25 Apr 2008

It was the end of Dad's week off; he'd been Cobia fishing two days, Bream fishing in Alabama one day, and hadn't made the slightest dent in his honey-do list. So I, being the good son I try to be, talked him into playing hookie for just one more day to help me scout for the following days Fishin' Chix Tournament. He not so reluctantly agreed, but said he couldn't be too late, that list was piling up! We decided to drive seperate vehicles so I could drop him off and continue fishing.

I got to my parents house around 0655, went in, made my good-mornings, and told Dad I was going to stop at Gray's B&T for some live shrimp and I'd meet him there. The drive to Gulf Shores wasn't too bad that early, and we were at the ramp and in the water by 0700. As I was trying to tie up the boat, I found, the hard way of course, that there were sporadic rocks on the bottom near the pier. Oh well, nothing that Accu-Prop can't fix.

Our first stop was a point in Bon Secour, We made one drift, got one blow up, and decided we need to go fish the bay before the wind started blowing any harder. By this time it was SE @ 15kts. There was an oyster reef a few miles from where we were, so we headed for that. Again, one drift and the wind increases to 20+kts. The SE shore is looking better and better, nice and calm; we shoot over there. Again, one drift, but this time the trolling motor wires get caught on the mount and get pulled out of the plug. Great! Perfect!... I get out the tools, and in about 5 min have us back up and running.

The wind hasn't let up, by now we're only a quick run to the Shellbank Reef. Off we go again! Persistence pays and we found three nice trout out on the reef, wind or not! Then my phone rings... Claudia, head Fishin' Chik, is having an interview with FOX News, and was hoping to have a boat and tackle to use for the shoot. I wasn't far away and the honey-do's were looming so we decided to call it a morning and started cruising in.

At the mouth of the ICW into Mobile Bay there's a place called Sailboat Bay. It's a nice little canal with lots of boat slips, neither Dad nor I could resist at least a fast run through there pitching shrimp. It took us maybe 15 min to cover 70% of the canal. We caught one small Speck and a Croaker: Dad did have one good hit that broke his line.

I dropped Dad off at the ramp, met Claudia, and waited for the camera crew to arrive. I had a good lunch at Lulu's and after the better part of an hour waiting, I left Clauida with a couple of rods and reels for props and began the journey home for a nap; tomorrow morning would come EARLY!