's paid for was a glass of scotch from a 500$ bottle that some a$$hole from Houston is drinking at one of the CCA's monthly circle jerks. I'll pass.

I have gone on a couple of guided bow fishing trips. thoroughly enjoyed both of them shot a limit of reds some heads and flounder each trip.
At the start of each trip the guide told us if there is ANY doubt about the fish being legal DO NOT SHOOT!. no undersize fish were shot on either trip.
IMHO 5 fish by arrow is the same as five fish by rod n reel . Does Joe Blow who puts some lights on his boat and goes out shooting go by the law ?
I would hope so and i will turn someone in for shooting / catching under size / over the limit.

Wooooooooow now hold on a minute, different breed of people you say?
Dude you just contradicted yourself big time.
GCCA was started by the Sperry Top Sider, CostaDelMar, Columbia shirt wearing COLLEGE graduates you love to hate.

It's the same damn group of people that you now hate on.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

For the record I support 80% of CCA's actions.

Wrong again..... Google it

The group of people who ran GCCA had an agenda for our fisheries not suit and tie with a martini in hand saying lets please one group of people

again the CCA DID NOT BAN GILL NETS

Well, if it's on the Internet it has to be true lol. You bash CCA for ignoring questions, but I'm going to ask you AGAIN. What is CCA's "agenda" that you spoke of earlier?

there agenda is run a huge STAR money making event for 101 days and pay there NON PROFIT VPs and #1s over 100K a year

Support lowing limits or adding limits against Biologist
Supporting limits that were told by Biologist it was never needed
Placing limits like 3Tail that were never needed

^^^hes right u know. The old members of gcca will have nothing to do with the CCA.

I'm sorry door dredging up this beat to death topic. My original intent was to basically ask if participating in the STAR = supporting CCA. Can we please remove this thread?

And thank u for answering.

It equals supporting CCA, Sammich answered it best.

:smokin::smokin:

I stopped entering the STAR tourney years ago bc I didn't agree with the CCA and their approach to helping our area. Entering the tourney does help the CCA even if it is a small amount.

Problem with not supporting the CCA, there are no other organizations that lobby for our recreation fishing in SWLA. The other groups such as the oyster group are well organized and funded. Its a political battle and the one that has the louder voice and more funds will always win.

I wish there was a fund only for Big Lake area. I would donate to that every year. In my opinion CCA is spread out in too many states. I think my dollar is spread out were only pennies hit our area.

yes it does. sometimes you just have to draw a line and say youre not gonna help them in any way. the prizes are donated to them and they pocket the money. the numbers are there to see. quit supporting them because you wanna win something and there will soon be a much better way to have a real tourney.

Wrong

All this is plain silly. No one is scared to stop erosion. It takes a TON of money to do anything worthwhile for erosion control. Rocking the ship channel would cost a bunch of money and it still won't correct all the problems. And why should CCA do this to begin with? The Master Plan is addressing these issues. One of them is the salinity control project. BUT, hide out and watch when these salinity control projects get going because there WILL be some people against it (they will be fishing guides:)) They will come out the woodwork just like the anti-diversion crowd in SELA.

Oysters - the oyster lobby is well funded. It would be a complete 'waist' of time and resources to try and fight it

Who has done anything on Lake Calcasieu in 100 years? Aren't there some CCA reefs over there? Does that not count? It isn't much but it refutes what you are saying. CCA or DU or Delta or any other non-profit will ever fix all the issues, they have to do what they can do with the budget they have which isn't much when it comes to coastal work.

You should really look up the definition of a non-profit. It doesn't mean what you think it means. The NFL was a nonprofit and Roger Goodell brought home $44 million last year:grinpimp:

When you pay bananas, you get monkeys. 100k is peanuts to what some of these people could make on their own in the consulting world. You have to pay these people to stay around. It would be nice if you could pay a 22 year old right out of college $45k to run CCA but it isn't gonna happen.

Not defending CCA, just defending non-profit conservation organizations as a whole because a whole lot of mistruths have been spouted off here and lies spread just as fast as the truth.

Once again coastal work is very expensive. It would also be nice if CCA or DU or whomever could just be ran with nothing but unpaid volunteers but that isn't going to happen. I have worked on a few very worthwhile restoration projects in south La where we needed volunteers and every single time the majority of volunteers were not hunters or fishermen but blue-haired ladies usually a birdwatching club or garden club. Every single time. Everyone likes to talk the talk but not walk the walk.

Support or don't support doesn't matter but make sure to read up on a few things about whatever organization you choose before making the decision and remember that NO organization is perfect.

O K. Any ideas on an alternative?

Here are a couple of groups. I'm not a member of either though, because I really dont know anything about them

http://thefra.org/

http://joinrfa.org/

Who has done anything on Lake Calcasieu in 100 years? Aren't there some CCA reefs over there? Does that not count?

Maybe you should look at where the money came from for those reef projects. its so EASY to make everyone think they did something special. add up the numbers and then look at what they put into it. then try to tell me where the rest of the money is going.

dont be blind by a little charade that they put on. that dang reef might as well been completely donated by the industry. heck.... the rock they used was trash left behind from road work that was also donated to them!:work::shaking:

this is what i was quoting... it disappeared for some reason.

Is it possible that DU and Delta Waterfowl do more to stop coastal erosion than CCA does?

My guess would be yes, much more.

I am not blinded by anything, I know exactly how non-profit conservation organizations work. I have said it many times, I don't like everything CCA does or for that matter any organization. Reefs are not gonna save the coastline by any means but I believe some of the artificial reefs are a good thing as some were only put there to honor folks.

It takes multiple partners to get things done and when that happens each one gets credik for it. On many WMAs/NWRs you will see certain projects where multiple partners work on the project. They all claim that on their statements each year its not uncommon.

So CCA can pump out money to push for a 15 trout limit on Big Lake or the most stupid ever 3tail regulations

But can't spend a penny to help stop erosion ?


And what's good is a reef ? Hell I can put a reef in by just having a fund raiser and I bet people would donate the material like the Brad Vincent reef was


Instead of a reef how about stop 1 mile of erosion ? Or half mile ? Maybe restore land around steam engine?

Hell no it's too easy to just sunshine pump a $500k donated reef ! Cost CCA nearly zero !

Wonder who will get the name of the new reef they plan on installing in west cove ?

DU only does coastal work on their big donor's properties to help them hold more ducks:rotfl:

Well, then those are a few alternative organizations to support.

Haha that's what all the haters say, either way though, it is probably more than CCA is doing in this state. I'd be lying if I tried to act like I know anything about DU or Delta, but I doubt they go against science very often, and I know they do lots of work on the breeding grounds.

How bout you start an organization and get something going? Walk the walk, and not talk the talk.

There are literally THOUSANDS of worthwhile coastal projects that need addressing. CCA or DU or anyone for that matter can not take them all on.

There are actually a LOT of people in this very state that get really mad when DU or Delta spend money in Louisiana:shaking: Think it should ALL go to the breeding grounds. And got real mad when a portion of our state duck stamp sales went to DU to spend on the breeding grounds:rotfl: Its comical but sad. Can't win for losing. The CEO of DU makes a pretty good check too, and rightfully so

I think this is a great idea. Start an association focused on SWLA. Get funding to research oysters, erosion, etc. Work with local colleges and such to develope data and research.