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Port Arthur is hoping to catch good publicity from fishing.

The city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau is once again hosting the Elite Redfish Series Tidewater Boats tournament on May 15–16 at Pleasure Island, but that’s not the only fishing tournament hat will have the Port Arthur name associated with it.

The PACVB will also be one of the presenters for the Elite Fishing League, a reality show which airs on the Discovery Channel, during one of the show’s rounds.

Pat Malone, host and producer for the Elite Fishing League, says Port Arthur will be promoted to the show’s TV audience, regardless of where the show’s round takes place.

“What that means is that we might be filming in Florida or we might be filming in Louisiana, and we’re going to say ‘The Cajun Classic, presented by Visit Port Arthur, your vacation destination!’ Malone said. “Port Arthur is on all the trophies, Port Arthur is on the TV show and Port Arthur gets a commercial during the TV show.”

Malone says the arrangements allow Port Arthur to serve again as a host for the Elite Redfish Series tournament and also see a more robust economic impact from the publicity.

“What used to happen was we would have a good tournament with TV, but there might not be but 15-20 people in it, and it’s like OK,” Malone said. “This way you get the best of both worlds. It’s heads in the beds, full hotels and making sure we have a lot of people in town for economic impact, but they do benefit from advertising outside of their own area. We premiere Port Arthur and Lake Sabine to communities way outside of here.”

The Elite Fishing League show features 15 contestants fishing in rounds in new locations around the country. The contestants go into each round without practicing in the fishing location. Referees and cameras are right there on the water capturing the drama of the competition. Fish are weighed right on the water, allowing the contestants to focus on catching more fish than measuring lengths for their tanks.

“They don’t get to practice on the EFL,” Malone said. “They don’t get to know where they’re fishing. You show up at New Orleans on Sunday night at this particular location. We’ll have a meeting, we give you the official hotel, and the next morning you go out with a referee and camera man on waters that you have not practiced on, and we film and produce all that drama.”

The qualifying rounds, The Cajun Classic, take place May 5–7 and the elimination and championship rounds of The Southern Challenge are Aug. 11–13.

Malone will hold an ELF referee training day April 11 at the S.A.L.T. Club in Port Arthur from 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

The Elite Redfish Series team round May 15–16 is will be open to anyone what wants to put together a team, Malone said. The prize will be a $60,000, 22-foot Tidewater-200HP Yamaha boat with Tandem Axle McClain trailer.

“We are guaranteeing the first place prize, regardless if we only have 15 boats,” Malone said. “For the first year ever it’s open. Usually when we come to town, it’s guys that are fishing our series. This year anybody can jump in and put a team in it. We really want Port Arthur to know that anybody can fish and have a chance at winning a $60,000 boat.”
For more information visit theredfishseries.com.