Cocodrie Charters

[MuddRunner]

Hey Guys, Just wanted to share a recent trip that myself and a couple of guys from work went on with Cocodrie Charters this past Monday and Tuesday.

First off, I can't say enough good things about Mr. Jim Kessler and his team at Cocodrie Charters. He runs a first class operation and everyone who works there makes you feel at home. They all have personalities that are easy going and with each one of them you feel like you have known them forever. Their goal is truly to make your tip the best experience it can be and help create memories that will last a life time.

Monday morning we woke up to coffee and an all star breakfast that consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, homemade biscuits and hash browns.

After breakfast we were paired up with our guide for the day, Capt. Aaron "Ice man" Laurant and the other guys in our group were heading out with Capt. Henry "Road Runner" Smith. We left the covered boat shed at 5:30am and headed east. Made a quick stop for bait at the bait boat and by 6:30am we had lines wet and soon the trout were flying in the boat. We went to a couple of spots early and caught about 30 trout by 8am.

At about 8:30 we pulled up to one spot, started making some cast and only coming up with a few, but Capt. Aaron, had nothing but faith that this spot would start producing as soon as the tide would start to drop. So we fished there till 10 am, catching the occasional sting ray, trout, and two great bull reds. And then all of a sudden, like a light switch flipped on and it was trout after trout. almost every cast was a trout. It was fast and furious for a good hour solid. With the occasional shake offs and undersize trout being released, we ended the free for all with close to 70 really nice trout total.

Still being early in the day, we kept moving trying to close the gap on our limit.

During the trip, Capt. Aaron waited on us hand and foot, and damn near dared us to unhook a fish ourselves. He was even baiting our hooks! By the end of the trip I was telling him "thank you daddy" every time he would take a fish off my line or bait my hook! Capt. Aaron is a first class individual and a high caliber fisherman and guide. He knows the limitation of his equipment, he knows his fishing grounds and he knows how to put you on the fish!

The whole time Capt. Aaron and Capt. Henry, stayed in close communication if one of the boats in our group was doing well, they would make room for the other. Great team work!

About noon time our stomachs were growling, so Capt. Aaron pulled out of the ice chest a homemade New Orleans style Po-boy for each one of us. That hit the spot like no other and opened the door for a few early celebratory drinks.

Now, with full stomachs again we were ready to fish the rest of the day. We got a call on the radio from Capt. Don Chauvin, who was fishing on his off day. He gave us a tip on a few spots that he was on and we headed that way. The report from Capt. Don was to throw some plastic and let the live bait soak in the live well, so we did. And he was right, plastic was what they wanted. We tied on double rigs and started yanking them in. We finished the trip with 89 nice trout, 2 reds and a flounder.

Cruised back in to the camp. Getting back about 2:30pm, we retreated to our rooms for some freshening up while Capt. Aaron and Capt. Henry unloaded the boats and started cleaning the fish. By the time we got down stairs, the fish were clean, bagged up and iced down in our ice chests.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the covered patio, drinking a few and ribbing each other about the days follies.

For supper, we were treated to some fresh, and I mean FRESH pan grilled speckled trout covered with an out of this would sauce, homemade scalloped potatoes and boiled corn on the cob. After supper we listened to some great stories Mr. Kessler shared with us about his days as a distributor for Fountain Sport boats. Great Stories!

We went to bed early and woke up the next morning to do it all over again.

We had a great time with plenty of great memories made! Cocodrie Charters knows how to do it right!

Mr. Jim Kessler has a phenomenal team at Cocodrie Charters. He also has a very eyes wide open mentality when it comes to rates. They believe you should know upfront what your cost of the trip will be. Everything is included in there price. There is no additional fuel, bait or ice charges.

I will definitely be going back to Cocodrie charters. If you get the chance to go, you will not be disappointed.

[swamp snorkler]

Nice report

[calcutta37]

Nice

[I make oil]

Excellent report. Sounds like a good time.