Winds calm for anglers

BILOXI- Catching a break from the bad weather, the Gorenflo's Cobia Shootout, ended with a bang at the weigh scales in Point Cadet Saturday night.

Prior to the sky clearing Saturday, high winds threatened to put a damper on things and possibly the number of boats entered for this event, a one-day tournament leading to the 13th Annual Gorenflo's Cobia Tournament set for Thursday through Sunday.

The light winds and clear sky helped pack the boats into this year's tournament.

"I was super pleased with the tournament and the weather was beautiful," said Danny Pitalo, tournament director and owner of Gorenflo's Tackle and Marina Store in Point Cadet. "We were worried that the weather may not cooperate, but it did."

"The fishermen all saw fish and a lot of them were caught. The fish were caught off the Horn Island sand bar, the north tip of Chandeleur and the oil rigs. I think we'll have a great tournament this week."

Walking away with the top prizes of $2,561 was the SYL charters fishing team and its captain Clarence Seymour of Vancleave with a 78.3-pound cobia. The second-place finisher was Kevin Higginbotham abourd the Rell 'Em In with a 73.2 pounder. Unlike the main tournament which features a five-fish aggregate total weight, the shootout consisted of the largest fish.

Others fishing with Seymour were Darney Deuron of Biloxi, Dale Desporte of north Biloxi, Carl Pebbles of north Biloxi and Eric Gill of Biloxi. Seymour said they caught the fish in the shallow water oil field using Killer Bee Bait Chum (made locally in Biloxi) to lure the cobia to the stern of the boat, catching the fish on live bait.

"We were tied up to the oil rig and had the chum and the fish swam right up the line," Seymour said. "We also caught a 60-pound, a 55-pounder and a 40-pounder all by noon. We had five fish that weighed 268 pounds betwenn them."

"We were through by noon and headed back in. We was the first boat to the dock. You could not ask for a better tournament."