CYPREMORT POINT — The tales (or is that the tails?) of the flounder, the triumph and the tribulation, were heard Thursday on the first day of the 60th annual Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo.

Teche Area veteran anglers Kenneth Derouen and Todd LaBiche, fishing in Derouen’s 22-foot long Boston Whaler, tacked three of the flat, tasty fish on the Inside Division leaderboard soon after the scales opened at 3 p.m. at fishing rodeo headquarters along Quintana Canal. They were thinking about a possible sweep going into the last two days.

Then Krista Becnel, a 23-year-old X-ray technician at Iberia Urgent Care, showed up and told the sob story about a big, big one that got away and good-naturedly blamed crew member T.J. “Theo” Stroud and Dusty Viator, captain of the 20-foot long Mako. Or was that good-naturedly?

But Jacob Fisher of St. Martinville had the final say in the flounder category. Coming off one of the last boat’s to weigh in, his 2.55-pounder forged the first-day lead and also helped surge ahead early in the race for Best All-Around Fisherman in the Inside Division. He has 270 points earned on the flounder and a first-place sheepshead at 3.71 pounds.

“That’s my biggest ever. I actually thought it’d be heavier than it was. It’s still a nice flounder,” Fisher said about the doormat that bit while he was fishing on the Up-and-Down II, a 22-foot-long Key West skippered by Brooks Amy.

“It was a good little fight. We had been catching a bunch of little hardheads. I was hoping it wasn’t another hardhead. It shocked me when it came up,” Fisher said.

Derouen and LaBiche, who sat at the picnic table under the pavilion for a while after weighing their fish, enjoyed talking about the flounder they caught on shrimp that day. They also caught several redfish and a few croakers, they said.

“I think we got first, second and third flounder,” Derouen said long before his 2.03-pounder got bumped to second place and LaBiche’s heaviest entry, a 1.87-pounder, got knocked down to third place by fisher.

“I’m going to fish flounder (Friday). I like fishing for those things,” Derouen said.

They fished in his 22-foot long Boston Whaler. Both declined to reveal the exact location, but LaBiche did say it was at the mouth of a bayou on Marsh Island.

The flounder run was ended abruptly after Derouen caught a fairly long blacktip shark.

Becnel, who called herself the “Fishin’ Magician,” had a difficult time forgetting about the flounder that got off the hook at the boat and swam away. She was still upset about losing a potential first-place fish.

“They lost my fish. That’s the problem. I’m blaming both of them,” she said, half-seriously, looking more at Stroud. “I had it to the boat, screaming for the net, and the fish got away.”

Stroud said, “It was at least 3, 4 pounds. That flounder was big, man, I ain’t going to lie.”