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capt hoop · #1 08-26-2013, 07:50 AM

The day before the forecast was to give us monsoon rains for the weekend I decided to have my morning coffee in the boat. It had been a few days since I killed anything. Put the bay boat in Empire so I could be close to home. Had a lot of things to do later in the day. Hit the jetties and did not feel good about the waters. The 3 boats there were doing nothing. Nothing in the area looked good. Knowing I had a busy day ahead I worked my way toward Empire. Hit one of my close honey holes and it was the fishing fix I needed.

Unfortunately the phone rang and my day started so I had to head in. On the way in one of the guys heading out with his aluminum skiff had engine trouble. I offered assistance but he waved me off. My boats all have bridles in them set up for that particular boat. I have used them several times. I watch this guy drift into shallow water and on to the rocks. I turn around and offer again and he swallows his pride. Towed him off the rocks and into the shrimp dock where he has his other boat.

As my day continues a friend and good customer Sheldon from Texas calls me and asked what I was doing this weekend. I told him I was open all weekend due to bad weather. He informed me I was now booked for 3 days inshore. We "Never" go inshore on a private boat but this is the "one" time I made an exception. The circumstances were different.

Friday we were limited to the west side and in close to the area due to high winds as well as the rains. The first keeper in the boat was a nice 28 inch tagged redfish caught by his son Brock.

The pick was slow but we had enough action to keep us out there most of the day.

We went through a lot of rat reds and catfish throughout the day. It was a catching kind of day with even a Jack Crevalle in the mix. It was hard to find any slot reds.

This boat had no GPS chip so it was useless and I even had to supply the Cajun Anchor. As the day went on we found a school of trout and picked away at them throwing back more shorts. We managed over 20 of them in the box to round out a nice catch for the first day.

The kids were very happy.

Day 2 was a total wash out. This is the kind of rain we have been getting. This was taken a few days before but we had 1.6 inches of rain Saturday. We tried but only came up with rats and cats. I also got am 8 inch mangrove snapper.

Basic weekend fishing.

On day 3 he wanted to come in early so the long trip home would be done mostly in daylight. We went to thee nearby place we had good luck on the first day. Things were 100% different and with some nasty storms coming right at us he decided to cut his losses and head for the barn. His boys were not happy with that decision but dad rules. On the way in we went through a nasty storm with high winds. Good thing we were in a very narrow pass and the rozos gave us some protection or the boat may have been flipped. I asked him if I could try one more place. I had not been there in about a year but I was desperate to put something in the box. He agreed and his kids were happy. This turned out to be the life saver of the day. On our first stop in these waters Dad finds the soft spot and the action is on.

It took us about 1 hour and a few moves and we were limited out. The boys wanted to catch and release but dad had the drive ahead of him so it was his call. A good ending to a very wet rough weekend.

1 trout, 1 black drum, and a limit of good slot reds rounded off a very wet weekend of fishing. Interesting note; While at the cleaning table we had 60 pounds of red fish. I told Brock we had 78 pounds Friday and he said "That's only because we had all those trout also." You should have seen the look on 2 guys standing there watching their redfish being cleaned when they heard "all those trout also". PRICELESS!!!

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

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM