HOOK, LINE & LUCK: Hall Lands Largest Black Drum of the Day at 42 Pounds
By Al Jones, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.
Jul. 3–GULFPORT — When it comes to fishing, it’s better to be lucky than good.
Ronald Hall of Biloxi was the perfect example of that old saying during the third day of 59th annual Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.
In Hill’s case, it was best that he had his wife on the fishing trip that produced a 42-pound, five-ounce black drum.
The fish was actually caught Sunday and Ronald Hall debated weighing it until his wife, Vickie, looked in the Sun Herald Monday morning for the leaderboard.
She quickly convinced her husband to head to the Harrison County Fairgrounds.
“I had to talk him into it,” Vickie Hall said. “I got the Herald and looked to see what the leading fish weighed. Then he decided to weigh it.”
The previous leader was John Bradford of Wiggins at 41 pounds, one ounce.
Hill’s fish tipped the scales at 42 pounds, five ounces.
“It was luck,” Vickie Hall laughed on how the fish was caught.
The two were fishing off Moses Pier near the Gulfport Small Craft Harbor for white trout. Using small pieces of shrimp, the Halls managed to catch 100 or more white trout.
Then, unexpectedly, the black drum entered the picture.
Hall was using a small hook normally reserved for white trout. Not a larger, sturdy hook used for brute feeders like a black drum.
The fish was landed on 12-pound test line and the fight lasted 30 minutes.
“I thought I had a stingray,” he said.
Not sure of the weight, Vickie Hall allowed her husband to purchase a digital scale for an accurate weight.
When she walked up to the scales, she told rodeo workers they had a 42-pound black drum.
She was dead on the money.
“Can you believe he went and bought a scale?” she said. “Five minutes after he caught the drum, he caught a 42-inch redfish. It was his lucky day.”
The second largest drum of the day, 36 pounds, three ounces, belonged to 11-year-old Michael Malone of Gulfport. Malone, who turns 12 today and attends Lizana Elementary, caught his drum using a 10-inch mullet for bait.
When asked about the fight, Malone kind of shrugged it off.
“No fight,” he said. “They really don’t fight. It’s my biggest drum this year, but I caught bigger last year.”
Another top catch, one that also came off the beachfront, was a 125-pound stingray by Ryan Rockholt of Biloxi.
Rockholt, who caught a 134-pound shark on Sunday, caught the stingray two miles off Deer Island in Biloxi around Wreck 7A.
“I was trying to catch redfish,” he said. “This thing ate a whole croaker. Just sucked it up.”
Other top catches for Day Three were: a 41-pound, seven-ounce catfish by Benjamin McHugh of Biloxi; a rodeo record two-pound, 15-ounce crappie by Walter Crapps of Pass Christian; a 24-pound red snapper by Jeremy Payne of Ocean Springs; and a 53.1-pound wahoo by Brian Pelton of Gautier.
—–
To see more of The Sun Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sunherald.com.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.