So far, so good, for the upcoming Kay-Cee Saltwater Fishing Rodeo.

The 61st annual holiday weekend event remains scheduled to be held Sept. 4-6 at Cypremort Point. Fishing rodeo officials announced the date in mid-July.

“We’re still on. Unless the government mandates something different, we’re still on,” Brian Boutte, second-year fishing rodeo chairman, said Monday evening.

The 63-year-old New Iberian was upbeat a few weeks before the church organization’s most important fundraiser of the year every year. Unfortunately, that fundraiser was canceled last Labor Day Weekend by COVID-19 concerns and restrictions in Louisiana.

Boutte, an auto technician the past 40 years at Musson-Patout Automotive, has been meeting regularly with the fishing rodeo committee. Another organizational meeting was held Tuesday at the Knights of Columbus Council 3425 Hall at 4201 L. Theriot Road.

The committee members have been hustling to promote the fishing rodeo. Boutte and others took a ride a week ago today and put flyers on the windshield of tow vehicles at Quintana Canal Boat Landing and Bayou Patout Boat Landing.

Boutte was impressed with the number of boats out on a hot summer day in early August.

“There were quite a few boats out there, quite a few fishing,” he said, noting there were approximately 50 boats at Cypremort Point and about half that many at Bayou Patout.

They also delivered some flyers to Bayview Inn.

“We are trying. We have a little late start. We decided once the Rod & Gun Club had theirs (Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo on July Fourth Weekend) we were going to go ahead and and do the same and go with the rodeo. They had a good turnout,” Boutte said. “That’s our biggest fundraiser for the year. Without that, it’d be really hard for us to do any charitable works. Those funds basically do good for the community, a good thing for the community, a good thing for the fishermen and a good thing for the church.”

Boutte appreciates the help he is getting from other Kay-Cees.

“We’ve got a couple new guys in there, a little younger than us, a little more up-to-date, a little more computer savvy. You need new ideas every once in a while,” he said.

One of the new guys is Dusty Hulin, a veteran official with Coastal Conservation Association-Louisiana’s Sugar Chapter, which held its annual fundraising banquet Thursday night at the Cade Community Center.

Others in the core group lending a helping hand are Joe East, Kelvin Gaspard, James Boudreaux, Tim Boudreaux and Wayne Hollier, Boutte said.

He is hoping against hope for continued support from the saltwater anglers in the community. He believes people are ready to get out and enjoy a good time on and off the water at Cypremort Point.

“I feel like people are waiting to round out the year and make a go of it” by fishing the Teche Area’s second and last major fishing rodeo of 2021.

Oh. And he’d welcome at least a cool front around fishing rodeo time.

Cash prizes will be awarded first- through third-place finishes in each category of the Inside Division. Kids Division winners will receive trophies.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.