Anyone could see Friday, June 30, it was going to be more than a typical Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo at Cypremort Point.

To put it simply, the place was rockin’ with the bulkhead around the fishing rodeo site full of boats laden with fish for the two digital scales. Fishermen carried fish to and from the scales in four new carts – larger than the old carts and sporting large, spoked wheels – with the added convenience of waiting in the shade under a huge canopy before getting on the weigh-in stage.

More than 40 boats carrying two to five crew members and a few party barges with even more men, women and children aboard made an appearance at fishing rodeo headquarters on Day 1 of the three-day holiday weekend fishing rodeo, easily the largest turnout for an opening day in several years. It was both rewarding and exciting to see the community show up like that for an event that raises money for charitable causes, chiefly St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The 70th annual fishing rodeo scene was a little more normal on Saturday, Day 2. Fishing rodeo officials still had a handful of the 50 brand new spinning rod and reel combinations remaining to give free courtesy of CCA-Louisiana to the first 50 boys and girls who weighed fish in the Junior Division.

Those Junior Division participants, of which there were many from little tykes to preteens, also received gift cards for a free ice cream cone at McDonald’s and for a kids combo at Raising Cane’s.

“The community came through this year,” Dusty Hulin, a first-time IR&GC fishing rodeo official, said Friday afternoon.

How popular was this year’s event? Hulin reported that several fishing rodeo ticket outlets ran out of fishing rodeo brochures and for the first time ever Dago’s Mobil & Grocery had to call in the day before the event began for more Offshore Division tickets because of the heavy demand.

The fish cooperated big time in and around Vermilion Bay, based on the nearly full leaderboards after Day 1 in the Inside Division, and to an extent were eating fair to good in the Gulf of Mexico, according to two big boats that docked to unload catches Saturday afternoon in the Offshore Division.

There was more to the great weekend preceding Independence Day. The cornhole tournament was a success Friday night and five bands provided live entertainment all three days, starting with Southern Jack Entertainment on Friday, Eighties Experience and Cajun Company on Saturday and closing with Cliff Bernard, then the Bad Boys on Sunday.

Photos on the IR&GC’s Facebook page showed a packed house on the concrete floor under the pavilion while a band played Saturday night. Folks were shoulder to shoulder as the band played on stage in front of a large American flag.

You can’t say enough about the unsung heroes. Everyone had a good time, or as good a time as possible in the heat of the day, thanks to the IR&GC fishing rodeo officials who planned and worked the event. The first tip of the cap has to go to the veteran weighmaster, Mackie Boudreaux, and to the weighmasters who helped him, Josh St. Germain, T.J. Bonin and Hulin.

Tara St. Germain sat at the table start to finish recording the weight of every fish that hit one of the two digital scales. Heith St. Germain, Brandy St. Germain, Chad LeBlanc, Kori LeBlanc, Brock Pellerin, who also cooked the jambalaya served free on Sunday, and many others also helped the event run smoothly on the weigh-in stage and the floor.

It was a winning team, one that has put out a call for new board members, men and women who care about family, fishing, conservation, fundraising for charities, etc. That’s what the IR&GC Saltwater Fishing rodeo is about every year.

This happened to be a very special year for the holiday weekend event. Well done, IR&GC.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.