June 4-8, 2008

Welcome to the
Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic

“Early Bird Incentive continues throughout May”

Register in May and you can still win the $5,000 "Early Bird" incentive drawing. Registrations submitted during the month of May receive one ticket into the drawing. Boats registering after May 31, 2008 will not be placed into the drawing. Get your entry forms in now!

“Circle Hook Changes for 2008:”

In support of NOAA's decision to require the use of non-offset circle hooks when using live, natural or natural artificial lure combinations in all billfish tournaments, we have amended the tournament rules to include these circle hook requirements. However, anglers who use pure artificial lures may continue to use the traditional J-style hooks since there is a high survival rate for billfish caught and released using this method.

“Big Fish and Big Bucks”

The Mississippi Gulf Coast is the place to go for great casino gaming, top notch hotels and fantastic food. But did you know that the Mississippi Gulf Coast is one of the great areas to go for sport fishing? The area along the Mississippi Gulf Coast Mississippi has some of the richest fishing grounds that make it the hot spot for big game fishing. Don’t feel bad that you were missing out on the all of the fishing excitement! Many locals were trying to keep it a secret.

Here’s another little known fact to put on the map for everyone to know. The fact is that off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, are big fish as in big Billfish!

It was these secret fishing facts that drew Bobby Carter and Bill McLellan together one afternoon on the back of a boat of a mutual friend. It was on this boat that Bill and Bobby created the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic.

Since its start in 1997, this annual event, hosted by the Isle of Capri Casino in Biloxi, MS, has become the premier billfishing tournament of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic sports a reputation for having large blue marlin, powerful tuna, aggressive dolphin, and lightning quick wahoo. It also is known as the tournament where records are broken and where big boats catch big fish for big bucks.

Why is this tournament so lucky with big fish? It all begins with the water flowing from the mouth of the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. This water is full of nutrients and grass that creates a bait fish a habit to live in and under. Add on that there are some 1000 oil rigs stirring the Western Gulf of Mexico which in turn also attracts bait fish. Together, this combination is what makes the area special.

When the Classic was started, Bobby and Bill knew it take some time for their first class tournament to earn its reputation but in its first year, 1997 that thought went to the wayside when Shannon Faulkner, a then 17 year old from Winder, GA., established the Mississippi state blue marlin record with a blue weighing in at 631.8 pounds.

Faulkner's catch broke an 18-year-old state record of 485 pounds. That catch allowed the vessel, “Never Content,” to take home more than $130,000, setting the bar at a high level for future tournaments while drawing 10,000 fans to the weigh-ins.

In 1999, the Classic became a qualifying event for the prestigious World Billfish Series and the IGFA Invitational Rolex Tournament of Champions. It also marked another Mississippi state record when Bob Struwe landed a 837.1 pound bluefin tuna to give the Classic two state records in three years.

With the tournament purse increasing to nearly $1 million, the 2001 Classic featured 100 boats and its third state record. This tournament, which featured a 529.7 pound blue marlin, saw Rob Landingham and the boat 'She's the One', set a new yellowfin tuna record at 205.8 pounds. Landingham, however, finished second in the event when team Mollie, a Biloxi based boat, tipped the scales with a 445.4 pound bluefin tuna.

To make things even more impressive, the 2001 event saw 27 blue marlin, five white marlin and two sailfish tagged and released.

The 2002 Classic lived up to its name and truly went down as a Classic when Barry Carr set a new Mississippi as well as Gulf of Mexico record with a mammoth 1,054.6 pound blue marlin. The catch came less than 11 months after another Grander was caught in the Gulf of Mexico.

The 2003 and '04 Classics drew 110 and 106 boats respectively with the '04 tournament toppling more than $1 million in payouts. With excitement growing on a yearly basis, even a monster storm like Hurricane Katrina could not keep the Classic grounded. The tournament never missed a beat and moved forward in 2006, 10 months after Katrina. Then, in a remarkable show of support for the Biloxi area, the 2007 Classic drew 98 boats to prove the Gulf of Mexico, along with the gaming excitement at the Isle of Capri Casino, makes the tournament a can't miss event.