CYPREMORT POINT — Aorta B Fishing, a 36-foot long Contender, went out in style on the third and final day of the 68th annual Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo.

The 2020 Offshore Division Boat Captain’s Award winner, forced in on the second day by inclement weather, ventured out again Fourth of July morning with a precious crew that still was chirping when the boat returned to fishing rodeo headquarters along Quintana Canal. Five “kiddos” went fishing for fun and couldn’t have been happier.

“We took the little ones fishing. Yeah, they caught some croaker. We were in The Cove by the piers and pretty much every cast had one,” Alaina Duhon of Lafayette said just before noon, the boat moored at the bulkhead near the fishing rodeo site. One of the youngest toddlers was sound asleep in the lap of a crew member behind the wheel.

Duhon’s husband, Michael Duhon, was the defending Offshore Division Best All-Around Fisherman on the Offshore Division Boat Captain’s Award boat in 2020. The boat’s skipper, ex-Lafayette resident Ryan Dearman of Eugene, Oregon, who had jetted in Thursday to fish the three-day holiday weekend event with his buddies, was on his way back to Oregon in order to be back at work Monday.

No titles would be forthcoming for Duhon or Aorta B Fishing on Sunday. But that morning trip into Vermilion Bay with the children pretty much told the story about how people welcomed getting back out for a fishing rodeo on Fourth of July Weekend. After 2020’s coronavirus pandemic concerns and restrictions, it was apparent fishing rodeo-goers relished getting back to normal.

Other fishing rodeo anglers had the same idea as Aorta B fishing. At least two other boats dedicated the short third and last day to the children as Drew Romero’s Smokin’ Reels and Hunter Romero’s Miss Communication, a 24-foot long Nautic Star, took their youngsters fishing in and around Vermilion Bay.

“The first and second day is for the grownups. The third day’s for the children,” Drew Romero said about the trip aboard his 23-foot long Ranger.

Miss Communication’s skipper, Hunter Romero, had a colorful young crew led by Kathleen Moss, 5, who was wearing bright pink boots. Her younger brother, Drake Moss, 4, and their parents, Brandon and Lainie Moss, fished with Hunter and Rachel Romero and their 5-year-old daughter, Aria Romero.

No one enjoyed the holiday weekend more than young Karleigh St. Germain, fishing rodeo veteran Drew Romero, who doubled up as Best All-Around Fisherman in the Inside Division and winner of the Inside Division’s Boat Captain’s Award, and David Detwiler, who won two individual titles as a teen in the Junior Division in the 1990s and, 25 years later, claimed the Offshore Division’s Best All-Around Fisherman title on Sunday.

Throw in a fishing-rodeo record gar hauled in by young Layne Davis in the Junior Division and a huge sheepshead in the Inside Division, plus the dedication of IR&GC fishing rodeo officials, and it was just what the doctor ordered for a Fourth of July Weekend.

Seven-year-old Davis’ 116-pound garfish certainly made a splash the first day in the Junior Division. Dusty Davis’ son wowed the fishing rodeo crowd with the big predator fish caught aboard a crowded party barge, that’s right, a party barge, Stress Relief.

That Dusty Davis is good at catching big garfish has been documented.

“Four years ago I caught a 106-pound garfish. It might have been longer (a few more years),” he said.

The fish bit one of the fishing rods and Davis had Layne pick it up on Marsh Island. One of the seven crew members, Austin Thibodeaux, hammered the monster’s skull twice after he lost one hammer in the water, then got cut up and had battle scars to show what the gar did to his lower legs when it came back to life on the deck of the party barge.

Also on board were Rhett Thibodeaux, Melissa Burke, Courtney Delcambre, Espn Gary and Kinlyn Gary.

The old gar record in the Junior Division was a 74-pound, 10-ounce fish caught by Kendal Migues in 1997.

Before that shocker hit the scale July 2, an oversized sheepshead weighing 6.36 pounds soared to the top of the leaderboard and stayed there for Kirk Bourque. Bourque fished in a 16-foot Bass Tracker and dodged the brunt of inclement weather in and around Vermilion Bay.

“I went to Southwest Pass first thing and caught a couple specks. I actually caught the sheepshead on shrimp in Shark Bayou. My goal was to go to Dry Reef and fish the pilings but it was too choppy. All you’ve got to do is jig the pilings (Dry Reef oilfield structure) and you’ll catch a boatload of sheepshead,” Bourque said.

That sheepshead was just 2 pounds shy of the fishing rodeo record, an 8.33-pounder in the Inside Division brought in by Charlie Hebert in 1994.

Karleigh St. Germain, who will be a freshman student/athlete at West St. Mary, had a holiday weekend to remember while fishing on Pacifier, a 20-foot long Sea Hunt, with her father, Heith, her brother, Kiptyn, and her paternal grandfather, Glenn St. Germain. The 14-year-old softball and volleyball player rallied to clinch the coveted, tall trophy as the Junior Division’s Best All-Around Fisher(wo)man.

She stuck four fish on the leaderboard and three of them stayed, first- and second-place redfish at 26.5 and 25 pounds, the latter caught late in the morning Sunday, and a second-place drum at 20.3 pounds. The redfish were caught at Boxcar Reef after the St. Germains adjusted their schedule around heavy rain early Saturday.

Drew Romero’s busy holiday weekend was rewarded with two major titles. The Inside Division’s Best All-Around Fisherman and Boat Captain’s Award winner hadn’t captured a major title ever. He finished with first- and third-place slot redfish at 6.03 pounds and 4.2 pound, a second-place croaker at .97 pounds and a second-place sheepshead at 4.03 pounds.

He fished with his father, Brian Romero, and Patrick Migues.

It was easy to pick out the the fishing rodeo’s Offshore Division’s Best All-Around Fisherman. He was the good guy, the young man wearing the red/white/blue shorts and red/white/blue cowboy hat.

David Detwiler, a fixture at fishing rodeo HQ for 35 years who learned offshore fishing from the late Alfred Hitter, had the right fish at the right time while fishing aboard Breaking Point, a 32-foot long Regulator skippered by Will Cenac. The boat and crew left in a heavy rain Saturday, got rained on all day and all night, and returned to the Point on Sunday.

The individual overall winner was surprised, pleasantly, by the title.

“Oh, no, I had no idea. We just fished hard and kept at it. We started at Vermilion 196 and ended at Vermilion 305,” Detwiler said.

He boasted three first-place fish, a 45.6-pound lemonfish he caught on his first cast, a 9.7-pound mangrove snapper (Breaking Point swept that category thanks to Chris Collins) and a 2.1-pound bonita. He caught and released a grouper that would have upped his total.