Tuna trifecta for rodeo

CYPREMORT POINT -- Getting out on the high seas, the deep blue, is a passion for a young bluewater fisherman from Lafayette.

Lee Bishop, born and raised in Jeanerette, was in his element during the Fourth of July weekend while guiding his 25-foot Contender far offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Bishop and his fishing buddies — Jordan Davis of Lafayette, Barrett Broussard of Houston, formerly of Lafayette, and Matt Oge of Lafayette — returned with yellowfin tuna big enough to sweep the top three places in that Offshore Division category of the 55th annual Iberia Rod & Gun Club’s Saltwater Fishing Rodeo.

Bishop definitely has the spirit of adventure. His boat motored to the Green Canyon area, where the B-Redi’s captain and crew fished 6,000-foot depths 110 nautical miles from Southwest Pass.

The crew drifted live bait behind the boat Friday and caught some yellowfin tuna that drew ooohs and ahhhs Sunday afternoon at fishing rodeo headquarters, Quintana Canal.

The biggest of those delicious fish weighed 119.6 pounds and was hooked and reeled in by Broussard. Oge’s 94.3-pound yellowfin tuna was second while Davis had an 86.6-pounder to complete the boat’s sweep of all three places.

Those were the fish they targeted the first day. But one other species might have made the board, Bishop said.

“I had a bull mahi (dolphin) about 25 pounds. I cleaned it. I didn’t realize ... I didn’t think it’d made the board. We also picked up lemon (lemonfish) and small snapper, but nothing spectacular,” he said about bottom fishing on the way back Saturday.

No one on the B-Redi seemed to mind that the boat’s ice chest had nothing else to go on the leaderboard in the Offshore Division, where the Best All-Around Fisherman was Britt Schoeffleur and the Boat Captain’s Award went to Happy Buteaux of Jeanerette.

“Oh, yeah, it was worth it. It was a blast,” Broussard said.

“It was overcast, nice and cool, very calm. We had to bump the motors to keep the bait from going under the boat,” Bishop said about the holiday weekend outing.

Catching tuna and marlin thrills him, he said.

“I do it quite often, actually. I like to get out to blue water,” Bishop said.

How often? Well, he prefished the Tuesday before the fishing rodeo with Ron Segura of New Iberia, Luke Landry of Luling and Chris Helveston of Lafayette. They caught 10 yellowfin tuna and tagged blue marlin on that “scouting” trip.

“I wanted to make sure where the fish were. I knew where they lived and what their diet was” when the fishing rodeo began, he said.

Between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Friday, “the bite was hot,” Bishop said in an understatement.

The yellowfin tuna were going wild for the natural bait he and the crew offered. What was it?

“Live hardtails,” Bishop said. “We call them tuna crack. They’re small — the size of your hand. Tuna can’t resist them.”

“A good friend of mine, Chris Helveston, caught two blue blue marlins and four yellowfin tuna,” Bishop said, noting a 500-pound blue marlin was tagged and released by Helveston’s boat, which was fishing near B-Redi.

The B-Redi skipper and crew’s enthusiasm was shared by dozens of anglers who fished the event that began on the Fourth of July and ended a week ago today. Fishermen went with family, especially their children, and friends.

Their commitment matched that of the fishing rodeo committee members who manned the scales and all-important books, sold cold beverages and hot sandwiches and raised money for their organization, the conservation watchdog for Iberia Parish.

Everyone who went out one or more of those days and nights was a winner, regardless if they put fish on the scales.

The big winners were the Best All-Around Fishermen and the skippers who got the Boat Captain’s Award. In theJunior Division, she was Taylor Hebert. In the Inside Division, they were Mike O’Brien and Joshua St. Germain, skipper of No Mo Money. In the Runabout Division, they were Chris Bishop and his older brother Brennan Bishop on the Southern Hunter. In the Offshore Division, they were Britt Schoeffleur and Happy Buteaux on Sideline.