Best laid plans

[capt hoop]

Bart O., My buddy from ctfisherman.com and his friend John from New Haven, Ct. came down for Voodoo fest in N.O. The plan was to Fest Thursday in the quarter. Get up early Friday and come to my place for inshore fishing in Empire or Venice. Fish offshore Saturday and Sunday was open for fishing or a return to the fest.

Do not know where plans started to get changed but we made the best of things anyway. Thursday in the quarter was "Fantastic - Awesome". Friday was a little slow getting started. I get call them about 10:00 to find out where they were. I expected them here already. They are waiting for breakfast to be delivered. Proof of a GREAT night in the quarter. About 12:30 I get a call they were waiting for the ferry. From N.O. there is no ferry but some how they got directed by GPS down the east side of the river and were in Point a la Hache waiting for the Ferry to get over to the west side and come down Hwy 23. When they finally arrive it is too late to go to Venice so we launch in Empire and stay local. We were bouncing around trying to find a place where the water was clean and the wind was not whipping.

Bart got the first keeper red.



We looked in many places and all we could find was rat reds. At one place we found a lost trout. When I say lost I mean it. That was the only bite we had there and it did not even look like trout water. It was 13.5 inches long.



John was not having any luck and I wanted so much to put him on something. I even managed a nice flounder but he was just basically watching. Don't get me wrong he was trying and knows how to fish well but it was not happening for him. He did manage a short black drum. As the sun was getting low John nails a good redfish. His first redfish ever but not his last.



Even though it looks calm the rozos are all bending over in the above picture. I used every bit of the day and started heading in as the sun set.



It was dark when we got the feeble catch to the cleaning station.



Thus ended a day that just never got on track as planned.

The next day with 12-22 mph winds forecast and a 5.9 ft. sea buoy the offshore trip was not going to happen. We decided to put a dent in the trout population. Bart starts it off.



After watching us most of the day yesterday John decided to show us what he could do.



and he put a hurting on them for sure.



with 2 at a time more than once.



We had over 50 trout and the bite slowed so we went on the hunt for redfish. A few of my buddies went down the river for redfish but I stayed up near Venice. We found reds but nothing was a keeper. All 14 and 15 inches. I even went to the beach where I thought there may be something but the wind had everything dirty as heck. I managed a flounder and we lost another. We caught small croaker, reds, and hard head catfish. I wanted to head into the wagon wheel and yellow cotton area but they were ready to come in with a very good fishing day under their belts. At the dock 2 of the boats that were with us fishing trout and went down river had the same redfish luck as we did. One of them got 1 slot limit fish and the other had 2 of them. It was a good day overall.

With the offshore winds for Sunday making it impossible to get offshore, the city was the order of the day to put the finishing touches on the trip to god's country.

I did manage to send them back with a cooler full of vacuum sealed fish frozen and wrapped for transport back to Connecticut.



I had a great time with Bart and John even though nothing went as planned. We caught some nice fish and had a lot of laughs. They are already planning on a return trip. John wants to lock in next years voodoo fest weekend.

Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM

[vittok]

As always, good job Capt!!!

[capt hoop]

Even though the plans were not fulfilled I can honestly say the 2 days they had here were very good and from what I hear the 2 days at the Voodoo fest were as good or better.

Did not go as planned but could not have planned it better.

Life is Good!

[hubcap28]

I was one of those out there with ya. A pleasure fishing out there.