If the opening day of the 65th annual Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo belonged to the sharks, Day Two was all about the good Samaritan. Literally. The first day saw a Tiger and Bull shark – two of the man-eating sharks arrive at the scales to steal the show at Jones Park. rain soaked Friday featured Michael Fournier of Woolmarket establishing a rodeo record with the first Florida Pompano to be weighed in competition. The pompano, caught at Ship Island, weighed two-pounds, eight-ounces.
”We added pompano this year for a couple of reasons,” weighmaster Mark Wright said. ”We had a lot of interest from the fishermen about adding the fish and it’s a pretty common species around the barrier islands.
”Another reason is the federal government closed down red snapper season in federal waters. So we dropped red snapper and added pompano. Michael Fournier caught the first one to be weighed.”
But the biggest draw concerned a species that’s not even listed as one of the categories – a swordfish.
The swordfish, a member of the billfish family, was caught by Jonathon Stanley of Biloxi and weighed 219.8 pounds with an overall length of 107 inches and a 51-inch girth.
The Mississippi state record is 75 pounds.
This fish, one that was caught off the mouth of the Mississippi River, easily eclipsed that weight.
”But he caught it on an electric reel,” said Donnie Armes of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources in Biloxi. ”A state record has to be caught on conventional tackle – not an electric reel.
”This would have shattered the state record, but we go by the rules and the angler (Stanley) knew that. This is the biggest swordfish that any of us have ever seen.”
When Stanley and his crew called the rodeo early Friday to check on a possible courtesy weight on a certified scale, officials agreed like they have throughout the years.
As the crew brought the fish to the scales, Stanley told Armes that it was caught on an electric reel. Read on….