Capt. Dennis “Doc” Henry began his morning on February 2nd with the hopes of catching a few tuna and making some money for his charter business. However, he ended his day paying for the trip himself and catching one of the biggest grouper ever landed in Louisiana.
When Capt. Henry is not taking out clients on his 27-foot contender “mule team” for his newly formed charter company(mule team charters), he is pulling teeth in Harahan. Capt. Henry is also known as Dr. Henry, being one heck of a fisherman and a very accomplished dentist.
“Doc” Henry tells his story as the morning began, saying, “We had a trip scheduled, but the people couldn’t make it down. The weather was the best it had been in weeks so we picked up the boat from Light House Boatsheds and Launched at Venice Marina.” It was at Venice Marina where the “mule team” was assembled. Capt Dennis Henry was joined by his son Capt Jim Henry, long time friend Robert Vinet (“groggy”), and Capt Lindsey Hurd a.k.a “aqua boy”.
Captain Bill “Cuz” Butler, part owner of Venice Marina, let team mule team know that many boats were heading to the famed Midnight Lump. “We decided to take another direction and look for wahoo,” tells Henry. Firing up the twin 250 Yamaha HPDI’s Henry and his crew headed out quickly to their first stop. Doc found some fish quick saying,“We trolled one rig in South Pass and went one for five on wahoo, landing a good 40lb fish as well as a black fin on a Braid Marauder.”
When Henry and his crew looked at the Garmin 2010 GPS, they realized that they were not too far from the lump. “We pulled up and counted 32 boats, and the seas were flat calm. Not many fish were being caught, so we pushed on and set up for some deep water grouper fishing,” tells Henry. Dennis and his crew of all-stars hooked to a rig in 450 feet of water and sent a bait down on his tackle specifically designed to catch big grouper. Henry describes his setup as the following: “I used a good three-pound mullet hooked to a snelled 15/0 circle hook (39960D), with 6 feet of 400lb test Diamond Momoi’s Mono. I like to use a 5/0 brass three-way swivel and connect a three-pound rock cod sinker. The only main line I have on my reels is 250lb Power Pro. We had just had a Shimano 30 LRS reel stacked with the heavy braid”. Henry went a step further with his rod, letting local rod guru Jimmy Gele (Professional Sports) build him a “Stump Puller.” Gele modified a 5 foot 6 inch Penn Mariner stand up with a 50lb class Aftco Bent Butt. Dennis really enjoys this set up saying, “I have fished this gear hard and caught hundreds of grouper on it, it is very difficult to break any part of it.”
“Doc” Henry and his crew let the big mullet soak on the bottom for a good 10 minutes with no takers. Well aware that there might be a murky layer on the bottom, Henry reeled up about 20 feet and bent down to get a soft drink. In his words, Capt Dennis tells the story, “The rod bent over and almost touched the water almost bending in half! I thought the rod was going to break before the 32lbs of drag would engage. We cut loose from the rig and slowly dragged the monster into the open water were our chances of landing him would be much greater. We kept working the lever drag, so we didn’t put too much stress on the fish.” After about 15 minutes Henry started fishing using the entire boat, he was actually walking backward from the bow to the stern. Henry would gain line by running to the front while reeling up the slack. The last few minutes of the fight were most exciting when “Doc” tells, “The whole fight lasted about 30 minutes, but the last 20 feet of line I couldn’t reel fast enough to keep up with the ascending grouper. The air sacks were filling up because of the change in pressure from crossing too many atmospheres.”
The fish actually breached the surface 30 feet from the boat when the entire Mule Team realized how big the fish actually was. It took 4 Aftco gaffs and another 30 minutes to get the sea monster into the boat. Henry admits, “for a good 10 minutes we all just stared at the big immense grouper. We took a few pictures and tried to stuff the fish into the 190-quart fish box with not much luck.” Back at the Venice Marina, with a little help from a bobcat, the big fish hit the docks and was loaded into Henry’s truck to get it to a scale. Capt Brett Falterman met up with Doc Henry at the shrimp dock at the mouth of Venice Marina. Falterman, a certified Biologist, certified that the fish was, in fact, a Warsaw grouper and took the necessary measurements. When it was all said and done the fish weighed a staggering 351lbs! The big Warsaw was 80 inches long and had a girth of 68 inches. Back at the cleaning table, the Mule Team learned that one fillet would weigh an amazing 76lbs.
A humble man, Doc Henry admits, “I was very lucky to get this fish, I have hooked several in the past, but my biggest ever was 120lbs. I don’t think I could have landed the big grouper without the help of my “Mule Team” crew.”
Having caught the fish of a lifetime, Henry stills has bigger plans for the future, “I think I need a bigger boat. The new 33 Contender would work just fine.”
For more info on Mule Team Charters fishing the lump out of Venice or Rig Fishing out of Cocodrie:
Capt Dennis L. Henry, DDS
Capt Dennis G. Henry
Capt Jim Henry
504-858-0965
www.muleteamcharters.com
Captain Sonny Schindler
Shore Thing Fishing Charters
Bay St Louis, MS
228-342-2295
www.shorethingcharters.com