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“Did y’all get beat up today?” “That’s an understatement.”

Variations on the exchange could be heard repeatedly throughout Friday afternoon, as Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo volunteers welcomed boats to the docks at the weigh station on Dauphin Island. The words, and their suitability for print, varied — but the takeaway was always the same: The tropical depression that wasn’t, that might have blanketed the Alabama coast with monsoon conditions but didn’t, still made things spicy out there on opening day.

Scattered storms had passed through the area Friday morning, and while rain hadn’t been a big problem, the accompanying winds had made for choppy seas offshore. That prospect likely daunted many crews, but others embraced it. In the latter cohort were Glenn Wilson and Zackary Jernigan, who weighed in two sizeable jack crevalle they’d caught south of Fort Morgan.

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Yes, it was rough out there, said Wilson. And because they were in a 17-foot flats boat, he said, “we got every bit of it.”

Still, they hit the dock with a mission-oriented mindset: “Weigh these, go back, catch some more.”

John Rollins described a “nasty” chop with plenty of four-foot waves and a few six-footers mixed in.

“If you’re scared, you can stay on the couch,” said Hunter Greene, who hit the weigh station with fishing partners Lance and Blake Stringer, and a trio of impressive tripletail. “It was wind, waves, rain, sunburn all in one.”

Action at the weigh station was unusually slow until about 4 p.m. even for opening day. By that point, though, the sun had been out for hours and the threat of incoming weather had faded away. The boats were lining up.

By then it was becoming clear, as always, that the Rodeo isn’t just for tough-talking grownups. Youngsters were lining up at the display case where some of the fish brought in are kept on ice for observers to examine and touch. Others were weighing in fish of their own. Seven-year-old Corbin Kirkland toted a bucket of white trout along the dock for a crew that included his dad and sister, Nathan and Kadynce Kirkland, and another adult, Peter Breland.

Matt Glass, a former Rodeo president now serving as chairman of the board and a member of the rules committee, said the signs pointed to a successful year despite the slow start.

The previous weekend’s Roy Martin Young Anglers Tournament had set records with about 1,200 tickets sold. Glass said a preliminary count showed at least 3,400 had been sold for this year’s ADSFR, meaning it might surpass the more than 3,600 sold in 2024.

He wasn’t surprised to see light turnout on Friday, considering how ominous some forecasts had been. He said he thought many participants, including most shark fishers, were “using today as a day to prepare to fish.” (An hour after the weigh station closed, the online leaderboard showed only one tiger shark and one bull shark had been weighed in.)

A chance of heavy rains remained in forecasts, though there was reason to hope things would settle down as the weekend progressed.

“Sunday, if it holds off like this, it’s going to be slammed,” Glass said. “It’s going to be crazy.”

The ADSFR continues through 5 p.m. Sunday. For full Rodeo information, including a live leaderboard, visit www.adsfr.com. For updates, visit www.facebook.com/ADSFR.