Morgan City Open Fishing Rodeo held

Anglers with red faces, red arms and red legs showed up just after 2 p.m. Saturday for the ninth annual Morgan City Open Fishing Rodeo weigh-in held at the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium.
One of the first to weigh in was Sandy Fabre from Bayou L’Ourse. Fabre weighed in the only fish she caught all day — a 1.40 pound blue catfish.
Motioning to her teammate, Fabre said while laughing, “I worked my butt off for that fish. He didn’t take me to the right places, but that’s OK. It’s all about having fun.”
Unfortunately for Fabre, her catfish didn’t stand much of a chance. Joseph Hebert and his teammate Dane Daigle sponsored by DHD Offshore Service (owned by Daigle) were the eventual winners of the big catfish category. They weighed in a big 21.40 pound blue catfish, caught by Hebert, to take home a first place check.
The big cat was caught on a spinner bait while they were fishing redfish. Daigle and Hebert also weighed in a 10.60 pound redfish.
Mike Hepler entered the bass category and weighed in a five fish stringer that weighed 11.55 pounds. Hepler fished the Wax Lake area using a spinner bait in water he referred as looking like chocolate milk.
Hepler’s catch fell way short, as four other anglers weighed in heavier stringers. Dwight Barbier weighed in 14.10 pounds for first place. Mathew Toups took second with 13.32 pounds. Kevin Hebert placed third with 13 pounds. And, Kirk Peterson took fourth place with 12.80 pounds of bass.
Overall, there were 23 bass entries. Owen Plaisance won the big bass category weighing in a 4.45 pound largemouth bass.
There were 41 entries for the popular redfish category. Manning Duhon was one of those entries. He and his teammate Ivan Garber fished shallow banks with spinner baits in Mosquito Bayou on Point Au Fer Island. Duhon weighed in 25.88 pounds of redfish finishing in third place.
Joseph Parfait and Randy Domingue from Houma teamed up and said they had a fantastic day fishing out of Dulac. Parfait and his partner fished H&H Baby Bull Minnows in clear water. Parfait weighed in a three redfish stringer weighing 29.46 pounds that was good enough to take first place. Parfait also scored big redfish, winning the category with a 12.62 pounder.
Morgan City angler Brad Matte weighed in 27.06 pounds, taking second place.
Sammy Canata took first place in the speckled trout category. He also caught the biggest speckled trout. His big speckled trout weighed 2.04 pounds and his three specked trout stringer weighed 8.84 pounds.
The trash fish category was won by Brial Eiseman. Eiseman weighed in a 19.40 pound black drum.
Overall, there were 86 total entries for this year’s rodeo with 63 teams represented who braved the heat that hovered in the high 80s much of the day.
Though there were some good stringers of fish weighed in, many who didn’t place said they struggled to catch fish Saturday. Others said they had to run long distances to catch the fish they caught.
Competitors and onlookers were all treated to free fried catfish, shrimp and French fries by DHD Offshore Services and free drinks were provided by Pelican Companies.