It’s not the Florida Lottery or even Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes, but the chances of winning are better.

The name of the game in town for this year’s Rodeo is Mingo Bingo. And the chips for the board are a cousin of the area’s signature red snapper.

The 60th annual Destin Fishing Rodeo has added “a little more fun” to the month-long fishing event, which kicks off Wednesday behind AJ’s Seafood and Oyster Bar.

“This all came about because we were not sure whether we were going to have snapper or not for the Rodeo,” said Executive Director

Helen Donaldson, noting all the new regulations and early closings for the snapper season.

“We looked for something else to target instead,” she said.

And the mingo, also known as a vermilion snapper, was the fish of choice.

The rosy red fish typically weighs less than a pound and can be found in deep waters fraternizing with red snapper.

“It’s plentiful and everybody can catch them on any size boat,” she said.

The way the Mingo Bingo works is the angler who brings in the heaviest stringer of mingo each day scores a 12-pack of beer.

With this being the 60th Rodeo, Donaldson said the board was looking back at some of the prizes that were given away in some of the first Rodeos. On the list were things like one windshield wiper, six cans of beer and even a lot of land in Destin.

The one wiper blade didn’t seem to be enough, and the land was too expensive. So the 12-pack of beer was a good fit, she said.
Budweiser will be donating the beer each day for the winner.

In addition to the angler winning the Bud, the captain of the winning angler each day will get his name put up on a Mingo Bingo board, much like a bingo card. A number will be drawn from a hat at the end of each week and the captain on the lucky number will be the Mingo Bingo winner and will snag a weekly award.

“I’m really excited about it,” Donaldson said. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

— Tina Harbuck

MINGO BINGO begins today as the rodeo opens.

Rodeo Time
Scales open Wednesday at 10 a.m. behind AJ’s and closes at 7 p.m.

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