We covered a lot of water the last week. We had day trips to the LA Marsh, Cat Island, the near shore reefs, the Bay, and even a 3 day trip to the Cat Island House. Just glad we took a bunch of pictures to help re-cap all the fun. Should be a long report, here we go…
First and foremost, we would like to recognize the guys at SOUTHERN ANGLERS OF MISSISSIPPI (SAM’S CLUB) along with KEVIN DESSELLE (OWNER OF SPORT TRAIL TRAILERS). SAMS club and Sports Trail raised enough money to purchase the material to build the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Lab (GCRL) a brand spankin’ new fish hauling trailer. Desselle and his team atSport Trail donated their time and “know how” to construct a state of the art fish hauler. This device can now move fish from the hatchery to the Gulf, and or Vice Versa. The secretary for SAMS Club passed away this year, James “Boogie” Siewart. This trailer was constructed in his honor, and even has name on the front of it. He was very passionate about giving back to his home waters. Boogie was a good dude, and one heck of fisherman.
All 100% of funds raised by SAMS Club go directly into to what ever cause they are generating money for. Hats off to Kevin Desselle (SPORT TRAIL), and SAMS CLUB for an outstanding job!!!!
We had a nice stretch of weather, and took full advantage of it this past week. Some of the trips were our shorter near shore trips, and we ran a couple down to the LA Marsh. Capt Matt had the hot hand down in the Marsh this past week. He landed on a pile of red fish, and nice box of trout with the Heather Hebert crew. He said the were using live shrimp and cocahoes to find the fish, and then switching back to the Matrix soft plastics when the fish got rolling. Both live and plastics were fished under the Boat Monkey Popping corks.
I spent the majority of my week fishing near shore trips, in MS Waters. I got to see some of my regulars. Always a treat to “Catch Up” with my old friends. It was a treat to my friend Wendy McDonald out on the boat. She is hands down the toughest lady I’ve ever met. She brought her husband Mr Henry, Daughter Amy, 
and son in law Errol. We did a number on the trout, and son in law Errol was the top producer for the keeper sized specks. I had trouble finding live shrimp, so I got up early and cast netted a live well full of perfect sized finger mullet. The trout were crushing them on the Carolina Rigs. Errol had never fished much salt water in the Gulf, so we made time to play with the Sea Monster Black Drum. He and his wife Amy had blast battling those big brutes.
Our good buddy Mr Dean Taylor snuck a quick trip this past week as well. He also brought along his son in law for the ride. It was the same scenario as with Mr Wendy. We got to play with the trout a little bit, but had the most fun wrestling with the big drum. The coolest part of fishing with Mr Dean, was being able to fish TAYLOR REEF. Yes, Mr Dean is from the same TAYLOR family. His brother, Congressman Gene Taylor, was the driving force behind the near shore reefs along the MS Gulf Coast. Our last stop of the day was at Taylor reef, and as luck would have it, the fish were snappin’!
Finally got my hands on the new Okuma Helios spinning reel. This model has been completely re-done, and man is it sexy! The new Helios casts like a missile, and has a powerfully smooth drag system. We have been putting 20lb braided line on it, and just last week, it has whooped huge black drum, 40 inch bull reds, and gargantuan jack crevalles. This is only the 30 series, and it works as tough as a reel twice its size. Big fan of the new Okuma Helios!
Captains Kenny, Matt and myself did get to fish out at the Cat Island House on a 2 night, 3 day trip with Damon Crabtree and the crew from BASF. We had 9 guys out there for a little fishing, a pile of good, and whole lotta fun. We did a little of everything with these boys. We got to drift grass beds for some nice trout. We spent a lot of time working the shore lines for slot sized red fish. The high light of the trip though, was battling the big bull reds, jack crevalle and sharks. We had massive schools of big fish, just crushing schools of mullets and pogies. We would get the boats up wind of the chaos and drift through the acres of boiling fish. I don’t even wanna think about how many fish we
lost or broke off, but man did they love fighting those big fish on light tackle. My crew contributed a good amount to the fish pile, but it was all we could do to keep up with Capt Matt and Capt Kennys crew. Our last evening at the island was the only outing where we took home the top honors. The rest of the 3 days out there, Matt and Kennys crews were beating us like we owed them money…
Got visited from the Guice/Caplinger crew as well. The winds and seas were a little sporty for their visit, so we played it safe and stayed in close. Addy was the top producer that day. She got the big fish honors with a black drum that looked about 40 POUNDS! This young lady has done her homework, and is an absolute fishing machine. Casting, jigging, hook sets and fighting a fish, she knows her stuff. Always nice to see the youngsters with these skills. The only way for them to learn, is to keep them on the water. Nice job Mrs Addy.
Have to send out a big ole fat THANK YOU to Randy Deshamp with SHAMPS OUTDOORS, and Sid Leblanc with THE BOATHOUSE.
Randy was nice enough to build me a 112 pound thrust tiller handled trolling motor. Of course, as always, I was pressed for time, and my old 101 was on its way out. Randy got me squared away, and I was gonna make my afternoon charter(I thought). While I was installing the new one, I broke the brand new plug(totally my fault) while I was at the Boathouse. Enter Sid Leblanc. Sid was literally heading out of town for his annual dove hunt. He turned his truck off, and opened his shop back up. He not only got me a SECOND NEW PLUG, but helped me install it correctly!!! I was able to make my charter, and show off my brank spankin’ new Sherman tank of a new trolling motor. I will keep saying it, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. Having folks like Randy Deshamp (Shamps Outdoors), Sid Leblanc (The Boathouse), and Kevin Desselle (Sport Trail), Bobby and Emily Lamb (Atlantic Marine) they make the Shore Thing Chain unbreakable. Thanks again guys and gals for all you do for us, we really do appreciate it!
