Tinnin calls Roundup tourney a'community'
PORT ARANSAS BOATMEN HALL OF FAME
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Kid connection STAFF PHOTO BY PHIL REYNOLDS Dr. Rick Tinnin is well-known for his work with students in his position as marine education director at The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute. However, he has been a volunteer judge for the Deep Sea Roundup for decades. He is one of this year's inductees into the Port Aransas Boatmen Inc.'s Hall of Fame.

Rick Tinnin remembers coming to Port Aransas to fish as long ago as 1977. Things have changed a lot since then. This year, Tinnin has been named to the Port Aransas Boatmen Inc. Hall of Fame.

"The jetty crew would all come in (to the weigh station)," Tinnin recalled of earlier Deep Sea Roundups. "They'd kind of share the bay-surf division among those guys."

He also remembers that the late Jinx Martin and late Dewey Dreyer were involved, and the weighing was done on an old meat scale.

"It just evolved to the point where some of us old (men) get involved every year," Tinnin said. "For me, it parallels the philosophy of many organizations on the island - being of service to the community."

A semester (or two) ago COURTESY PHOTO Dr. Rick Tinnin has been the host for countless student trips aboard research vessels at The University of Texas Marine Science Institute, dating back to the days - as he says - when he had hair, and it was dark.

He cited the conservation ethic of the sponsoring Port Aransas Boatmen Inc. as one reason he stays involved in the annual Deep Sea Roundup and in Boatmen projects.

"One year, we weighed in lots of very small billfish," he said, shaking his head. "Now, it's all catch and release. It's very much to their credit."

He's also proud of the group's community involvement.

"My God, how forward-thinking is that, these guys have created an endowment (to be used for Port Aransas High School scholarships)?" he asked rhetorically.

"The other great thing is the junior division, getting kids involved in a lifelong sport."

While Tinnin has many great fishing memories, some of them aren't involved with fishing except peripherally.

For instance, he says, "Go over on the back side of San Jose Island and watch the sun go down behind the (Lydia Ann) lighthouse. Or get in water chest deep with a floating cooler. Watch the sun go down and turn around and watch the moon come up."

Tinnin said the Deep Sea Roundup, for which he volunteers regularly as a judge, is an event he looks forward to every year.

"It's a community, not only of judges, but of people who come in each year to just have fun," he said.

"I've been coming to the island since I was five, fishing on the south jetty where the old tide gauge was," Tinnin said. "I've been associated with the island a very long time, and I'm blessed."

He added, "It's provided me with a great opportunity for a 'vacation of working'."