Golden Meadow has busy first day

• By JOE MACALUSO
• Advocate Outdoors writer
• Published: Jul 4, 2009 - Page: 5C

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PORT FOURCHON — Some of the fireworks going off in this south Louisiana port and fishing community weren’t saved to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Some of the show Friday at Moran’s Kajun Sportsman was to celebrate the opening weigh-in for the 62nd annual Golden Meadow-Fourchon Tarpon Rodeo.

“It was the busiest first day I can remember,” weighmaster Marty Bourgeois said. “It was surprising how many good fish came in today.”

Baton Rouge angler Burden Edmonds one-upped Bourgeois when Edmonds showed up at Moran’s with a hefty yellowfin tuna.

“It was crazy. No way this fish should have been where he was,” Edmonds said. “We were snapper fishing in the Grand Isle blocks. We were goofing off really, just trying to catch a few fish. The boat next to us (tied to an oil platform) was fighting a big fish. It turned out to be a yellowfin tuna.

“Well, there were sharks everywhere and there were hardtails (blue runners, a baitfish) everywhere. I used our last hardtail on a line and dropped it down,” Edmonds said.

With all the activity in the water, and knowing there was a yellowfin coming aboard another boat, Edmonds confessed he was stunned when his rod bowed. While he didn’t talk about the fight — no one lands a near 90-pound yellowfin in a few minutes — Edmonds still couldn’t believe all that happened Friday when Bourgeois yelled out “88 pounds, 10 ounces.”

“Crazy, just crazy. We weren’t in a place where yellowfins should be,” Edmonds said.

Though his catch stood in third place — Alexandria’s Lonnie Boudreaux leads the category with a 124-3 — the stories of two first-place fish showed the competition that awaits the field for today’s final round.

Debby Hemleben was fishing with her husband at the Belle Pass jetties.

“It was an ideal day. The water was pretty (green and clear) and we were close to the shoreline. We were using live shrimp and catching lots of fish,” the Lafayette woman said. “We were catching pompano and redfish and (speckled) trout and having a great time when this big fish ate the shrimp.”

That fish turned out to be a 4-pound, 14-ounce speckled trout, a catch that landed her atop the leaderboard.

Then, there was Gonzales’ Chad Graham, who took a lot of heat from his fishing team when his 4-8 white trout knocked fishing partner Lettie Marchand off the board. It was one of more than 10 white trout weighing more than three pounds they caught around a deep-water oil platform.