Had a father and son from Michigan who spent the spring break down here hoping to fish all week. For the weather watchers you know we have had some wild weather down here. Top that off with a nightmare trip from hell, as they discribed it, the vacation was not going well. Bob calls me and asks if I can get him and his son into some good fish. The day turns out to be a wash out with tornados and violent lightning just north of us in the New Orleans area and us getting 3 plus inches of rain. He made a choice to stay around for another day and see if he could get one day of fishing in.
Yesterday I woke up to lightning and a repeat of the previous day. I called bob and told him we could not make it offshore but we should be able to get out for some fish after the storms pass. At 11:00 we get on board and head out. I make my way down the river at 25 mph holding back on the speed while watching my Garmin xm weather system closely as the storm system moves out of my targeted area. Once there we set up and start catching red snapper. After moving to several rigs with a lot of catching but nothing in the box I tell them to settle in and we are going for a ride. I roll 15 miles out and once there the water looks good so I set up a troll. It does not take long and we have a fish on. Bobs son gets the honors and before long we have something for a picture.
It is already 1:30 and we have 1 fish. I make several other passes but no takers. We change gears and jig for something. Dad gets hooked up with one on a spinning rod.
Some of these fish were good sized and I lost some into the structure. About 2:30 we got our second one and headed back in to see if the fish had started biting yet.
I was hoping for a tide change or the fish to realize the storm was over. We went back to rig hopping and this time we were able to get past the red snappers. We got several trigger fish but all were just short of the 14 inch fork length so all that good meat went back. We kept fishing untill about 5:00 and headed in. Every body rested well on the bean bags on the way in and woke up once I slowed down at the jump. We caught a lot but not much for the box. It was a mixed bag from croaker to wahoo.
They are looking forward to coming back this summer and getting in on the inshore and offshore fishing.
Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.
CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM
04-06-2012, 09:09 AM
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