Destin icon looking to celebrate its tenth year hosting Destin Fishing ...

For AJ?s owner Alan Laird, the past 10 years has been full of fun, fish and memories as his harborfront restaurant has been home to the Destin Fishing Rodeo.

?I had to ask if it had been 10 years,? Laird told The Log from the deck of his 1964, wood boat, The Tica. ?I guess it?s the old saying, ?time flies when you are having fun;? and we have certainly done that.? ?

Originally from Virginia, Laird has been in business in ?The World?s Luckiest Fishing Village? for 26 years and has been a part of the rodeo since 2002.

In the early days of his involvement, the rodeo?s hosts were only allowed to sign two-year contracts for the Destin tradition. Now, the rodeo is amending its bylaws to allow a five-year extension, which may keep the rodeo at AJ?s for the next half-decade.

While AJ?s had never hosted a tournament before signing on, Laird said they had the passion and love for the community to make their involvement top notch.

?As with everything that represents AJ?s, we always try and be the one by which others are judged,? Laird said.

While the event is truly centered on the fishing, Laird said he would never underestimate the importance of the crowds that gather on the bleachers behind AJ?s to watch the fish come in.

?I have never seen such a following for a spectator sport in which you are not watching the actual event,? he said.

With 10 years of rodeo action behind him, there are too many memories to count for Laird, but there will always be images etched into his mind. Some of his favorites include seeing the smiles on children?s faces as they weigh in their first fish, watching the lady anglers, the family unity of fathers and sons/daughters fishing and former Mayor Ken Beaird pulling in a 297.5-pound Warsaw grouper in 2002.

One thing that AJ?s has always done is to give each young angler who weighs in a fish a Zebco 202 fishing pole. The goal, Laird says, is ?getting kids hooked on fishing.?

??If you get someone hooked on fishing, they will be a fisherman for life,? he said. ?Fishing is not going to go away, at least if I can help it.?

As part of his commitment to keep fishing alive and well in Destin, Laird has taken the old Baby J?s floating eatery and transformed it into a 75-foot artificial reef, which he plans to sink about 16 to 20 miles out of Destin.

?Baby J?s seems to be a nemesis I cannot get rid of,? Laird chuckled as he talked about the controversial floating eatery that brought about threats of litigation and orders from City Hall to shut it down. ?We are putting it out as the AJ?s/Kerry Ricks Memorial Reef.?

The reef will be in memory of deckhand Kerry Ricks, who passed away during the month of October a few years back.

Laird plans for the reef to be open to the public in a year. The reef has 20 chicken coops and various holes for grouper and vertical structures for amberjack.

?It?s going to be one strong fish-producing reef,? he said.

Given all of the memories over the past 10 years, Laird said he couldn?t imagine AJ?s and the rodeo not joined at the hip. He went as far as jokingly saying he would take the entire month of October off and leave town if he wasn?t part of the rodeo.

?That would really hurt my feelings,? he said. ?That?s just what this means to me, my company and my people.?

Destin?s history is based on fishing and that?s why Laird says the fishing rodeo appeals to so many people. And for those who have never been, he encourages them to come on down and see what they are missing.

?Fishing is life?s simplest pleasure, so come join us at the rodeo and at AJ?s,? he said. ?Come share our culture, our history and our heritage; this is generations and generations of what Destin was built on.?

Source: http://www.thedestinlog.com/news/destin-19241-rodeo-fishing.html

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