With weather and sea conditions nearly perfect for anglers, the 74th annual Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo is off to a huge start. Right from the start the weigh in station has been busy as anglers bring in the big fish. And lots of them too. This year's tournament looks like it will be one for the record books.
You can keep up to the minute with the day's catch and complete tournament standings at the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo web site's live tournament results web page.
For more reading, here are a few of the stories so far about the tournament.
Records get reeled in
First day of fishing results in tuna, gray snapper marksDAUPHIN ISLAND -- So much for slow Fridays at the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.
The start of the 74th annual rodeo featured two rodeo records, four red snapper heavier than 30 pounds, five tarpon and a 98.4-pound amberjack.
The biggest fish of the day was also a rodeo record -- a 179.4-pound yellowfin tuna caught by Doyle Taylor, who was fishing with Cameron Moore and Michelle Crismon on the Rib Tickler.
"Michelle actually saw the fish jump," Taylor said. "Cameron swung the boat around and we had a bunch of chum on the boat. I started throwing a bunch of chum out and trying to get some lines in the water.
"The first hardtail that hit the water, he slammed it. It took two hours on a 6/0 with 80-pound line. It took 40 minutes to get him in, but it took two hours for my back to recover."
Once the fish was beside the boat, there was another problem to overcome -- getting it aboard. Read more
Not a dull moment at this rodeo
DAUPHIN ISLAND -- This is my 14th time to cover the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, and I can't remember a more manic opening day than Friday.
It was absolutely crazy, starting at 10 a.m., when a big tarpon and huge king mackerel were weighed in as the scales opened.
There were very few breaks in the action after that.
It was one of those days when an excellent catch got lost in the shuffle.
Such was the case for a boat out of Bayou La Batre, which brought in a load of big snapper. The anglers, Joseph Rodriguez, Sam Lyons and Kurt Tillman, brought in red snapper at 21.97, 25.44, 28.70 and 30.86 pounds. Read more
First fish on the ADSFR scales Friday morning is a 120.5-pound tarponDAUPHIN ISLAND -- A multitude of tarpon have been reported in local waters and it didn't take long for anglers in the 74th annual Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo to find them on Friday.
John Toomey, Justin Toomey and Chuck Floyd brought in a 120.5-pound silver king -- the first fish in to the weigh station -- after an excellent morning of angling to lead the category after the opening day.
"We were chumming in Navy Cove," John Toomey said. "The good thing was that we were the only boat in there. There were tarpon all around the boat and we had the only bait in the water. The fish hit a dead pogy."
Floyd got the honor of fighting the fish.
"He danced a lot," Floyd said of the acrobatic tarpon. "The water wasn't very deep right there, so he couldn't go down. I like fishing shallow water because they put on such a show while they're wearing you out." Read more