04 Nov 2007

With no customers calling for today I invited my sister (Andrea) and brother-in-law(Aaron) to join myself, my wife(Shawn) and our son(Cameron) for a morning of fishing. We met at GLYC, along with my Dad (who brought Cam from his weekly sleep-over at the grandparents' house, at 0615. Once the boat was floated and loaded we made the short run to the White Trout hole.

Within minutes the catching began. We stayed there for an hour and a half and must have boated 50 or so trout. It was a fish bite that I'm sure my brother-in-law and sister have never before experienced. If we would have gone home right then, it would have been a very successful outing by most anyone's standards, but we pressed on (me vowing to find bigger fish). I spent ten minutes throwing the net to catch some small pinfish to take to the Pass.

We made the run to the Navy turn basin and made a drift for Kings using a few of our White Trout as bait. No luck there, so back to the Pass for a drift with our pinfish in hopes of finding a Bull Red.(For the Dyslexic, it's a fish, not an energy drink)The first drift was a success! Shawn, connects with her first redfish, and it's a brute, 38". Our next drift and my lil' sis hooks into about a 7lb sail cat!



We decide to spend the rest of our time trying to find the reds in the Gulf. We ran down the beach in search of birds; it wasn't long before we found them. The birds were working over a school of small Spanish Mackerel, of which my son caught one, and we moved on.

About a mile further down the beach I saw a nice king sky-rocket so I pulled it back and set out two White Trout to slow troll. Five minutes later and the 12lb rod starts SCREAMING. It was so fast I think it spooked Aaron; who stood there looking at the rod as if it had just come alive. He grabbed it and the fight was on! Five minutes later we had a 20lb king at the boat. We didn't want to kill the fish, so instead of putting the steel to it, I tried to get the fish close enough to grab for a quick pic before release. Unfortunately the hook pulled before I could get a hold of the fish.




We reset and ten more minutes of trolling produced Cameron's first King. He did an excellent job and I really wanted a pic of him with this fish, it was longer then he is tall...literally. But again, I didn't want to kill this fish, and before I could boat him, the hook pulled. this fish was every bit of 25lbs plus.

Right as Cam was bringing his fish boat-side I looked up to see the Redfish turning the water white with froth as they mercilessly pummelled the bait. As soon as Cam's fish was gone we headed that way, still trolling our White Trout. As we neared the crazed school, BOTH of the White Trout get eaten. I turn towards the reels and see one of Pensacola Fishing's greatest sights... the water behind the boat had turned completely RED. There must have been dozens of big Reds SWIMMING ALONG WITH THE BOAT. I start yelling for everyone to get baits in the water. Aaron's first in, and first on, immediately followed by everyone else. By the time I realize what we've done, we have FIVE fish on. Big props here to my son, who at six, handles a fishing rod with expertise. He moves around the boat, following his fish, pumping and winding like a little pro. What a proud father am I.



We caught 8 Reds total before I realize that it's now 1145 and we're supposed to be providing the fish for our lunch at 1230...time to go. We got back to the ramp, loaded the boat and shot over to my parents house. Once there we cleaned the few White trout we'd kept for lunch, Dad fired up the fryer, Mom added the grits, beans and Cole slaw and we all enjoyed an exceptional meal.



Here's to great fishing, fresh fish lunches, and a family that I can share the experience with. I love you guys.

Capt. Josh

UPDATE from 21 Oct 2007

The show will air this Sat. 3 Nov. at 1730 on BLAB TV

28 Oct 2007

I fished this morning with Mike, his wife Kent, and their good friends John and Marcia. I picked them up at their home on Perdido Bay at 0800 and, with the cool morning temps and the NNE wind at 15 kts, made a quick dash into Big Lagoon.

The White Trout bite has been good lately, and it was great for us today! From the moment we arrived at our destination, until we left, our rods were bent. We were using a 1/4 oz grub head with any number of baits attached, mostly GULP!s and D.O.A. tails.

Along with the White Trout, we caught a couple of Small Blue Fish,and Kent caught 4 or 5 baby Barracuda! We kept having big Bluefish, 5-7lbs, biting our fish in half. No matter what we tried we could not get them to eat any bait all the way to the hook. One bite on the back half of a bait and that was it.

During the course of an hour and a half we probably caught between 75 and 100 White Trout, 12 ended up in the cooler. Everyone caught plenty of fish and a good time was had by all. Finally someone mentioned home and grilled trout for lunch. Mike said, with a big grin on his face, "Just one more and we'll go."

I took them home, cleaned their fish and they had the grill fired up by 1215. What an awesome morning!

Thanks again to Mike, Kent, John and Marcia for today. I hope to see you soon.

21 Oct 2007

I got a call from Claudia last night, wanting to get some footage for Fishin Chix T.V. I'd love to tell you all about it but I don't want to give anything away.

So look for the episode airing on BLAB T.V.

I haven't recieved the airing times/dates but I'll post them as soon as I find out.

14 Oct 2007

I met one of the Fishin' Chix, Jackie, and her husband Fred, at Galvez at 0630 and headed into Big Lagoon in search of Specks and Reds. As we rounded the corner of Big Lagoon state park we were slapped in the face by a stiff east wind at 10-15. Our first drift netted us just 1 blow up and our following two drifts netted us absolutely nothing.

A quick run to the next flat and we score with a small flounder and a few baits cut in half, probably small bluefish. Our next move brings us away from the Specks and to an area that's been holding WhiteTrout. These fish have been pretty reliable for the past 10 days or so. Well... not today. It took us almost a half a dozen wind blown drifts to catch just 4 fish. The bite was definitely off.

We moved again, this time to a dock that has had reds, flounder and snapper on it lately. A few small snappers fell victim to our offerings along with two big croakers. We burned through 3 dozen shrimp in a hurry, losing most of them to pinfish. Never did we see a flounder or redfish.

Still looking for any kind of bite, we made the run back to fish Old River. Near the end of our first drift there we finally encountered our target quarry the Speckled Trout. I think the only trout around for miles! Our time was running short so we hit one last spot on Interrarity Point. But after another 15 min without a bite we decided to call it a day.

Although the fishing was slow, I know it could have been worse...we could have gotten skunked!

Thanks again Jackie and Fred, you guys made an otherwise slow and boring day very enjoyable. I look forward to our next outing together.

Capt Josh

13 Oct 2007

After rescheduling from last weekends endless wind, I met up with Dave and his dad Charlie this morning at 0600 in Bayou Texar. We began the morning catching Menhaden, the baits sure weren't very cooperative. But after 45 min and a little help from a friendly fisherman( who had crushed the baits with one well placed throw and had plenty of baits to spare), we were on our way to the 3-Mile Bridge.


The bay was slightly choppy with a 6-9 kt NE wind, perfect conditions to fly a kite! And fly the kite we did. Our spread consisted of 5 baits: 2 suspended from the kite, 2 flat lines, and one bait deep on the down-rigger. 10 min in to our drift the 12lb outfit on the flat line starts singing! Dave grabs the rod and here we go on our first King of the day. Dave quickly subdued the fish and as he got the fish within gaff range we realized that this was actually the biggest Spanish Mackerel that either of us has ever caught, 8 lbs!


We get reset and again, 10 min or so later, the other flat line starts screaming. This battle ends with a 15 lb King shaking around in the ice. The moment the fish hit the ice the flat line gets hit again. This was to be the first of 4 small sharks we caught in the next 30 min, all of them around the 2-3 ft range. Then we got to watch a small mackerel chase one of the kite baits around for about 5 min. The fish just kept chasing the bait, then swimming off then back again to chase some more, then swim away, then back again. It was neat just to get to watch a predator pursuing his quarry.


We finally decided to pick up and run to Navy Point and try our luck there. As the lines were being brought in the small 12lb rod, spooled w/20# power pro, starts really dumping line, what seems like a BIG king. Dave does an excellent job of fighting the beast and manages to bring the fish boat-side in under 10 min. Only when we see the fish it's not the 30+ lb King we were hoping for, but a 40-45lb Black Tip Shark. The shark made several more runs and we got him back to the boat 2 more times before he finally wore through the leader. On that note we hurried along to the base.





We continued drifting once we got to the base, and got the bite we'd been talking about all day. This King got airborne , big time!!! Right on the kite bait, no more than 80 feet from the boat! It was awesome! Another 15lb fish for the grill. Shortly after, the down rigger produced our last bite of the day, resulting in a cut off. Time to head home for some lunch and a nap!


We returned to Bayou Texar around 1130, took a few quick pics and cleaned our catch. Dave had a few nice fillets he'd already picked out for the grill and was itching to go home and get them started.





Thanks again Dave and Charlie, I had a great time, can't wait to do it again!



Capt Josh

PBGFC Inshore 29 Sept 2007

The alarm clock sounded at 0345. Man that's early! I drove to my parents house to pick up my dad, our friend "Scoot", and my boat, that I'd left the night before in preparation for today. We got to the ramp and were in the water by 0445. Lines in at 0500 and the fishing begins.we started by flipping live shrimp under the dock lights until the sun came up. This resulted in 6 or so small Specks and 1 underside redfish. Once the sun was up we moved and began dropping shrimp in a little deeper water that got us into big pinfish and a couple of missed bigger bites. From there it was onto the grass flats where we found our biggest Trout of the day at around 2 lbs.

Another move and, while looking for a redfish, we got into some really nice Mangrove Snapper and a bonus Scamp. Not our target species, but great in the grease anyway. Four snappers later we made a short run and found our flounder, we caught three, all about the same size. Lacking only our redfish for the slam we dedicated the remainder of our time in search of a fish that was as elusive as affordable health care. Well, I pay through the nose for insurance and couldn't find a redfish either! We did manage to find a Spanish mackerel that was around 4.5lbs but no matter how hard we tried we couldn't turn him into a redfish!

In all it was a great day, spent with good people. The target fish didn't exactly cooperate, but we had a lot of fun... which is the important part anyway! Thanks Dad and Scoot, and yes we're on for next year!!