We had a break in the weather this pass weekend so we took advantage of the opportunity to get out on the water and catch some beautiful speckled trout. I had a company from Baton Rouge Louisiana that checked into the cabins this past weekend for some relaxation and fishing. They arrived Friday afternoon about three o’clock and started cooking some old fashion bayou style food for there clients. It was about dark thirty when everyone had arrived and the party was in full swing. I was able to get over there to get plate myself and also to meet everyone. It turned out to be a great bunch of guys that worked in the refinery industry and everyone seem to be pretty good fishermen. Telling stories about trips in the past we had a lot to talk about. I could see how the hole concept about building memories that I talk about all the time was in full display. It seem like every time some one would finish a story about one fishing trip someone would pick up where they left off and began telling a new story about something that had happen to them on another fishing trip. Remember I say all the time the amount of fish you catch hardly ever is remembered but the events that happen during the course of the day will stick in a persons mind forever. Those guys told story after story about different things that has happen to them on different fishing trips and it seem like the stories would never stop. I going to tell you how our fishing trip was in just a minuet but I want to remind you of something that is very important about spending time on the water. I want you to practice this the next time you have the opportunity to go fishing. I want you to pay closer attention to the ride out early in the morning just as the sun is coming out of the marsh. Notice the cloud deck and how the sun begins to light the cloud deck up right before the sun starts to rise up from the edge of the marsh. When you pull up to your first spot early in the morning notice the shrimp raining on top the water over the shallow oyster reefs. Of course you should be able to look in just about any direction and see sea gulls diving and feeding on the shrimp and other bait food that is jumping out of the water trying to get away from the speckled trout and other big fish. Take the time to look at almost any pilling that is sticking out of the water and see the brown pelicans fighting over who is going to get the last pilling to rest for a while. Notice how the wind most of the time is very calm early in the morning and wants the sun comes up the breeze seems to come out of no where. Each and every day the out doors has a very special way of waking up and coming alive. Those are the little things that I notice every time I am on the water with a group that unless you are looking for it you will never see what is really the most important sights of the fishing trip.
Well it is also very important that after taking in all the sights that mother nature has to offer, that you catch some fish, after all that is why you are out there in the first place. So I picked the costumers up from the log cabins right before first light. By the time we had all the drinks iced down and everyone decided what boat they were going on, we headed out. It was a perfect morning with a slight breeze hitting us in the face out of the southwest at about five miles per hour. We headed south across Barataria Bay towards the barrier islands with out a cloud insight. Arriving at our first spot very early I showed the guys how I like to hook the live shrimp. I fish with number six double extra strong trouble hooks three feet under a popping cork and it is very important how and where you hook the live shrimp. I like to hook the shrimp under the horn in the head but in front of the black spot. the black spot in the head of a shrimp is his brain. I always tell my customers to hook the shrimp right in front of the black spot and under the horn because he seems to look and swim most natural that way. Once that was taken care of we went to work. It was one of those days that we could not do anything wrong. The bite was fast and furious as the guys was bring them over the side of the boat one after the other. All I keep hearing was “Fish On” get the net and hey we need more live shrimp in our bucket. It was all I could do to keep up with taking speckled trout off and keep the bait buckets filled with live shrimp. Most folks don’t realize it but when you get into a bite like that it only takes about one and a half hours to box up one hundred speckled trout. As the baskets were filling up I was noticing that the guys was not paying any attention to how many we had on board and they were just focused on catching the next fish. It was about eight thirty when I started to count the trout in the baskets when I had to tell them that we could only catch and keep eleven more trout. We had already boxed up eighty nine trout and only needed eleven more to make a one hundred trout limit. Well that added some real challenge to who was going to catch the last one. They had more fun seeing who was going to catch the last one then anything else on the trip. All in all it was another fantastic day on the water.
