Live Tripletail Category added to Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo

By DAVID RAINER, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

With the popularity of catching tripletail on the rise, the 93rd annual Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo (ADSFR) will have a live weigh-in category for the species during the event that runs July 17-19 on Dauphin Island.

Chase Farley, the 2026 rodeo president, said live tripletail will be added to the CCA (Coastal Conservation Association) of Alabama Live Weigh-In Special Awards category that includes speckled trout, flounder and redfish.

“The live tripletail division is sponsored by the University of South Alabama’s (USA) Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences,” Farley said. “They want you to bring in those live tripletail so they can attach a tracking device to track their movements. It’s going to be hard because people love to eat them. So, we’re asking people to catch two and bring one to the rodeo alive.”

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) Commissioner Chris Blankenship always has the ADSFR on his summer schedule.

“Growing up on Dauphin Island, the third weekend in July has always been one of my favorite weekends of the year,” Commissioner Blankenship said. “Now as Conservation Commissioner, I really get to see the impact this event has promoting the great inshore and offshore fishing we are so blessed with in Alabama. The science and research conducted by Dr. (Sean) Powers and USA at the ADSFR is top notch and is the part of the rodeo that sometimes gets overlooked. The combination of hospitality, entertainment, outdoor recreation, fundraising and science is what makes the event one of the best weekends in Alabama every year!”

ADSFR’s Farley said another big announcement is that the inaugural Mediterranean Sandwich Swordfish Jackpot will be held this year.

 “Swordfish will no longer be in the Big Game category,” he said. “The fish will have its own jackpot with a ticket price of $400. USA will be collecting as much data as possible on swordfish. It has grown in popularity in recent years. We’ve seen a lot more swordfish weighed in at the rodeo, so South is really wanting to see what the uptick is about and find out where they’re being caught.

“And we’re expecting a big turnout for the swordfish jackpot. We think it’s going to be a big payday for somebody.”

Farley said the lionfish category was brought back last year and will be in this year’s rodeo as well. Lionfish usually top out at about 3 pounds and are rarely caught on hook and line. Spearfishers are the only effective user group to target this invasive species. Since the first lionfish was documented in 2009, the species has expanded rapidly in numbers and range. Lionfish are voracious eaters, competing with important commercial and recreational species like red snapper, grouper and gray triggerfish. In recent years, numerous lionfish rodeos have collected as many fish as possible to protect reefs and native species.

A feature of the rodeo that is always popular with the spectators is the Gulf Hauling and Construction Shark Jackpot, which will include only two species again this year, bull shark and tiger shark.

At the 2023 rodeo, Brett Rutledge weighed in a 1,019-pound tiger shark that broke the rodeo and Alabama state record. At the 2024 rodeo, David Stiller broke the rodeo and state records with a 494.5-pound bull shark. Both shark species must have a fork length of 80 inches to be weighed at the rodeo.

The South Response Services King Mackerel Jackpot, Yamaha Motors Speckled Trout Jackpot and the Meadow Electric Big Game Jackpot are basically unchanged. Regular rodeo categories include 15 inshore species and 18 offshore species. Each category has a minimum size. Go to https://adsfr.com/rodeo-rules/ to find the rodeo species and minimum sizes.

The Return ‘Em Right category will return and requires anglers to submit a photo of an eligible reef fish (red snapper, gray snapper, grouper, scamp and vermilion snapper) on a descending device ready for release. The descending devices must have at least one pound of weight and 60 feet of line. Prizes will be awarded in a random drawing from all the eligible anglers. A maximum of three entries per angler is allowed.

Typically, the ADSFR will weigh in between 6,000 and 8,000 fish during the three-day competition. People from all over the Gulf Coast and beyond plan their year around the rodeo, a project of the Mobile Jaycees.

Farley said that for the 2025 rodeo 4,000 rodeo tickets were sold and the crowd numbered more than 100,000.

“We try to sink the island every year,” quipped Farley. “We’re excited about the rodeo.”

Of course, one of the features of the rodeo is a new T-shirt every year with artwork designed by the current president. To accommodate the demand for the T-shirts at the rodeo, a new T-shirt building has been constructed on the rodeo site to efficiently handle the customers.

Farley did have a warning for those who travel to the rodeo site by land. Construction on the Dauphin Island Bridge may cause delays.

“Try not to let that interfere with you weighing in fish if you’re coming by land,” he said. “Plan ahead this year. Sometimes the bridge is down to one lane, so try to get there as early as you can.”

As usual, the rodeo kicks off on the Thursday before the competition starts with the Captain T-Bone’s Liar’s Contest, sponsored this year by Columbia Outdoors. Live entertainment includes Bruce Smelley after the liar’s contest and Moustache on July 17.

Participants in the 93rd rodeo will compete for almost $1 million in cash and prizes, including a Contender bay boat with a Yamaha 250-horsepower outboard. The winner of the boat-motor package will be selected in a random drawing from all participants who weigh in a legal fish during the tournament. It doesn’t matter if you catch a 12-inch white trout at Cedar Point Pier or haul in a huge blue marlin from the Gulf of America, your chances of winning the top prize package are the same. A 70-horsepower Yamaha outboard will go to the winner of the Speckled Trout Jackpot. The Most Unusual category will be back and sponsored again by USA Marine Sciences with a top prize of $250.

As keeping with tradition, the 68th Roy Martin Young Anglers Tournament will be held the Saturday (July 11) prior to the ADSFR and is available to anglers 15 years old and younger. What’s special about the Roy Martin tournament is you can purchase the ticket when you get to the rodeo site with your fish.

At the big rodeo, all tickets must be purchased before the start of the competition, which opens with a cannon blast at 5 a.m. on Friday, July 17. The ADSFR closes with another cannon blast at 5 p.m. on July 19.

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