Sometimes things come together in the best of ways, especially when fishing is involved. Saturday I had the great fortune to fish with an entirely new crew of folks whom I was introduced to through my buddy Captain Roger. Actually, I’d met 2 of this group a year ago for just a brief moment at last year’s Pirates on the Gulf tournament weighin, and I remember at that time secretly wishing I could fish with them some day because of the impressive load of fish they had brought to the scales. Funny how things happen…….:angel
I met Delynn, his nephew Kais, and a big handful of their friends and family at the Bayou Texar launch around 8am. An offshore machine sat at the dock awaiting the day’s adventure, and as things were loaded up Kais and I decided to head across the street to Dizzy Lizzy’s for a bucket of shrimp. As usual, we got the star treatment and a loaded bucket to put in the livewell. With a crew of eight, we headed out for a day of fun! Delynn’s Cape Horn is accustomed to much larger game than what we were seeking, as he and Kais have loaded it with big amberjack, tuna, and grouper. Case in point and the fish that I remembered them for: Kais, last year at age 11, picked up the AL state record for speckled hind (“Kitty Mitchell”) at 31.1 pounds. Today, though, we were headed for the bay and a load of white trout for their family fish fry, and a few for my lab too.
Our first spot was on the Pensacola end of the threemile bridge. Delynn put the anchor out and we put down some cut baits. Schools of trout were moving through and gave some of the crew double hookups, like Lulu, who is all smiles with a pair:
This young lady is an excellent angler and stayed bowed up for most of the trip. We had some neat fish take baits, as Lulu shows with a cutlass fish, and a healthy one at that!
Kais and I made fast friends, as he was just as excited about the assortment of fish as I was, and he decided that he wanted to dissect one of them. A Fish Nerd in the making!!!!:clap
We moved around the bridge a little, and kept up with the white trout. My wierdest catch for the day was a rather large croaker- not strange in what species it was, but strange in the way he was caught. I felt the tension on my line and reeled him in, but he wasn’t hooked- not by my line, anyway, but the leader he’d broken off at some point before I’d encountered him was long enough to get wrapped around my line and snare him. That croaker was probably the biggest fish I’ve never hooked…..
On one of our passes around the bridge, family friend Willy got a solid bite with a run, and after Delynn backed the boat away from the pilings, a 24″ redfish came aboard. Not long after that, Delynn had one of his own, and Kais got in on the photo with his uncle:
This beauty was just over the slot at 28.5″, but was our biggest fish of the day. Lulu wanted in on a photo before Delynn released the redfish- it was the fastest fish photo session I’d ever witnessed!
A few more trout later, we took the first of the group back to the dock and returned to fishing. The trout were not interested in the live shrimp, and we began to wonder if we even needed them as almost all of the fish were caught on cut fish belly. Even more trout later, we made our second crew drop at the dock, unloaded a huge cooler full of white trout, and then there were three! We had a livewell full of shrimp, and Kais was determined to catch a redfish as well. Kais looked at me, I looked at him, we both looked at Delynn and I guess we had great puppy-dog eyes since they bought us the rest of the afternoon under the bridge! 
Why not- the day was gorgeous and the bay got even calmer as time went on, and the three diehards had a blast refilling the fish box, only we upped the diversity factor of the day.
We put the shrimp to good use and fished close to the pilings. Kais bowed up on what he thought would be his redfish…
Much to our delight, it was something with stripes…..
A beauty of a sheepie, and Kais’s expertise and finesse paid off- the fish hadn’t hooked himself but rather had looped the leader around one of its snaggled teeth. Bait thief, indeed!
We burned through a good many shrimp, inspired by Kais’s catch, and though thievery was rampant (no doubt there were other sheepies down there as well as bait-stealing pinfish) we brought in a small handful of grey snapper, and kept one monster pinfish for the lab. Delynn found fish feeding as his baits fell- a welcome surprise as he landed 2 pompano of about a pound and a half each. We moved a little farther down the bridge towards Gulf Breeze to try and hook me into a redfish, and on first cast I thought I had. Bam, zzzzzzz…… drag headed towards a piling and a few good runs- not a redfish but a fat pompano we guessed would be just over 2 pounds! All of the pomps were lit up with bright yellow bellies- beautiful fish. Another drift through the pilings, and I am hooked up again- drag pulling, head shaking, would this be my redfish? Delynn backed me away from the pilings and I walked the fish around- stripes came to the surface and I danced to the beat of black drum….. the Captain and the Nerd get a photo:
Paying respect to my biggest fish of the day…..
At this point we were beginning to realize that we were perilously low on bait. Kais didn’t seem to be the one to pass up an opportunity to dig in the livewell:
This is part of what I like about this young man- when he wasn’t bowed up on a fish, he was elbows-deep in bait/fish guts- no fear whatsoever!
Out of bait, we pulled out the fish that the three of us had caught on the final leg of our trip:
Final tally for the day- a cooler slap full of white trout (we guessed about 50 pounds worth), a handful of grey snapper, 3 pompano, 1 stud sheepie, 1 black drum. And a handful of lab specimens…… Sunday’s fish fry= absolutely divine!!:hungryHow could I turn that down????
I could not have asked for a better day Saturday- a great crew, some super new friends, beautiful day, a veritable seafood platter in the fishbox…… thanks so much to Roger for being the catalyst here, and to Delynn, Kais, and their family for having me aboard and sharing the family’s Sunday fish fry. :angel
