Destin Fishing Rodeo Welcomes All Kinds

It’s “Game On” for the Destin Fishing Rodeo. “I think there’s a competition going on for that first fish,” Rodeo executive director Helen Donaldson said Tuesday morning. In the last couple of weeks, “There has been some people talking smack about catching the first fish,” she said. Today at 10 a.m. when the scales open for the 60th annual Destin Fishing Rodeo folks will get a chance to see who can produce. The angler who brings in the first fish will win a trophy sponsored by MeLasers. Donaldson said the first fish trophy is “huge.” She said it stands about 3 feet or taller.

Last year the first fish was slow coming in. With the wind blowing and the waves kicking up, it was 10:35 a.m. before the first fish was weighed in. Carl Jiroux of Wing, Ala., weighed in a 4.6-pound red snapper for the honors. He was fishing aboard the Mollie with Capt. Jeff Shoults.

However, that shouldn’t be the case this year. “I think we’ll have people waiting in line with fish in a bucket,” she said. Not only does Donaldson have high hopes for the first fish, but she anticipates that on Day 1, the Rodeo will have its 60th entry brought to the scales, a 60-pound fish weighed in, and an angler who is 60 years old. All will be eligible for prizes, which is part of the 60th celebration of the Rodeo.

The Destin Fishing Rodeo will go throughout the month of October and offer more than $100,000 in cash and prizes. There are daily, weekly and overall prizes up for grabs and divisions for juniors, teens, ladies and seniors. Virtually every gamefish is recognized during the Rodeo, from mackerel to marlin and snapper to shark.

As for shark, the Rodeo has tagged its shark division this year as the “Mako My Day” Shark Division — they’ve even trademarked the phrase. There are prizes for the largest shark and the most tagged and Capt. Robert Hill of the charter boat Twilight has put up a $2,000 savings bond for whoever breaks his record of last year — a 638.2-pound mako. One category that’s new to this years Rodeo is the Mingo Bingo.

The way the Mingo Bingo works is the angler who brings in the heaviest stringer of 10 mingo each day scores a 12-pack of beer. Budweiser will be donating the beer each day for the winner.

In addition to the angler winning the Bud, the captain of the winning angler each day will get his name put up on a Mingo Bingo board, much like a bingo card. A number will be drawn from a hat at the end of each week and the captain on the lucky number will be the Mingo Bingo winner and will snag a weekly award.

Thus far about 100 charter boats have registered for the Rodeo and 70-plus private boats. “Right now we’re down about 110 private boats from where we ended up last year,” Donaldson said, noting it could possibly be the state of the economy.

However, she said, “If we have a pretty weekend and we get some fish up on that leaderboard, I think we’ll have more register their boats.”

The scales are open daily throughout October from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. on the docks behind AJ’s. However, if a boat is in the harbor and visible to weighmaster Bruce Cheves at 7 p.m., scales will stay open longer.

Published on Wednesday, October 1, 2008