by Al Jones

BILOXI- Clarence Seymour and the Double Trouble Fishing Team pulled off a last-minute comeback Sunday to claim the 14th Annual Gorenflo's Cobia Tournament at Point Cadet Marina. And they did it in record fashion.

When Weighmaster Danny Pitalo read the scales at 67.6 pounds as the scales closed, Seymour and his crew were standing atop the 71-boat field with a tournament aggregate record of 315.89 pounds for five cobia. The Double Trouble team eclipsed the old mark of 310 pounds, set in 1996.

"That is the fish we needed," Seymour native said. "We hooked the fish at 2:30 and we were leaving Chandeleur at 3. We just made it. This is the first win. Last year we were fifth, which was our highest."

When Seymour and his crew of Brad Sams of Ocean Springs, Eric Gill of Biloxi, Darney Derouen of Biloxi and Carl Peebles of North Biloxi arrived at the scales, they found themselves trailing Russell Webb of Ocean Springs and the Sandbartender team by 12 pounds.

Webb and his crew of Dustin Trochessett, Kenny Kuhn and Chase Webb had taken the lead from third-day leader Double Trouble with a 67-pounder on Sunday that pushed their five-fish weight to 295.15 pounds.

But Seymour and his crew hit the scales 10 minutes before closing with the 67-pounder to beat the Sandbartender crew by just over 20 pounds.

"We finally got what we were fishing for," Seymour said. "We saw the fish come along the side of the boat then the reel went off. The fish took half the line off the spool on its initial run. The fight was 20 minutes or so.

"This really feels good. We spent four days at the north tip of Chandeleur chumming and it paid off." To a tune of $8,000.

The Double Trouble crew's fish weighed 69.5, 67.6, 60.85, 60.4 and 57.54 pounds for 315.89 total pounds and first place.

The Sandbartender crew took home second with 295.15 pounds of fish and a check of $4,300.

"I thought our fish was bigger," Webb said, We caught the fish at 6 p.m. (Saturday) and thought it would weigh between 75 and 80 pounds. The fish was 8 ½ inches between the eyes. It was a big fish. It just didn't weigh what we though. Second place is our best finish."

In Deep took home the third place check of $2,800 with 277.3 pounds. Scram-A-Ling was fourth at 264.60 pounds, winning $1,800.

Beefeater was fifth at 264.05 pounds and won $1,000. Escape was sixth at 251.75 pounds and a check worth $700.

But all the action on the final day wasn't limited to the scales.

After the Beefeater team of Billy Davis weighed a 62-pound cobia, the fish fell into the Point Cadet Marina as it was being passed from the dock to the boat. Greg Hebert, who runs the Amberjack charter boat out of the Biloxi Small Craft Harbor, dove into the water and retrieved it, earning the approval of the 1,800 spectators on hand.

"It was a great tournament," Pitalo said. "We had some great fish turned in and we had our record of 310 pounds broken."

The four-day tournament highlights included a 99.95 pound cobia cauht by Rusty Diaz on Saturday and a 91.2 pounder caught by Webb on Thursday. Michael fournier of Biloxi caught the biggest fish on Friday at 71.45 pounds.

The largest fish entered Sunday was a 79.20 pounder by Phil Lechner aboard the Reel Pressure.