Rodeo entertains, stays dry

Tarpons baseball ready to continue its chase in 2019
July 11, 2018
Summertime questions
July 11, 2018
Tarpons baseball ready to continue its chase in 2019
July 11, 2018
Summertime questions
July 11, 2018

The 70th installment of the Golden Meadow-Fourchon Tarpon Rodeo was as good as ever — even with dark clouds sometimes part of the party.


The annual outdoors event had some rainy weather and rough conditions, but Saturday was mostly dry, which allowed for anglers to make some last-minute additions to the 2018 leaderboard.

Rodeo Admiral Trey Boucvalt said he’s proud of how the event went, touting that the entire week was a success.

The admiral’s party earlier in the week set it off in style with hundreds of people in attendance. Saturday’s final day was also packed, too, with a huge crowd filling the air conditioned tent to enjoy music, door prizes, games and boiled shrimp.


“It’s been great. The turnout has been outstanding. The community support is incredible. You can’t ask for anything more,” Boucvalt said on Saturday — just 30 minutes before the scales closed in the adult division. “I think a lot of the action right now is on the scales because there are a lot of people bringing in some big fish right now. The fishermen like to make their catches, then hang out a while and weigh them at the last minute. It’s an exciting time and we’re raising money for a great cause.”

Boucvalt brought a little bit of his own flavor to the 2018 event.

The admiral said he wanted to make sure everyone at the admiral’s party had a good time and he believes that happened in a big way. Attendance to the event was huge — so much so that there was a little bit of a lull on Friday.


“I think we wore them out,” Boucvalt said with a laugh. “So many people had so much fun at the Admiral’s Party and then they had to wake up early to get out to fish, so the crowd was a little lighter — even though we still had 300 people the next day.”

There was also something for everyone to enjoy — something Boucvalt wanted to expand upon this year, though that’s been a staple of this event for the past several years.

Under the air conditioned tent on Saturday was live music, merchandise, beautiful art and delicious boiled shrimp dinners — priced to sell and all one can eat.


For the kiddos, there were six television sets hooked up with the latest and greatest in video games. On one TV, a couple youngsters gathered around and played Madden 18. On another, a little girl tested her luck with Mario on Nintendo’s Wii-U. Opposite the first three TV’s were others where a group huddled around to watch a game of NBA 2K18, which was going on amongst friends.

Local businessman Henry LaFont is a former Admiral at the rodeo, having served in 2005.

He said he comes back to the rodeo each year for the Admiral’s Party and on Saturday for the weigh-ins, adding that he couldn’t be prouder of how far along the event has come.


The Lafourche Chamber of Commerce took over the rodeo a few years ago and has been credited for making positive changes to the longstanding event, which started in the 1940s.

“The Chamber has done so much to take this to the next level,” LaFont said. “It’s wonderful to see.”

“This is a community event,” added local business woman and fellow former Admiral, Ashley Barrios. “Anyone can come here and have a good time and that’s by design. Trey has done an excellent job adding to that this year with his video games and Laser Tag outside for the kids. They’re great additions.”


The fishing was good, too.

The leaderboard didn’t change much early on Saturday, because it rained in the morning, which made it a little rough for anglers to get on the water.

But the sun came out in the early afternoon and the fish started coming in in droves.


Tonya Schouest, of Franklin, weighed a tarpon — a 124-pound, 11-ounce fish, which placed first.

The rodeo had been without its signature fish for more than two years.

There was also a mammoth blue marlin caught — the largest fish on the leaderboard. It weighed 397-pounds, 4-ounces and was caught by Craig Blanchard.


Blanchard said his plan was to catch and release the fish, but it died during the fight, so he brought it to the weigh station to be weighed.

“That was a beautiful fish,” Boucvalt said. “It was something to see.”

As-always, the rodeo featured several children’s division titles, as well as kayaking and spearfish.


“I wish we could give a trophy to every, single kid who puts a cork in the water,” Boucvalt said. “It’s great to see the support from the next generation.”

Proceeds for the rodeo go to support scholarships for local students. In 2018, the rodeo handed out eight scholarships to South Lafourche High School students for amounts which totaled more than $30,000.

2018 Rodeo


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