CYPREMORT POINT – When Kyle LeBlanc saw the telltale tail of a big redfish he wasted no time casting a soft plastic swim bait on Aug. 17.

The New Iberia saltwater fisherman wasn’t targeting redfish at the time. He was fishing for speckled trout at Diamond Reef but there it was, easy to spot and, more importantly, hungry for a swim bait made by H&H Lure Co.

LeBlanc slammed the hook home and after a short fight landed the 31.01-pound bull red to take over first place in the three-month long Cypremort Invitational Fishing Association tournament that ends at 7 p.m. on Sept. 30.

“I actually caught it on accident. I was trout fishing. He was on the edge of a reef. I could see his tail. I threw a glow/chartreuse swim bait and he ate it. I pretty much sight cast it,” the 33-year-old Delta World Tires mechanic said. “He actually didn’t fight for that long. He fought for two or three minutes.”

It weighed more than 30 pounds on the scale in his 22-foot long Majek, a flat, shallow-water center console boat out of Texas. He wasn’t planning on keeping the bull red but then he remembered the biggest redfish on the leaderboard at Dago’s Mobil & Grocery in Lydia was Josh St. Germain’s 30.73-pounder.

LeBlanc changed his mind at the end of his trip and hauled it to Dago’s, where the redfish weighed 31.01 on the digital scale. It remains in first place ahead of St. Germain’s 30.73 caught July 15; Lance Moss and his 29-pounder; Chris Meyers’ 26.77-pounder, and Luke St. Germain’s 25.0.

LeBlanc isn’t so sure his bull red will finish first during these last few weeks of fishing. He’s just glad he was in the right place at the right time.

“I don’t know. I’m thinking probably not. I guess it’s possible. We’ll see,” he said. “I think first place usually is around 35 pounds.”

Nevertheless, he will turn his attention to catching speckled trout down the stretch, he said.

“I like to fish trout. It’s probably my go-to. I do fish redfish (but) more in the springtime, when trout really are not here,” he said, noting he’s been hooking up with some speckled trout close to 3 pounds but was unable to land them.

“I’m hoping to get something big enough for first or second. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I’ll hook onto something that will put me in third place, you know, or better.”

While LeBlanc wasn’t targeting redfish that day in mid-August, Lance Moss of New Iberia, 33, was going specifically after speckled trout after fishing for redfish on the morning of July 22. He got the right one to bite during a flurry of action at Tee Butte, a 3.50-pound speckled trout that stayed atop the leaderboard until Aug. 21 when Tommy Stevens weighed a 3.52-pound speckled trout at Dago’s.

Stevens and Moss owned the top two spots going into this second week of September. As of Sept. 4, the other three money spots belonged to Ty Bonin and his 3.45-pounder caught July 9; Matt Migues’ 3.07-pounder, and Brady Mouton’s 2.91-pounder.

Moss, a mechanic at The McIlhenny Co., took his fish’s bump down to second place in stride and pointed out he’s trying for a bigger speckled trout. He’s also giving it his best shot to put a redfish on the leaderboard bigger than his third-place, 29-pound bull red, which he caught and weighed Aug. 9, before the scale closes on the final day of September.

He believes the Top 5 will change drastically in the Speckled Trout Division before the 30th.

“I don’t even think the 3.52 will hold up (atop the leaderboard). There are a lot of fish in the Bay. There’s been a lot of limit, a lot of 2 ½-pounders,” he said.

“I’m hoping me and Tori (Tori Moss, his wife) get higher on the board. We’re going to keep trying (for bull reds).”

The CIFA tournament began July 7, five days after the Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo wound to a close July 2. Nearly 90 CIFA members are fishing to get a redfish or speckled trout big enough to win or place in their respective division.

Moss fishes out of an Xpress X20 Bay Boat, as often as possible with his wife and their two children, Sophia, 10, and Duke, 6. Sophia can handle bull reds so next year she’ll be fishing as a CIFA member, Moss said.

The day he caught his speckled trout that held first for a long while, he started out redfish fishing at Boxcar Reef. Based on the tides and major feeding time, Moss didn’t plan to stay there long.

“I went out that Saturday to fish bull reds and specks. As soon as the bubbles stopped, I knew it (falling tide) was about to quit and headed to the reef, Tee Butte. That’s so hit or miss, that place. That day I caught seven in 20 minutes and then they shut down,” he said.

The feeding frenzy started right away. On his first cast with a Purple Patagonia Matrix 3X Shad, a speckled trout bit the second it hit the surface. Ditto for the second cast.

“I grabbed the popping cork I always have tied on with the same artificial lure, about 36 inches down with the same artificial lure,” he said. Then he cast it to the hotspot.

The big speckled trout swallowed it and paid the price.