| Subject: Cut and Pasted from the Mobile Register |
Author:
PuckDaddy
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 07/24/03 5:00pm
In reply to:
Kathy G.
's message, "Re: FROZEN TUNA IN THE NET!!!!!!" on 07/23/03 4:33pm
Hope I'm not gonna get busted for copywrite infringement...
QUOTE
Sports News
Rodeo's final day yields record
Jim Cox's yellowfin tuna tips scale at 172.2 pounds, breaking old mark
07/21/03
By DAVID RAINER
Outdoors Editor
DAUPHIN ISLAND -- The 71st annual Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo's final day started with a bang and ended the same way.
When the weigh station opened Sunday, Capt. Brian Swindle's Hard Time was waiting to weigh in a 156-pound swordfish, not a rodeo category, but an unusual sight at the rodeo.
About an hour before the cannon fired at 5 p.m., the second rodeo-record fish came to the docks.
Jim Cox, who did the radio broadcasts for the defunct Mobile Mysticks hockey team, brought a 172.2-pound yellowfin tuna to the scales, bumping the 171.4-pound fish caught last year by Daniel Robinson.
"I'm telling you Capt. Mike Rogers is hot," said Cox, who was fishing on the Amante. "He tagged a blue (marlin) in the Memorial Day tournament, and we tagged a blue Friday. We were trolling a big rip this morning with an Islander with a ballyhoo. There was a huge explosion."
The tuna hit the lure that was a 30W reel with 50-pound test.
"We were afraid he was going to spool me, but he just sounded," Cox said. "While I was fighting the fish, a huge waterspout was barreling straight for us. So we had to move the boat.
"Then when I got him to the boat, two guys couldn't hoist the fish over the side. It took four of us to the get the fish in the boat."
But back to the swordfish, Matthew Johnson tagged a blue marlin at the Ram-Powell before Swindle moved the boat to the Marlin rig and caught the swordfish on a hardtail about 400 feet down with a glow stick.
"We bill-hooked him so he didn't put up a fight," Swindle said. "We just kind of reeled him up. Then I shined a light over there and saw it was a swordfish. There weren't but three of us up at the time, so I started waking people up.
"We gaffed him and threw it in the back of the boat green, and he started tearing stuff up. I've got a knot on the back of my head from trying to get out of his way."
Of course, during a fishing tournament, there has to be a tale about the one that got away.
Wesley Williams III, on the Deliverance, fought a huge yellowfin tuna for four hours before the line finally gave way.
"We were chumming with pogeys and this huge yellowfin came right up to the back of the boat," said Jonathan Dunnam, captain of the Deliverance. "We fed him about 15 pogeys before we got him to eat one with a hook. And we had to do on a suicide rig. He wouldn't take anything with a leader. It was 60-pound test line and it just wore through."
Williams had to fight the tuna in stand-up gear.
"I thought for a while I had a permanent back problem," Williams said.
The Deliverance still managed to take second place in tuna with Allen Andrews' 126.41-pounder, which also won the tuna jackpot.
Although the number of large tuna was down from last year, there were big dolphin everywhere offshore.
Bancroft McMurphy led the way with a 47.47-pound dolphin, caught trolling around the deep-water rigs.
"We were letting dolphin go because we didn't have enough cooler space," McMurphy said.
Capt. Mike Thierry on the Lady Ann said the same thing after Mark Goncalves won the dolphin jackpot with a 33.81-pounder on his boat. Goncalves also won the wahoo jackpot at 43.8.
"We were throwing back 15- to 20-pound dolphin," Thierry said. "It was a great trip."
The first tarpon of the rodeo were weighed in Sunday. Greg Zieman caught a 90.5-pounder, while Justin Toomey weighed in an 81.6-pounder.
Joseph DeGeer was the master angler with a first place in gafftopsail catfish at 7.74 and triggerfish at 8.34. He also had second in flounder at 5.69.
In the jackpots, Sheree Dees on Top Producer claimed the king jackpot at 62.27 and the Polar boat package.
Twelve-year-old Dillon Winstanley of Irvington was the lucky angler whose name was drawn for the 21-foot Contender boat package, while Edward Anderson of Gautier, Miss., won the Sea Chaser boat package in the speckled trout drawing.
UNQUOTE
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
