BILOXI — Day 2 of the 61st Annual Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo was all about the cobia.

The cobia shootout took center stage Friday for one of the most popular species the northern Gulf of Mexico has to offer.

Based on a format where boats are allowed to weigh two cobia each, the winner would be determined by an aggregate weight of the fish.

When the scales came to a close at 6 p.m, a 20-pound, 13-ounce cobia was the winner and Warren McCaleb of Woolmarket earned a check for $850.

“I would have never thought one fish would win,” McCaleb said. “And we ran more than 150 miles for the fish.’’

The winning cobia was caught 65 miles south of Point Cadet on a live eel.

“We just happened to see the fish come to the surface,’’ McCaleb said. “We were getting ready to leave when he came up. We had an eel in the live well and he didn’t think twice.’’

One state record fell Friday when Andrew Odom of Vancleave weighed a 20-pound, 13-ounce blacknose shark.

Odom caught the fish in Fort Bayou, which is on the north side of Ocean Springs.

“We were in Fort Bayou,’’ Odom said. “We were killing time, fishing with friends. We were using dead shrimp, hoping to catch a fish.

“We had no idea we would catch a shark. We were fishing near Mikey’s (On the Bayou).’’

In the blackfish division, Terry Crawley, a past rodeo winner, took over the first place at 17 pounds, six ounces.

Crawley, who won in 2002 and ‘03, caught the fish off Dauphin Island using live shrimp.

“We caught a lot of triple tail,’’ he said. “That one was caught off a ship wreck in 10-to-12 feet of water using a five- or six-inch live shrimp.

“I knew he was there because we saw him come up.’’

Crawley also predicted his fish would not hold up through Sunday when the rodeo comes to an end.

“We catch bigger fish than that,’’ he said. “We will be back here on Sunday with a bigger one. No question about that.’’

In other top catches, Adam Amacker of Wiggins weighed a 27-pound, 15-ounce catfish to go with a six-pound, six-ounce green trout.

Amacker, a 16-year-old junior at Stone High School, made the catch in a private lake while participating in his second Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo.

The first-place green trout, 10 pounds, five ounces, belongs to Samantha Belsome of Poplarville.

Belsome knocked Amacker out of first place in the final minutes of Thursday’s round. .

“I knew he (catfish) was a good fish when I hooked it,’’ Amacker said. “It was pretty easy to tell by the way it fought.

“The bass, I guess I’ll try to catch a bigger one, now.’’

Today’s round features the children’s rodeo from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the speckled trout and redfish shootouts.

Posted on www.sunherald.com on July 3, 2009