I had two fishing charters this week and the wind seems to be the topic of all fishing conversations. Friday morning I picked my clients up from the cabins and headed south towards Barataria Bay with a stiff wind out of the south west at about twenty to twenty five miles per hour. Well when we got to the open water we were headed straight into two and a half to three foot waves. The water clarity was terrible as the beach was being hammered with the south west wind. We got behind a couple of islands and tried to fish some speckled trout but didn’t have very much luck with that. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion we needed to head back in to the pipe line canals and duck ponds to try our luck at boxing up some good old Louisiana red fish. It was a little slow at first however we stopped at one spot and hit payday with a good bite not too far from the fishing village where the cabins are. We started catching some nice reds one after the other. We had to throw a few back that were measuring fifteen and a half but manage to box up a twenty red limit with the four guys I had on the boat. They had a wonderful time catching the red fish and we took lots of pictures so they would have bragging rights when they got back to the office Monday morning. We also ended up with a limit of nice speckled trout. All fish were caught using live shrimp three feet under a popping cork. I found it very unusual catching speckled trout on the inside during the month of May however as I said before everything seems to be a little late this year. Everything is running about a month behind compared to the last several years. Funny how things are following the same pattern it is just happening one to three months after is normally does. When we got back to the cabins the guys again were good enough to help me clean the fish so it didn’t take that long to complete all the post fishing work I had to do. That is something I am very lucky with because if I have to do everything myself it can take up to three hours to get everything done. That night I let them use my fry daddy to fry up some of the fish we caught that morning and of course they invited me over to eat dinner with them and all I can say to that is it was good company as well as some good seafood. All in all that is what I call a fantastic day on the water. When the customers are happy with how the day went, well then so am I. Great fishing those guys and I look forward to our next trip. That was the end of the first day so I had one more day to get through with all the high winds we been having.
Well Saturday morning rolls around and it seem like the south west wind was blowing just as hard if not a little harder. It was no decision for me Saturday morning not to try to get out to the barrier islands to fish some of those big speckled trout we been catching so I just headed back into the marsh to some of the same pipe line canals and duck ponds we been fishing the last few days. Well being there real early in the morning made quite a big difference in regards to the bite. We started catching some nice reds as soon as we got there and it was pretty steady for the first few hours of day light. I was fishing two guys and there wife’s and boy did we have a great time. The two guys were on the back of the boat taking care of themselves while I was taking care of the ladies on the bow of the boat. One of the women had fished before so she didn’t need too much help but the other women it was the first time she had ever fished in her life. I threw the line for her most of the day but she really learned a lot during the course of the day. She learned how to keep the slack out of her line, how to set the hook, how not to slam the side of the boat with the fish as she was bring them over the side of the boat as well as many other simple things that we do on a fishing trip. It was a great experience for me to bring her to the next level of being a good fisher lady just knowing how she started off that morning not knowing what to expect. She was very nervous and was afraid to try anything and as the day went along she relaxed more and more and ended up having a fantastic time catching a bunch of fish. In fact she ended up catching the most fish out of anybody on the boat. She didn’t catch the biggest red fish but she can say she caught the most. I will be honest with you, I would rather bring someone like that fishing and watch them go from being scared and afraid in the early morning to being relaxed by the end of the fishing trip bragging in a nice way that she caught the most fish. It just brings a sense of joy to me knowing that she was going fishing simply to please her husband but ended up having a great time on the water herself. Now she will probably want to go fishing the next time her husband ask her if she wants to go spend the day on the water doing some fishing. Another great day on the water doing what I love to do.
