Basket Case rides hot hand to Offshore title; Romero takes young crew out, sweeps inside

CYPREMORT POINT — The “hot hand” on a 37-foot long boat did what he was supposed to do to win the Offshore Division’s individual title while a grizzled veteran on a 23-footer boat grabbed an elusive individual title in the Inside Division.

Kevin Carter of Lafayette caught eight of the 14 fish Basket Case stuck on the Offshore Division leaderboard at midday Sunday, the third and final day of the 69th annual Iberia Rod & Gun Club Saltwater Fishing Rodeo. His Best All-Around Fisherman effort propelled his buddies’ Basket Case to the Offshore Division Boat Captain’s Award.

Meanwhile, Brian Romero of Lydia, fished with juveniles, his grandchildren, all three days of the holiday weekend event that began under thunderstorm alley Friday. Nevertheless, Romero, never an IR&GC individual winner before July 3, 2022, led wire-to-wire and enjoyed the heck out of winning it with a crew of youngsters, one Friday, three Saturday and four on the day of fishing rodeo judgment Sunday. For good measure, he also won the Inside Division’s Boat Captain’s Award.

The 64-year-old retired oil field industry boat captain and former charter boat captain collected both titles won last year by his son, Drew Romero of Lydia, who took over Smokin’ Reels Charters.

“That’s great. That’s fantastic. It’s tough fishing against all these good fishermen,” Romero said before he collected his big trophy and the cup with champagne in it. “It would have been a lot sweeter if my wife had been with me.”

Jeamie Romero was unable to fish because she was taking care of her mother, who recently suffered a broken leg. She won back-to-back Inside Division Best All-Around Fisher(wo)man titles in 2016-17 while fishing with her husband on their 23-foot long Ranger Bay Boat, Smokin’ Reels.

“At least I had my grandkids to share it with,” he said.

He finished with 809 points, comfortably ahead of Mike Robideaux of Abbeville, 507, and Faith Landry of Patoutville, 383.

His 809 points also owned the race for the Inside Division’s Boat Captain’s Award, which he also won in 2016-17. He finished ahead of Gotta Have Faith, skippered by Gerrit “T Blu” Landry, with 651, and Miss Angelic, skippered by Robideaux, with 629.

Romero fished with a grandson, Bentley Vinning, 9, on the stormy day Friday. The next day he added Vinnings’ twin sister, Sophia Vinning, and Alexis Romero, 10.

Seasoned fishing rodeo anglers? No. But they can fish and Bentley Vinning stayed in the running all weekend for Best All-Around Fisherman in the Inside Division.

“Well, those three are getting pretty good at it,” Romero said, praising the second-day crew. “Alexis is my right-hand man and she fishes just as good, if not better, than Bentley.”

Romero finished with first-place speckled trout and flounder (2.34 pounds and 2.34 pounds, respectively). On Friday he opened up his bid with those first-place entries, plus a 7.17-pound “slot” redfish that eventually finished third when the scales closed at 1 p.m. Sunday.

He said 90 percent of the fish he and his crew, which included Aubrie Romero on Sunday, came from Southwest pass.

Carter, the Offshore Division’s big winner aboard the Basket Case, was surrounded by a veteran crew fishing the event on a boat other than the Aorta B Fishing for the first time in years. Aorta B Fishing, a 36-foot long Contender skippered each year by Ryan Dearman of Oregon, formerly of Colorado and Lafayette, had their Offshore Division Boat Captain’s Award wrested away in 2021 by Outlaw, skippered by Pat Savoy of Oakdale with an all-Oakdale crew.

Dearman, whose wife recently had a baby, was unable to travel to Acadiana to fish this holiday weekend so his crew rocked the event aboard the Basket Case, co-owned by Jonathan Foreman and Patrick Foreman, both of Lafayette.

“We definitely missed Ryan this year,” Basket Case crew member Michael Duhon of Lafayette said. His crewmates agreed.

Five Offshore Division boats competed in the fishing rodeo. Basket Case won the overall title with 32.4 pounds, followed by Outlaw, 10.6, and Barracuda, 3.

Carter dominated Best All-Around Fisherman in the Offshore Division with 20.2 points, followed by Andrew Godley’s 8.2 points.

“It feels very good. We lost last year. It’s nice to come back and reclaim the title,” Carter said about the Boat Captain’s Award. “Outlaw is tough competition. They took the title last year.”

Carter finished with first-place blackfin tuna (22.9 pounds), first- and second-place barracuda (24.3 pounds and 22.9 pounds, respectively), first- and second-place yellowfin tuna (37.3 pounds and 33.4 pounds, respectively) and second-place dolphin (2.9 pounds).

“Once I caught the yellowfin we kind of set the goal for one of us to be All-Around,” Carter said. “That’s what we do every year. When somebody got a hot hand we let them ride it. It’s a good team. Everybody works together.”

It was his first-ever Best All-Around Fisherman title.

Other Basket Case crew members were Jordan Duhon of Patoutville and Chris Landry and Carter Kauffman, both of Lafayette.

Basket Case also won the Offshore Division’s Calcutta of $500 and donated it back to the IR&GC.