CYPREMORT POINT – So many stories inside the stories unfolded in the recently completed 70th annual Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo that began June 30 and ended July 2.

The sole fishing rodeo record to fall over the three-day holiday weekend fittingly enough went to a former fishing rodeo chairman who continues to help with the annual event and fishes as much of it as he can.

Brock Pellerin of Jeanerette tweaked the “slot redfish” record in the Inside Division with an 8.28-pounder. It was the “perfect size” – 26 15/16 inches long.

The old record of 8.26 pounds was set in 2018 by Donald Biggs.

Pellerin, who cooked the sausage jambalaya on site for all on Day 3, was fishing in the Donna Sue, a 20-foot long Gravois hull owned by Jimmy Gravois, with his wife, Stephanie Pellerin, their daughter, Ahni Pellerin, and brother-in-law, Karl Prados.

His record-breaker bit a frozen mullet under a popping cork around a grass bed between Worm Bayou and Lake Sand, he said. It bit around 8 a.m. Saturday morning.

“Actually, it was the first fish we put in the boat,” he said.

The ice chest’s ruler measured it at 27 ¼ inches long, too long to be eligible as a “slot” redfish. Later, he met up with Heith St. Germain and his crew of family members in Bayou Blue.

“He needed a scale. I needed a checking stick,” he said.

They swapped the needed items for a few minutes. Pellerin saw the recently caught redfish measured 26 15/16.

He had a winner.

Ahni Pellerin finished with a second-place drum at 20.1 pounds in the Junior Division while Prados boasted a third-place, 28.2-pound drum in the Inside Division.

Another boat carrying a contender for individual and overall awards had to drop out early. The skipper, obviously disappointed, nevertheless took it in stride and said God has a plan for everything.

“I’ve got boat problems. I’m in limp mode,” Josh St. Germain of Sorrel said after Quality Time’s first and only appearance at the fishing rodeo site here on Day 1. He believed it had something to do with oil, perhaps a sensor, he said later.

St. Germain, who fished with his wife, Brandy, and their sons, Noah, Ethan and Luke, shut the 21-foot Mako down and scheduled an appointment with an outboard motor mechanic at Mike’s Marine for Monday, so the team was grounded Saturday and Sunday.

The St. Germains, both veteran fishing rodeo officials, didn’t disappear. Brandy stayed busy working the weigh-in platform while Josh helped around both digital scales.

Despite limited running time the first day, Quality Time’s captain and crew put several fish on the board. Josh finished with first-place white trout (.77 pounds) and first-place garfish (36.8 pounds) in the Inside Division. Ethan’s 22.1-pound drum won that category in the Junior Division.

The Quality Time’s skipper also finished runner-up in the race for Inside Division Best All-Around Fisherman behind Fish Karma’s Perry Scott, 694-564. His sidelined boat was in the running for Boat Captains Award through the first two days.

A 17-foot Triton’s crew and captain had some good “slot” redfish Day 1. The intense heat failed to prevent them from catching a dozen or so “slot” redfish.

Alas, none stuck on the board after David Kaplan of Broussard and John Broussard and Marcus Bonvillain, both of New Iberia, checked in and weighed a handful of their slots.

“We’ve got nine more like that,” Broussard said about other slots in the ice chest.

Brooks Amy aboard the Fish Karma, a 24-foot Blue Wave, had an even better day while catching beaucoup fish and sharing the day with family and a long-time fishing buddy.

“We figured we’d be competitive. You never know if you’ll win or not but this team has a big heart and they put it all on the line when we go out,” Fish Karma’s captain said.

He credited “hard work” for winning the Inside Division’s Boat Captain’s Award.

“The whole team put in 150 percent effort this weekend,” he said.

Fish Karma also boasted the Inside Division Best All-Around Fisherman, Amy’s father, Perry Scott. The 70-year-old Scott won the individual title on the 70th anniversary of the IR&GC Saltwater Fishing Rodeo.

Scott won it with a first-place flounder (2.32 pounds), second-place redfish (25.6 pounds) and second-place “slot” redfish (7.97 pounds).

Keo Khamphilavong, an all-around outdoorsman from New Iberia who finally came up with a name for his 24-foot long Blazer Bay, wasn’t in the running for the Inside Division’s Boat Captain’s Award but he did put the Dat’s Yellow Boat’s name in the mix for the Inside Division Calcutta. His days on the water with his nephew, Matt Khamphilavong of New Iberia and fishing buddies Michel Fortier and Randy Migues, paid off with a $600 Calcutta win. He finished the fishing rodeo with first- and second-place sheepshead (3.81 and 3.51 pounds) and a second-place garfish (31.3 pounds).

Fortier, meanwhile, walked away with $200 for winning the speckled trout category with a 3-pounder in the Inside Division.

There always seems to be at least one boat that stands out for some reason at a fishing rodeo. This year it was Wayne Castille’s homemade aluminum boat he built himself in 1999.

The Jeanerette outdoorsman’s 24-year-old boat still sports its 1999 Yamaha 150-h.p. outboard motor.

“He wants to paint it (the boat) but will wait until he gets a new motor,” Cindy Castille, his wife, said.