The Destin Fishing Rodeo

If you happen to be driving through Destin in October, the whole harbor is caught up in a ritual that has run for generations, the Destin Fishing Rodeo. It began in nineteen forty eight, invented by townspeople with a very practical goal, to give visitors a reason to come to a small, out of the way fishing village. Its founders soon realized they could stretch the tourist season by another whole month if they moved the event to the fall.

So the rodeo shifted to October, and there it has stayed. Today it runs every single day, from the first of October through the thirty first, a month long saltwater fishing tournament drawing thousands of anglers of every age. Boats compete to bring the biggest catch to the scales in dozens of categories, from king mackerel to triggerfish, and crowds gather on the docks each afternoon just to watch the day's fish weighed in.

It has grown into one of the longest continuously running fishing competitions in the United States, and it did exactly what its founders hoped. It turned Destin's fishing reputation into a season that never quite ends.