Rodeo first-timer Ryan Fisher, an angler out of Nashville, Tenn., lived up to his name Sunday night.

Fisher caught an 8.4-pound red snapper for the top spot on the daily leaderboard.

When Rodeo volunteer Richard Laedeke went to gut the prize-winning catch, he got a surprise. He cut his finger on a 6-aught hook in the fish’s belly and immediately stuck his hand in a bucket of half bleach and half water to cleanse the wound. It’s part of the perils of the job, he said.

The hook wasn’t the strangest thing Richard has found in a fish’s gullet.

“I’ve found beer cans in big groupers,” he said. “You just never know. When something flashes at ’em, they just inhale it.

“They usually regurgitate that stuff,” he added.

About a half-hour later, Fisher was bumped by Don Barry, a fisherman from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, who angled himself a 16.6-pounder.

Gary Walters, a tourist from Denver, Colo., was one of about 50 people huddled under the covered bleachers at AJ’s. For the past three weeks, he and a buddy have been quasi-professional rodeo spectators — and bettors. He was spot on with the 16.6-pound snapper, his second guess on the nose for the evening. So far he has won $18 from his friends.

“I got real lucky on that one.”

Earlier, John Funk hit the top spot on the leaderboard for shark fishing by tagging and releasing 11 of the fish so far. Funk, who says he has won the category about 12 years in a row, caught six of the fish Sunday.
Funk and his boat the Shark Hunter are gunning for the guys that hauled in the rodeo-record breaking 844.4-pound mako shark. He says he has fought big sharks like that monster for hours and that they were “lucky as hell” to land it.

“Lucky is better than good any day, eh?” he said.

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