June 7-8, 2003: Pascagoula, MS

June 7, 2003 dawned dark and ominous for the first day of the Singing River Yacht Club Invitational Fishing Rodeo. This event is affectionately known as “Fish for the Case,” since first prize in the adult division is the much-coveted-by-anglers case of beer, in addition to cash and trophies. The hardy boat captains and crews that headed out in the pre-dawn darkness had a rude awakening when they hit Dog Keys Pass. The stormy weather caused 6 to 8 foot seas that turned all but the most hardcore anglers from “off-shore” to “in-shore” fishermen.  Since the pounding seas kept the big boats close to shore, it was no surprise that most of the fish turned in the first day were redfish, speckled trout, and flounder.  More flounder were turned in the first day than I have seen in a long time. 

The highlight of the first day was when Sarah S., a precious little blond haired girl from Ocean Springs, came in with her daddy.  They were dragging a cooler of 6 nice redfish.  Little Sarah looked way up at Weigh-master Rocky Bond and announced, “The three LITTLE ones are my Daddy’s.” She was back the next day with more redfish, too.  Sarah ended up winning the Junior Redfish division in a landslide with her 3 fish combined weight of 9 pounds, 13 ounces. After the scales closed, the Waterfowl Review “filleting team” pitched in to clean fish, and we ended up with about 20 pounds of fillets from Day One. 

As morning broke on June 8, 2003, for Day Two of Fish for the Case, the seas were calm, the bait fish were schooling, and the big boats were able to get out and prowl the rigs and wrecks of the Gulf of Mexico.  As expected, the scales lit up for the 4:00 p.m. weigh-in as the off shore boats rolled in with lockers full of amberjack, cobia, king mackerel and red snapper.  It seemed this year there were a lot of good “keeper” fish caught, but not as many “bruisers” as in years past. 

After the weigh-in was completed, Lois Horn had the top king mackerel at 18 pounds, 11 ounces, and Nathan Bosio had the biggest Spanish mackerel at about 2 pounds.  Very few Spanish were turned in this year, for whatever reason.  Tommy Crawford had the overall biggest redfish at 7 pounds, 1 ounce.   Mark Ros turned in the winning cobia with a fine 37 pound lemonfish.  Mark Ros also had the winning speckled trout at 4 pounds, 2 ounces.  Bill Perkins was edged out of the top snapper spot by T. O’Brien by 1 ounce with O’Brien’s 15 pound, 2 ounce fish.  However, when it was all said and done, Mark A. Ros won the coveted “Kingfisher” title with a 104 pound, 14 ounces combined 4-fish catch of  amberjack, cobia and king mackerel.  Cameron Clay won the Junior Kingfisher title with a combined weight of 18 pounds, 7 ounces of red snapper, king mackerel and flounder. 

It is always fun to see a big mess of fish.  It is even more fun to eat a big mess of fish!  So, after the “fillet team” was done, a massive fish fry ensued with enough fish to feed a small army.  The staff was still eating fried fish at lunch on Monday, so there was plenty of both quality and quantity.  Many thanks to Rocky Bond and Lyn Truelove, and every else who worked so hard on “Fish for the Case:2003.”  And remember you heard about Sarah here first when she gets old enough to have her own fishing show on the Outdoor Life network!