DAUPHIN ISLAND, Alabama -- A unicorn filefish, a sharpnose sevengill shark, and a humungous, rainbow-colored longtail sea bass are just a few of the fish entered for the title of "most unusual" at the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo over the years.
"One of the most fun things we ever did here at the Rodeo is started that category," said Dr. Bob Shipp, research professor of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama. Shipp serves as one of the Rodeo's three judges, accompanied by Dr. Sean Powers and Dr. Will Patterson, also professors in the department.
"Even before we had the category, people would bring stuff in - they didn't know what it was," Shipp added. "We decided, let's have a category for it, make some pretty substantial prizes."
After the "most unusual" category was added in the mid 1980s, fishermen started specifically targeting strange fish. Between 30 and 40 species are brought in every Rodeo which qualify for the category, Shipp estimated - but sometimes the number goes as high as 50 to 60 species.
"Normally when somebody's fishing in 500 feet of water they got a great big hook and all the rest," Shipp said. "But some of these people will put down lines with multiple small hooks on them, just to target the little, tiny species that live down there in those great depths, but you never would see them otherwise."
The Rodeo has become a major source of fish skeletons for museums around the world, with Alabama's oddball fish ending up in London, Paris, Chicago, New York, and more.
"Skeletons are what fish scientists use to study evolution," Shipp explained. "So this is a bonanza -- this is a honey hole."
Mobile native Brad Williamson was the angler who landed a gargantuan longtail bass on Saturday, and he's drawn to the Rodeo by the variety he can find.
"That's why we like to get out in Louisiana and go to the deep water," he said. "There's no telling what you're going to catch. It seems like it's something different every time."
Williamson caught the bass 25 to 30 miles out of Venice Marina, La. He was bottom fishing using a double rig, baited with squid.
Thanks to fishermen like Williamson, who continue to adventure further out and search for unusual catches, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab has something to be proud of, according to Shipp.
"It's made our fish collection one of the best on the Gulf Coast," he said.
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