Offshore sweep

By Don Shoopman
The Daily Iberian
Published/Last Modified on Monday, July 6, 2009 2:08 PM CDT

CYPREMORT POINT ” The hard-fishing “Erectors” crew missed a beat last Fourth of July when it was unable to fish the Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo’s Offshore Division.

And then the 36-foot long Luhrs and all the other boats were sidelined when the Kay-Cees Saltwater Fishing Rodeo was postponed not once but twice last fall by the impact of Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike.

Erectors skipper Bridgette Greer and her crew more than made up for lost time this past weekend when they rolled to a sweep of the major awards in the 56th annual IR&GC Saltwater Fishing Rodeo. It owned the leaderboard with 19 places and boasted the Boat Captain’s Award and the Best All-Around Fisherman.

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Erectors unloaded its catch just before midday on the third and final day of the event headquartered at Quintana Canal. The big boat was one of only a handful that showed in the heat, including the last hour before the scales closed at 1 p.m.

“It feels good (to win the title). We missed last year’s tournament because we weren’t in for the tournament,” Greer said before she and her crew received their trophies.

“We came back this year and picked up David Ditch and he definitely carried his weight. He bought some energy to the team.”

Ditch’s energy resulted in eight fish on the final leaderboard, including first-place blackfin tuna (25.3 pounds), bonita (11.2 pounds), king mackerel (38.0 pounds) and triggerfish (3.8 pounds). He also had runner-up bluefish (2.2 pounds) and third-place king mackerel (19.8 pounds), bluefish (2.2 pounds) and dolphin (2.5 pounds).

The fishing rodeo’s top skipper and top fisherman were thankful for favorable weather conditions that allowed them to fish as far offshore as the Garden Banks, including the Salsa and Enchilada, the latter which gave up blackfin tuna and barracuda that the boat swept the boards ” Todd Mourain (26.2 and 13.7 pounds) and Cynthia Joubert (18.6 pounds).

“We got lucky with the weather this weekend,” Ditch said. “This year’s forecast looked calm. We decided to give it a shot. It was slick calm, calm the whole time, the calmest we’ve fished in a long time.”

Erectors also swept the blackfin tuna, bluefish, king mackerel and triggerfish categories. Chad Pesson also fished on the winning boat and accounted for three of its fish.

While Erectors was whipping up on the Offshore Division competition, a 13-year-old girl whose skipper decided to take her and her mom fishing won the Junior Division’s Best All-Around Fisher(wo)man.

Alyssa Broussard, a student at Center Street Elementary School, burst into the lead Saturday and never let go to finish with an unbeatable 839 points. She was followed by Kyle Khamphilovang, with 638 points, and Taylor Hebert, the defending champion, with 608.

Broussard fished with Ronnie Dore Jr. and her mother Natalie LeBlanc aboard his 21-foot aluminum boat “Priority One.” The Junior Division’s champion fished the first two days and wanted to fish Sunday but couldn’t wake up the skipper in time to get a reasonable start, he said.

“I was tired and hot,” Broussard said about the first two days on the water. “It was hard to catch fish and it was very hot. I wanted to go back today but we got up late.”

She finished with a winning garfish at 24.5 pounds, a runner-up flounder at 2.6 pounds and a runner-up sheepshead at 2.6 pounds. They fished mostly around Marsh Island, Dore said.

The Runabout Division’s Best All-Around Fisherman was Lenny Delcambre, who skippered his boat “Southbound,” a 27-foot long Gravois hull that also carried his son Brandon Delcambre, Kevin Miller, Tim Vice and Vice’s son Talmon Vice into the Gulf of Mexico.

Lenny Delcambre, a veteran of these fishing rodeos, racked up 10.8 points to edge out Brandon Walmsley’s 9.0 points.

However, the Delcambres were unable to attend the awards ceremony after the scales closed Sunday. Tim Vice said there was an illness in the family and the men were at a local hospital.

Vice was happy for the Best All-Around Fisherman.

“He’s been wanting to get that. He’s never got that and he was excited about the possibility,” he said. “It’ll be a good thing for a good man.”

Brennan Bishop was the top boat captain in the Runabout Division. He fished with Chris Bishop, Bret Bishop, Corbin Bishop and Walmsley and scored 19.6 points with the “Southern Hunter,” a 30-foot long Grady White, to claim the cup over the Southbound.

“We had a great crew. We always have a good crew,” Brennan Bishop said.

“We fished across the whole everything. We fished everywhere. Most of our fish were probably in 100-foot of water,” he said.

Comments

    Curious wrote on Jul 10, 2009 5:44 PM:

    " Where do you turn in your Money Vouchers that were given out as Prizes from the rodeo?
    At first we thought it was a check, but it is only a voucher. "

    Julia Carline wrote on Jul 6, 2009 2:50 PM:

    " Alyssa is actually 10yrs old. "

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