John K. Flores: Fishing rodeo drew 60 teams

By JOHN K. FLORES
After the last boat rolled up Saturday at the 14th Annual Morgan City Oilfield Fishing Rodeo, volunteers had weighed in a total of 745.52 pounds of fish caught during the event that raises money for a good cause.
The MCOFR and Golf Tournament teams with South Louisiana Community College and Nicholls State University to support higher education and other charitable causes. Through 2026, the organization, with the help of its sponsors and participants, has donated over $260,000 to these important community needs.
This year’s rodeo saw 60 teams enter the tournament, where winners in five categories with three “big fish” opportunities, could take home some decent prize money for their efforts.
This year’s redfish category winner was Bubba Corbin. Corbin and his teammate weighed in 25.20 pounds of redfish worth $1,106. Corbin’s weight total bested second place finisher, Joe Hebert, by just under one pound. However, Corbin didn’t get the last say.
Hebert weighed in a 9.04-pound redfish that won “big redfish” and an extra $410 on top of his $921 runner up check.
Corbin said, “We went fishing out of Venice this morning and was in a real good pod of fish. They were devouring the mullets, just eatin ’em up! You could see them. They were just circling the mullets and ‘boom,’ by 8:30 this morning we were done.
“We drove into Venice last night and spent the night,” Corbin continued, “then got up early this morning and started fishing about 6:15, and by 8:30, quarter to 9, we were done.”
Dylan Hymel’s team weighed in 21.90 pounds of redfish, good enough for third place and a check for $737.
Mike Jones’ team took home $553 for fourth place with 21.12 pounds of redfish. And Austin Aucoin’s team weighed in 20.98 pounds of redfish for fifth place worth $369. There were 39 total entries in the redfish category this year.
In the speckled trout division, the Danny’s Fried Chicken team led by Clint Colgin, won first place. The team weighed in five trout that totaled 9.20 pounds. There were 19 entries in the speckled trout division. First place earned Colgin’s team a check for $539.
Colgin said, “The fishing was great — we did good! We caught a lot of trout and we caught about 12 redfish, so we did good.”
Second place went to Stephen Domangue’s team with 8.72 pounds of specks worth $449. Third place went to Logan Bourgeios who netted 8.52 pounds. Bourgeios also weighed in a 2.06-pound trout winning “big speck.” Bourgeios’ third place finish and big speck were worth $359 and $200, respectively.
Fourth place in the speckled trout division went to Bradley Matte, who weighed in 8.22 pounds of fish worth $269. Fifth place went to Sam Cannata with 1.06 pounds, good enough for a $180 check.
Kevin Hebert and his son were the first bass anglers to weigh in on Saturday. Hebert weighed in five bass that totaled 18.20 pounds, placing him at the top of the leader board. The Hebert team never gave up the lead and bested the second-place finisher Conrad Picou, by 2- and three-quarter pounds. Hebert’s first place finish was worth $539 and Picou’s second place finish $449.
Hebert said, “My son and I did all right. We went south and fished the marsh below the Intracoastal Canal near Lake Decade. We caught a few on top water baits and caught a couple on a Sinko. We caught early, and I wanted to get back early to make sure they survived.”
Tracy Alcina’s team weighed in 15.10 pounds of bass for third place and a check for $359. Alcina also won “big bass” with a 6.65 pound largemouth worth an extra $200.
Jeff Lipari took home a fourth-place check for $269, weighing in 12.80 pounds of bass, and Kirk Peterson won fifth place with 12.60 pounds of bass worth $180.
In the catfish division, Earl Anslem, Lorena Anslem and Alyssa Benoit fished in the Atchafalaya River, just south of the bridge.
They fished until 2 p.m., just when the rodeo weigh in was getting underway at the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium. That’s when they caught a 25.08-pound blue catfish.
By the time they weighed their fish in, there was still time for other anglers to weigh theirs.
But, for the moment, their catfish was at the top of the leaderboard. That’s when Ernie Roe showed up.
This was Roe’s third time fishing the MCOFR and two years ago he won the catfish division with a large flathead catfish caught in the Atchafalaya River.
By the time Roe’s blue cat settled on the scale, it weighed in at 29.06 pounds, bumping the Anslem team’s catfish out of first place.
By the time the scales closed, two more catfish were weighed in by regular MCOFR competitors Jacob Aucoin and Joseph Lacoste. Aucoin and Lacoste were also previous MCOFR winners. However, this time their catfish fell short.
Roe’s blue catfish won first place and earned him a check for $504 and Anslem’s catfish took home second place winnings totaling $432. Anslem’s catfish held on to best Aucoin’s third place fish by .44 pounds.
Aucoin’s catfish weighed in at 24.64 pounds and was worth $288. Lacoste’s team’s fourth place blue cat earned them $216 and weighed 10.35 pounds.
The trash division is always a fun category to see who and what will win. In years past black drum, horse-eye Jacks, sting rays, sharks and alligator gars have all been weighed in. This year’s trash fish category was won by Joseph Lacoste’s team with a 66.88-pound alligator gar entry.
Lacoste’s winning gar fish was worth an extra $200.
Lacoste said, “Whenever we were out there, we were using cut mullet. My wife actually caught it and fought it for about 30 minutes. When it got to the boat, we tried to lasso it and it took off again, so we fought it for another 10 minutes. We finally got it back to the boat and were able to lasso it again and get it into the boat.”
MCOFR Directors Joe Cannata and Sammy Cannata thanked all their sponsors, volunteers, supporters and participants for another successful event.
John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net.