“Come here,” says Rodeo weighmaster Bruce Cheves, motioning me over to look out toward Destin’s East Pass. “You see those rocks? You see how high those waves are coming up on those rocks? Yeah, when you’re out there and you get past those rocks, the fun-meter drops to zero.”

The wind is the story again today down on the docks. Yesterday a combination of driving rain, occasional lightning, and gale force winds kept the docks quiet. But the day wasn’t a total wash.

The biggest catch of the day yesterday was this 16.2-pound wooden plank complete with barnacles, an angler retrieved from the harbor and Cheves weighed.

“We tried to gut it but we didn’t have a Skil saw,” Cheves riffed.

Today’s count is up to five fish as two lady anglers aboard the Perfect Shot weighed in a 12.2-pound grouper and a 2.6-pound triggerfish, to compliment the trio of red snapper that came in moments earlier on the Lucky Lina.

Destin City Manager Greg Kisela, Destin Fire Control District Commissioner Jimmy Neilson and Lt. Col. Hank Casteline from Eglin Air Force Base are the Rodeo’s volunteer judges for the rest of the night and if this afternoon is any indication they might be in need of some company, so stop down and pay them a visit.

Rodeo officials are hoping for a calm, quiet, gorgeous weekend with the Rootin’ Tootin’ Rodeo Round-Up happening Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon at the Okaloosa Island Fishing Pier.

-Patrick Donohue

That’s the number of fish weighed in yesterday during a blustery, stormy Day 16 of the Destin Fishing Rodeo.

Things haven’t picked up dramatically down on the docks thus far. But we do have an entry, which is more than we can say for yesterday’s washout.

Jackson Hamblen’s 2.6-pound red snapper — weighed in earlier today — was the first entry in the Destin Fishing Rodeo in the past two days.

The junior angler from Dunlap, Tenn., was fishing aboard the Lucky Lina when he caught his snapper.

It’s a deceptively nice day in Destin with blue skies, sunshine and 15 mph wind out of the southeast that could make the Gulf of Mexico and Choctawhatchee Bay a little bumpy for anglers today.

-Patrick Donohue