CYPREMORT POINT -- Five minutes after the scales opened Friday for the Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo, a Lydia fisherman weighed a redfish that looked like a winner in the Inside Division.

Chris Kapp, 71 years young, went out alone in the Sea Cat, his 23-foot long aluminum boat (his son Kirk Kapp went in another boat, Groove Dog) to fish for bull reds at Boxcar Reef. The elder Kapp got the one he wanted at mid-morning.

His 34.8-pound bull red, which had the distinction of being the first fish to be weighed in for the conservation club’s 55th annual holiday weekend event, jumped to the top of the leaderboard, where it stayed through the first day. It was one of many fish, big and small, to hit the scales on a fairly busy opening day at fishing rodeo headquarters, Quintana Canal.

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“It was pretty darned good, man. It was a good first day. I knew with the Inside Division we’d be pretty busy because I knew we’d have a lot of Inside boats and the Runabouts weren’t coming in to beat the time,” said fishing rodeo chairman Chad LeBlanc. About 45 fishermen weighed fish between 2-6 p.m. opening day.

Kapp believes his bull red may be a couple pounds too light to finish first under the onslaught of some of the best bull red fishermen in the Teche Area.

“It’s a little doubtful,” he said.

It was the biggest bull red he and his son in the other boat caught Friday, he said about the redfish that bit on a cut mullet.

“We caught a few but that was the biggest one. Most of them were around 27, 28 pounds,” he said. He also weighed in a 27 1/2-pound drum that didn’t stay on the leaderboard.

“We left at 6 this morning and came in about 1:30. It looked like the bite had stopped. Things got real slow,” he said.

The Kapps planned to go out each day of the three-day contest. They’ll target redfish and drum.

“I don’t know if we’ll go after speckles (speckled trout),” said Chris Kapp, a retired production foreman at Morton Salt.

With two days left in the first major saltwater fishing rodeo of the year, one camp here was celebrating early leads for an individual title and a boat captain’s title.

Wily veteran Don St. Germain of Jeanerette, who’s staying at his camp this summer, guided his daughter Lisa St. Germain Hebert and granddaughter Taylor Hebert around in the Lil Saint and came in with the youngster smiling ear to ear before the 6 p.m. weigh-in Friday. The 12-year-old had four fish on the Junior Division leaderboard after the scales closed to forge ahead in the race for Best All-Around Junior Division Fisherman.

Hebert finished the day with first-place redfish (26.8 pounds) and sheepshead (3.4 pounds), second-place drum (19.8 pounds) and third-place croaker (.72 pounds).

“It was fun,” Hebert said about catching the redfish. “They thought it was a shark.”

She led with 332 points. Wesley Arnold, with 253 points, and Taylor Evans, with 144 points, trail her in the Junior Division.

St. Germain’s grandsons made their mark on the fishing rodeo, too, with enough fish aboard their boat No Mo Money to establish themselves as the crew to beat for the Boat Captain’s Award in the Inside Division. Heith St. Germain, captain, and Joshua St. Germain, co-captain, fished with their father Glenn St. Germain and fishing buddies Brock Pellerin and T.J. Bonin.

Heith St. Germain said his crew was fortunate to catch a variety of fish to take the lead for top boat in the Inside Division. Glenn St. Germain had a first-place flounder (2.11 pounds), Joshua St. Germain had a second-place white trout (.42 pounds) and Heith St. Germain had a second-place drum (36.5 pounds).

The Inside Division’s Best All-Around Fisherman race was leaning to Mike O’Brien, who put a 5.4-pound speckled trout on the scale. The fish was in first place along with his .89-pound white trout.

O’Brien led with 194 points, followed by Ryan Bonin and Riley Muffoletto with 154 points apiece.