SaltyCajun.com - Pecan Island Adventures!! 7/17/10

Late report but Saturday. Chris R., Avery C., and myself decided to go to Pecan Island in search of reds hoping to catch trout. (doesn't make sense but thats what it was)

Get out there early in the morning tried by the launch but the water was dirty and slack tide.

Went to Bertrand Canal fishing artificial and was getting a consistent nibble every cast but couldnt get any hookups, so we cast netted for shrimp at the end and caught us some live shrimp. Not before too long we landed a few short trout and a flounder. And found out that most of our bites were ladyfish. Water could of been better. So we left to find better water.

Next stop was at the first rig we could see out of the pass with BEAUTIFUL water. Thought for sure we'd get into some spanish or specs. We did not. We found tons of ladyfish and sharks, which was still awesome in the pretty water. I even cut a head off of a ladyfish and tied it to a rope and was casting it into the water and making the shark chase it all the way to the boat it was AWeSOME. Got tired of doing that for a little while so i just let the rope and ladyfish head sit in the water. Next thing you know theres a shark flying through the air on the opposite side of the boat!! The rope got tight and nearly swung him into our boat!!! After that i picked that out of the water and through the head to them.

So we picked up to get out of the sharks. Was about to tie onto the next rig and "what is that? A shark?" Our novice angler asked. " NO NO NO THATS A LING!!!" I said. Our novice (Avery) quickly grabbed a rod and threw it infront of our cobia and he immediately took the bait!! FISH ON! After a 10 minute battle with 12lb test and a 30 dollar shakespeare we net the first ling our boat ever saw. Called up my brother to get regulations on size and he was a keeper.

Moved to our next rig after passing by several others looking for ling and tripletail. And found the spaidfish very thick. I had some fun with them catching nearly every cast, while Avery and Chris were in the back of the boat fighting to keep their fish out of shark's mouth. Chris also hooked up with a nice Jack Crevalle that popped him off after nearly spooling his 12lb test.

Decided it was getting kinda late, but we saw a rip in the distance so we went look for triple tail being that none of us has ever caught one. After two minutes of trolling along the rip we see 2 huge cobia!! Scrambling for a rod i put on live shrimp tossing it right in front of them with no luck! Then chris accidently hooked some grass and the cobia chased it immediately being that it was big and moving. So I put a big live mullet on my curado and castaway bass rod and slung it in the front of him and BAM he hit it. FISH ON AGAIN!! Fought this crazy 50lb beast with another 30lber following him the whole time that this 30 minute battle went on. After 3 net attempts and many attempts of bringing him to the boat we were finally able to put a boga in its jaw. Then the fish head shook and yanked the bogas out of Avery's hand. All he had was an elastic band to hold onto. Chris responded and tried grabbing the handle but missing as the fish was thrashing, I put my rod under my arm ran and grabbed the handle throwing the fish inboard! My first ling FINALLY!!

After that we were pretty pooped but chris still needed his first ling so we searched and searched finding none in the rip. Went to another rig and BOOM big one. After Avery missed it chris put his bait in and the fish took, but the hook slipped out the mouth and he disappeared.

After that we called it a day and headed back in. Sorry for the long report but it WAS AWESOME.

PS if you look at the pictures of the ling battle you can see the other one beneath it in all pictures