Sharks continue to lead way at Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo

Sharks continued to dominate the conversation at the 69th Annual Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo on Sunday at Jones Park.

Another Tiger Shark and two Hammerhead sharks commanded the attention of Deep Sea Rodeo goers.

Eddie Kopszywa of Ocean Springs turned in a 379-pound 10-ounce Tiger shark, which was eight inches longer than the pending new state record Tiger shark caught on Saturday. But it was also 10 pounds and 6 ounces lighter than the 390-pound shark caught by David Rogers of Mobile on Saturday.

Kopszywa’s Tiger Shark puts him in second place in the Shark category and prize contention going into Monday’s final round.

“Big Tiger came in first thing this morning,” Deep Sea Rodeo director Dwayne Armes said. “He missed the state record about 11 pounds.”

Other sharks drawing crowds of spectators were the two Hammerheads, one 87 inches long and 113 pounds 7 ounces caught by Dan Pahl of Ocean Springs. Pahl fought the fish for approximately two hours as his daughter kept him hydrated with sports drinks.

“I fought him for a couple of hours,” Pahl said. “Had to swim around a couple of anchor lines. It wears you out. You think you’re going to have him, and they’re coming in, but they take another run. You have to just turn’em. I only had so much line on my reel.”

Pahl caught the Hammerhead off the west end of Horn Island using dead mullet as bait.

“It’s been great,” Pahl said. “I like it. It’s been fun. It’s neat to come down and see all the big fish caught.”

Entering Sunday, the only category that had not registered a fish was the Grouper category. But Chase Nevers of Bay St. Louis entered two fish in the category, one 12 pounds 8 ounces and the other 12 pounds 3 ounces.

The tournament ends Monday with the scales closing at 4 p.m. All tournament entrees must be weighed by 4 p.m.

“I’m hoping we have a good turnout tomorrow,” Armes said. “Hopefully we’ll have a good bit of people come out. Usually on the last day we’ll have a good group of fish come in. Maybe we’ll get another big Tiger.”

This story was originally published July 3, 2016 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Sharks continue to lead way at Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo."