Nearly a century of weigh ins
The rodeo started as an idea on a boat. In the summer of 1928 a party of Mobile businessmen out fishing the bay decided the coast needed a competitive tournament. They met for weeks in the home of L.G. Adams Sr., and with a push from state game commissioner I.T. Quinn, the first Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo ran in 1929. The organizers say it was the first fishing contest in America to be called a rodeo, and it drew 260 anglers.
Those early years had a frontier feel. A ticket cost $5 and covered a place to sleep. The only way onto the island was by boat, the old Fort Gaines pier served as headquarters, and carrier pigeons flew the daily catch reports back to town. The Mobile Junior Chamber of Commerce took over in 1948, and the Mobile Jaycees still run it.
Today the rodeo bills itself as the largest fishing tournament in the world, with more than 4,000 anglers and up to 100,000 spectators by its own count. It is a three day Captain's Choice event with 33 categories, prizes for the most unusual species and for lionfish, and cash jackpots for king mackerel, speckled trout, red snapper and big game. A cannon blast at 5 a.m. on Friday starts the fishing, and the scales close Sunday afternoon.
The weigh station is also a lab. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab sets up on site to collect data on many species. Between 1984 and 1997, researcher Gary Nelson studied more than 253 species of marine life at the rodeo and kept 2,577 specimens for science, and the rodeo funds scholarships in his name.
An island built on shellfish suppers
People have eaten well here for a long time. A large shell mound near Little Dauphin Island Sound dates from roughly 1100 to 1550 CE. The Encyclopedia of Alabama describes it as centuries of discarded shellfish and fish suppers, with charcoal and broken clay pots mixed in. The 11 acre Indian Shell Mound Park keeps it, along with oaks estimated at 800 years old.
French explorers arrived in 1699 and gave the place a grim first name, Massacre Island, after finding human remains in mounds. It later became Ile Dauphine, a port where big ships unloaded before smaller boats carried goods up to Mobile. The bridge to the mainland came in 1955. The Alabama Legislature founded the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in 1971, and Auburn University opened a shellfish laboratory here in 2003. The Audubon Bird Sanctuary on the east end pulls in birders every spring and fall.
