Page 58 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2023

SPORTS & OUTDOORS
58 | October 2023
www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living
story by John N. Felsher photos courtesy of Mississippi Gulf Coast
Billfish Classic
Situated between Florida and the fabled fishing waters off the Mississippi River Delta in Louisiana, the Mississippi Coast stayed in the shadows of big-game fishing. That changed in 1997.
“My dad, Bobby Carter, worked as a casino host bringing high rollers to Mississippi,” recalls Robbie Carter, the event director for Classic Fishing Events, which organizes major saltwater fishing tournaments along the Gulf Coast. “Biloxi was overlooked by the billfishing world at that time. Anglers that ran out of Biloxi were fishing the same waters that the Louisiana boats fished.”
In 1997, the first Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic took place in Biloxi. That year, 60 boats brought in eight blue marlin. They also tagged and released white marlin and sailfish. The tournament paid out $300,000. People began to take notice.
“We had fishing rodeos on the coast back then, but nothing of this scale,” Carter says. “Now, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic is widely known as the premier billfish tournament in the entire Gulf of Mexico.”
A Classic Event
Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic Makes Waves in the World of Big Game Fishing