G.I. Limits and Tags
 

:DAnother day trip to Grand Isle for the third Saturday in a row.
Got to the marina at 5:35 and as soon as I got out of the truck I realized that NOAA had missed it by a mile today. When we cleared the pass we were greeted with a stiff 10-15 mph SE wind and 2'-3' seas instead of the 0'-1' that was predicted.

Eased out at 15 mph towards the platform that we had success at the the last two weeks. Heading at a bearing of 150 deg meant that we were taking the choppy seas dead ahead which made for a wet and bumpy ride. Less than Ideal but we had 2 new guests on board and were not going to throw in the towl without giving it an honest effort.

Decided to stop at a double platform about half way to our intended destination to wet a line but mostly to wait to see what the seas were going to do.

Fished there without much luck for ~45 minutes.
FM911 did hook onto a shark on some light tackle. The shark gave us an acrobatics show jumping 5' out of the water before cutting the line.

Seas didn't increase or decrease and nothing was happening at his location so we decided to continue SE.

The 19' Mako had just about all it wanted with the 2-3' chop (FM911 correct me if I'm exagerating the wave height). I never felt as if we were in danger of being swamped or capsized but we definitely found the limit of what is safe in this boat. We just took our time so that we didn't beat the **** out of the boat or crew.

One boat was already tied to the rig when we arrived and after an adventure of finding the best place to tie up we finally got some slime on deck. Scratched out a limit of Red Snapper along with 2 Vermillion Snapper.

FM911 was also able to tag and release two nice Red Snapper along with a decent Amberjack. Pretty sure there aren't too many tagged AJ swimming around out there.

The seas had laid down around 10:30 so when we headed NW at 12:30 we had a smooth ride in at 25 mph.

After catching 4 lemon fsih and getting spooled and broken off several times last week at this same location I upgraded to 90lb string and heavier leaders. Turns out this week only snapper were hungry. This reinforced to me that you should always be ready for anything bc there is no guarantee that you will get another shot at the big one!

Big thanks to FM911 for all of the help while on the water and especially while cleaning everything up. Having a crew that helps this much makes all of the difference in the world. You really went above and beyond and it did not go unoticed. :D

Got the heavy tackle and poles cleaned, organized, and stored away. Short season but we definitely took advantage of it this year. Time to get mad at the trout.

It really is ashame that we are lucky enough to live right next to the GOM and only get to fish it for a short period every year when the federal govt says it's ok.

The mako 19" took it like a champ the whole time in them 2-3 ft seas. I had a great time, thank for inviting me. Helping clean up is just part of the trip, gotta get it done ! I hope some day the amberjack and the red snapper i tagged get caught again. Next time ill be ready with my light tackle, now know what I need to do to catch em!

Nice trip guys...

Good trip man. I Stayed close to home and caught some slime bullets so you know where to start when u start getting mad at dem trout.

Nice trip guys!
Good to see ole JW he been MIA for a little while.

Yea I been on the DL, work been really busy. starting today I get every weekend off so ill have more time to fish, so ill be around ! Lol

Thats reeeel good to hear.
Promised the wife I wouldn't go fishing again this weekend....
May have to go friday afternoon instead! :p

Mako, the season ain't over yet! Ill be making more trips in the next few months fishing state waters. Its always funner to have a second boat! Ill get with you if yall wanna come too

Let me know. I just don't know any rigs that hold snapper in state waters.

Gotta go east

This is area we have been fishing. Further East than this?

Looks like state waters to me

Be careful in that boat cuz. Them seas can change at the drop of a hat.


"Its Just a Ride "

Go more east and water gets better closer.


"Its Just a Ride "

You are right. It isnt the safest thing in the world to do.
Its a calculated risk that we take. We do our best to keep the boat well maintaned and only go in ideal weather conditions. This atill does not guarantee that nothing will go wrong but you gotta take some risks every once in a while right?

We explain these risks to our guests before they come aboard.

Nice snaps mako...

Mines a 19 too......ish

Yes, faryher east. Just off rhe mouth of the river

Damn good day on the water!! Are they extending the snapper season any further?

The state red snapper season will continue on fri, sat, and sundays for a while longer in state waters (~ 10 miles out). Not sure when it is set to close.

Going to have to make one more trip to get you out there SpeckJackin. I know yiu didnt do any "speck jackin" in Casper Texas!:rotfl:

Dink let me know. Not sure how much further east we can go from Grand Isle.

Do you dock in Venice when you go East of the mouth of the river?

Its about the same milage, just closer to the coast. I stay west or south of the mouth and will go from G.I. Its damn near the same run as going down the river from Venice. Just not as dangerous

You gonna run across federal waters with a box full of snapper?

Excellent point. The rigs out of Empire have been excellent inthe past - no reason to think they aren't now - but unless you want to make a rolling left back to port, you're risking a whole lotta hassle and hurt.

Goid point.....just adds a little excitment. Havent seen even a WLF boat much less a FED boat yet this summer down there

I said the same thing last weekend.
Was on the water three Sautrdays in a row and didn't even see any type of GW.

Try putting one extra fish in the boat and they will appear out of nowhere. Like flies when you start cleaning fish.

In MS my buddy only fishes with a LA license. He leaves from BSL and runs south to the Biloxi Marsh which is in LA. He said a game warden told him as long as he doesn't stop and fish in MS waters he's fine. He brings 25 trout and cleans them right out on the cleaning table. MS limit is 15 and 14" minimum.

If you don't actually stop in Federal Waters to fish you should be okay.

I hide the extra fish under the Cocaine. They have yet to find them......

Just got a recapture paper from Tag Louisiana saying that the amberjack was caught 4 days after I tagged it. It was caught at the same location it was tagged at ! What the odds of that !! The fish was released again !

Dude got abducted twice in a week ! Damn.

That is one aggressive fish!

I wonder what the quickest tag and recapture timr is?

4 days is pretty quick!

trout ..One day

I tagged trout on the ship channel on a Fri and it was caught the next day by a HB&G boat close to same area