A port town built by a railroad
Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi after Jackson. William Hardy, president of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad, founded it, and it boomed in 1898 as the rails came in and the harbor was dug deeper. By 1902 the Port of Gulfport was a working seaport, and it is still one of the city's main engines.
Jones Park sits at the very south end of Highway 49 beside the port, and it is known as the Front Yard for the State of Mississippi. Ship Island Excursions runs from here out to Ship Island, where Fort Massachusetts went up in 1859 and now belongs to the National Park Service. The deeper water past those islands is where the summer fish come from.
In July the grill follows the fishing calendar. Red snapper gets the shortest window and the most attention, and every one landed in Mississippi has to be reported through the state's Tails n' Scales program. Inshore, speckled trout must be 15 inches with 15 a day allowed, and redfish run 18 to 30 inches, three a day, with one over 30 allowed.
The rodeo since 1948
Captain Horace Towell started the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo in 1948, and the American Legion hosted it every year through 1957. In 1953 it was named the state's official fishing event, and Mississippi governors have since proclaimed the first week of July as Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo Days. It has always been held in Gulfport, though the site has moved over the years, from the Jessup Brothers tent to a Ringling Brothers circus tent to Rice Pavilion. Today Jones Park is its headquarters.
Registration has been free, and the rodeo has drawn more than 3,000 anglers a year across inshore, offshore and shark categories. Scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory take data and samples from the fish at the scales. The 78th rodeo ran July 2 to 5, 2026, with vendors, carnival rides and live music around the weigh station.
