Jacob LeBlanc, left, 13, holds a nice-sized redfish and a speckled trout while fishing Sunday on the second day of the 53rd annual Kay-Cee Saltwater Fishing Rodeo with his father Michael LeBlanc, right, and Kent Delcambre. LeBlanc has led wire-to-wire over the first two days in the race for Best All-Around Fisherman in the Inside Division. - Don Shoopman / The Daily Iberian

CYPREMORT POINT — Croaker fishing masters young and old are coming out in force this holiday weekend for the 53rd annual Kay-Cee Saltwaer Fishing Rodeo.

But it is a nice-sized sheepshead that may make the difference in the Kids Division. It hit the scale Sunday, the second day of the fishing rodeo, and helped 13-year-old Jacob LeBlanc of New Iberia open up what was a tight race in his bid to win the Best All-Around Fisherman title. Going into the third and final day today, LeBlanc has 237 points to New Iberian Cameron Hebert’s 219.

After the first day, LeBlanc led Hebert, 102-100. He tacked on the one and only sheepshead to hold first place in that category and added 3.05-pound, first-place speckled trout while Hebert added a 9.1-pound redfish that slipped into third behind her 10-pounder in first and LeBlanc’s runnerup 9.7-pounder.

LeBlanc, who is home schooled, fished for the second day with his father Michael LeBlanc and Kent Delcambre of New Iberia aboard the LeBlancs’ Outcast, a 20-foot long Century. Fishing success wasn’t that good, according to the elder LeBlanc.

“Everything’s in our favor. We had the tide. The water was gorgeous. There just ain’t no fish. Everybody’s struggling to catch fish,” he said after fishing at Shell Keys and Nickel Reef.

“We bounced around a lot trying to catch fish. We ended up with probably seven redfish and a couple of speckled trout,” he said. “We caught some white trout but that don’t count. We’ll try it again tomorrow.”

So will the boat carrying Hebert, a 10-year-old student at North Lewis Elementary School. She was out with her parents Trent and Suzie Hebert and younger brother Micah Hebert, 3.

Trent Hebert, who wrested the lead away from Brooks Amy in the race for the Inside Division Best All-Around Fisherman on Sunday, said the bites were harder to come by on the second day of the fishing rodeo, which ends today at 1 p.m. Scales will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“It was a little slower. We didn’t move the boat today. We parked it and sat there from 7 (a.m.) to 3 (p.m.),” he said about their day of fishing in The Worm, where they also fished Saturday.

Hebert’s accumulated points total 134. He is followed in the standings by Amy, who has 122. They were tied for first with 64 points when the scales closed Saturday.

Despite the relative lack of action, Hebert said his crew had another good family outing.

“It’s always fun. I can’t complain,” he said.

Some nice croaker hit the leaderboards Sunday when young Mason Ditch, 5, weighed a 2.80-pounder that shot top the leaderboard in the Kids Division and the Miss Ellie Voodoo’s Karl Rouly and Brady Larive swept the category in the Inside Division.

Ditch’s first-place fish was caught while fishing with his father Chris Ditch, his younger brother Gunner Ditch, 2, his grandfather Dr. Carl Ditch, and his uncle Scott Ditch aboard the Wholesailor, a 26-foot Grady White.

Chris Ditch said the bull croaker bit on a shrimp on the bottom while they were fishing at Trash Pile.

“He hooked it and reeled it in. He was happy as he could be. When he saw that croaker he said ‘Get the net, get the net!’” he said.

Rouly and Larive fished in Rouly’s 181⁄2-foot long Seahunt. They were in one of their favorite croaker fishin’ holes on Marsh Island.

“Every year we fish this place. We’ve got a little hole for croakers that pays off every year,” Larive said.

Rouly’s first- and second-place croakers tipped the electronic scale at 1.24 and 1.10 pounds while Larive’s croaker weighed 1.09 pounds for third place.

Larry Gaspard Sr. reported that about 50 people played bingo at fishing rodeo headquarters under the pavilion Sunday. He also said that bingo would be played today from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“They had a good crowd,” Boudreaux said about the players at the bingo tables.

After a slow first few hours around the scales, there was a flurry of action as half-a-dozen boats checked in in the last hour to bring the total for the day to about 20.