John K. Flores: Local anglers go fishing for a good cause

Anglers in bay boats, bateaus, and bass boats of all shapes and sizes rolled up in front of Morgan City Municipal Auditorium to weigh their catch for a shot at some big money during the 11th Annual Morgan City Open Fishing Rodeo last Saturday.

For more than a decade, proceeds from the event have provided scholarships and support to students who attend South Louisiana Community College and Nicholls State University. Additionally, the MCOFR has supported other charitable causes that include the local Boy Scouts organization.

The annual rodeo is truly a community event made up of volunteers and established sponsors whose generosity continues to make the rodeo successful. What’s more, success that isn’t always measured in dollars paid out, but instead the smiles of contestants faces and the stories they share at the weigh in, win or lose.

Take Tim Aucoin and his partner Nell Topham. The two anglers entered the catfish division and were fishing at the mouth of Lake Palourde near the old PHI helicopter airport in Amelia.

Topham said she had caught only one catfish all day and pretty much was relegated to videographer duties while Aucoin caught.

Aucoin and Topham brought in two enormous blue catfish that looked like clones of each other. Aucoin, a slender man who had trouble holding up the two cats for a picture, yielded to Topham as the better storyteller when it came to sharing how the two catfish made it into the boat.

Topham said, “The first one he caught — the fat one — we had 50 pound test line and it broke the leader right at the boat. Tim leaned over and bear hugged the fish to get it in the boat. I was like ‘No way! No way!’”

“But that wasn’t the best story,” Topham continued. “On the next fish, the whole reel breaks off the rod. We got the pole up, so I grabbed the pole and I said, ‘Tim just pull it in by hand.’ So, Tim starts wrapping the line around one of the pipes in the back to get it in and we got it in! We got it in by hand.”

In the catfish division, fishermen are only allowed to weigh in one catfish of any species. Aucoin’s blue catfish weighed in at 26.50 pounds; good enough for third place and a check for $480. Red Griffin took second place in the catfish division with a 30.90 pound blue catfish.

Ernie Roe won first place in the catfish division with a 33.35 pound flat head catfish that he caught a little southeast of the Morgan City bridge he says. Roe’s big goujon was good for $720 in prize money.
Roe said he wasn’t expecting to catch a flat head catfish.

Roe said, “It actually surprised me, because we caught him on cut bait and I usually catch goujon on live bait. So, he did surprise me a little.”

Roe was sponsored by KQKI, but was there also representing Bayou Outdoors, a foundation that takes special needs children on hunting and fishing trips. Roe mentioned he lost a few fish that might have been bigger.

“We lost three fish that were bigger than anything we had in the boat — all blue cats. I suspect they were 45 to 50 pounds. We lost them right at the boat. One broke the line at the boat, because we were trying to net him and the net wasn’t big enough, so we were wrestling with him. And two of them the hook just pulled out right at the boat,” Roe said.

The most popular rodeo division each year is the redfish division. There were 47 entries this year of which 25 fishermen weighed in redfish. The highly competitive division saw 17 three-fish stringers that weighed in over 20 pounds.

Brad Matte took home first place honors and a check for $1,523 with 27.62 pounds of redfish. It’s noteworthy that Matte has placed first or second in the last four out of five years fishing the rodeo.

Matt D’Matteo weighed in 26.84 pounds, slightly over three quarters of a pound behind Matte. And, Dale Crochet finished in third place with 26.72 pounds.

Big redfish went to Mike Lambert, who weighed in a 12.70 pound red. Lambert’s big redfish and 26.20 pounds was good enough for fifth place on the leader board. Lambert was sight fishing around Dulac using soft plastics and spinner baits. His preferred plastic was “chicken on a chain.”

The trash fish division is always interesting, and anglers are only allowed to weigh in one fish. Typically, contestants in this division will weigh in garfish, gafftopsail catfish, black drum, and even stingrays.

This year’s unusual trash fish was a 19.22 pound jack crevalle, caught by Chad Vining. Vining took home first place in the speckled trout division weighing in five trout that weighed 12.12 pounds. Unfortunately, his jack crevalle was bested by Dale Tompkins’ 19.40 black drum by only .18 pound.

Big speckled trout was won by Jakob Dworaczyk. Dworaczyk’s trout weighed 2.84 pounds.

There were 21 entries this year in the bass division. Eddie Kimble’s five-fish stringer weighed 14.70 pounds and was worth $136 a fish or $680.

Adam Marceaux took second place in the bass division with 13.15 pounds. And, Alex Falcon took home third place. Falcon also won big bass with a 5.25 pound largemouth.

For more information on the MCOFR go to their website www.mcofr.com and while you’re at it, take a look at the long list of proud sponsors of the annual event.

John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net.