CYPREMORT POINT — If you weren’t fishing the South Marsh Island blocks Saturday, chances are you weren’t catching fish, or as many big fish as the people who were there hooked and boated on the first day of the 49th annual Kay-Cee Saltwater Fishing Rodeo.

Runabout Division skipper after skipper reported good catches there when they got back to fishing rodeo headquarters here at Quintana Canal. Among them were Ryan LaGrange on the Always Somethin’, David Laszczak on The Last Check, and Nick Trahan on the On Call 24/7.

Trahan’s 26-foot long Sea-Pro brought in big lemonfish that filled the wheelbarrow and dominated the leaderboard. Trahan, Bucky Hebert and Brad Claus, all of New Iberia, found the lemonfish hungry at SMI 269. One of them was a 55.5-pounder that vaulted into first place with two days left in the event.

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Trahan caught that beauty, the biggest fish so far and one that impressed fishermen and bystanders alike. It and the others bit on a chartreuse Norton Sand Eel on a 4-ounce white leadhead, he said.

“We caught three of them at one rig. We had two of them slappin’ on the deck at the same time. It was pandemonium,” Claus said.

That ling and a 35.6-pounder caught by Claus were one-two on the leaderboard.

LaGrange and his crew — Brock Daigle of New Iberia and Cody Pattillo of Loreauville — believe they missed a lemonfish that may have topped the biggest one off the Always Somethin’.

“We couldn’t gaff it. It wouldn’t tire out. The line wound up snapping,” Pattillo said.

“Yeah, we lost the lemon. There ought to be a lemon law,” LaGrange said ruefully.

The Always Somethin’, a 24-foot long Robalo, went about 65 miles out into the SMI field and came back into the Vermilion field, he said.

“It was beautiful weather and they were biting today. We just couldn’t land the big one,” he said.

They brought back a 14-pound red snapper that would have done something a few months ago in the Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo. But their jaws dropped when they saw the size of the red snapper on the leaderboard, with the biggest going 23.6 pounds.

“That’s a damned big snapper,” Daigle said in awe.

Buddy Bayard, Rip Molbert and Lindley Holleman on the Choctaw Trade Up owned the red snapper leaderboard. Their boat took the early lead for the Boat Captain’s Award, 407 to 268 over Sideline.

The Runabout Division’s Best All-Around Fisherman leader going into the second day was Jeff Dubois, with 175 points earned with first- and second-place white trout. C.J. Buteau was in second with 99 points while Trahan was third with 97.

Laszczak and his son, Zachary Laszczak, and daughter, Emily Laszczak, tried first at Tiger Shoals, where they heard the fish were biting, scratched and motored south to South Marsh Island 233 in his 23-foot Wellcraft. That turned out to be a good move.

“The fishing gods smiled on us today,” Laszczak said as he showed an ice chest that contained a handful of big, tasty pompano. “We had a ball. I kept asking the kids ‘Do you want to move? Do you want to move?’ No. They were having fun.”

Emily Laszczak put two Spanish mackerel on the board weighing 3.02 pounds and 3.00 pounds that got bumped off later in the afternoon on a busy day at fishing rodeo headquarters for chairman Larry Gaspard, co-chairman and weighmaster Ronnie Boudreaux, and weighmaster Randy Comeaux.

There was a steady stream of fish to the scales after they opened at noon. Then, at 5:20 p.m., nine more boats were running down Quintana Canal from Vermilion Bay.

Action heated up around the scales as most of those boats were in the Runabout Division.

Most of the damage already had been done in the Inside Division, where Kimberly Kapp’s 36.4-pound bull red was in first place and Cal Grevemberg checked in with a beauty of a speckled trout at 5.8 pounds. He weighed his ahead of Jeff Broussard’s 5.8-pounder.

The Inside Division’s biggest fish opening day was caught by Glenn St. Germain, whose 47.4-pound drum was 13 pounds heavier than the runner-up entry by Mike Rogers.

Jenny Carrier, however, is the angler to beat for individual honors in the Inside Division. Carrier, who has first-place flounder and croaker (2.12 and 1.15 pounds, respectively), amassed 66 points to Broussard’s 54. Mac Howell has 51.

The early leader for Best All-Around Fisherman in the Kids Division was Devin Gaspard, who racked up 82 points. Aaron Thibodeaux and Courtland Parr are behind him with 62 and 60 points, respectively.

Scales open today at noon and close at 6 p.m. They reopen Monday at 8 a.m. and close once and for all at 3 p.m.