Editor’s Note: This story was dug up in lieu of the upcoming 2017 Fourchon Oilman’s Association Invitational Fishing Tournament at Moran’s Marina in Fourchon, Louisiana. Sonny Schindler shares his experience while participating in a previous year’s event…
It was my turn in the tower when the reel started screaming on the deck. I never saw the fish hit, but judging from the line emptying off the 50 wide, it was something big for sure. My buddy Nathan Guice was in the chair, and he was getting harnessed in. The boat owner, Charlie Caplinger was hollering, “I saw it hit! Looks like a pretty good marlin!” While I was doing a horrific job on the controls trying to back down on the fish, the yelling never stopped. Some were cheers and other phrases were NOT complimentary of my boat handling skills. With just a few wraps of line on the reel, Charlie was in the tower taking over. He knew I had never run a boat with electronically synced controls and he quickly got us moving in the right direction. I slid down to the deck, chewing humble pie the entire way down; I was supposed to be the pro on the boat.
Nathan handled the billfish like a seasoned veteran. You could tell the big fish was wearing him down, but he never gave up. His brother Billy kept pouring cold water on him and we both cleared the line of heavy sargassum grass clumps. When the wind on touched my hands, Charlie yelled down, “Now pull that sucker in and let’s pop a tag in him.” The estimated 250-pound blue marlin would be Nathans first, we tagged it, took some pictures, revived it, and released it to fight 
another day. By day’s end, we added several nice dorados to our fish box for supper!
This was just Day 1 of our four-day adventure in the Gulf of Mexico. We were making our way from Venice, LA to Fourchon, LA to fish the Fourchon Oilman’s Rodeo. I was invited to fish along side some my good friends who own a supply boat company, Guice Offshore. We were fishing on our buddy’s (Charlie Caplinger’s) immaculate 45 Cabo express, The Rebellious. The rodeo did not begin until that midnight, so the marlin would not count toward our team. It did, however, give us a good area to start the next day, and really boosted our confidence. It was just an amazing catch for everyone on board.
We met up that evening with the rest of the Guice Offshore Fishing Team. Asa Moss, Ben Brakel, David Schyd, Kell Zubic, and Daniel Robinson joined us for the Captains Meeting at Morans Marina. What a spread! There must have been over 500 people in this tent. Gourmet food, drinks, along with a constant flow of door prizes kept everyone there entertained. We ran into countless old friends and made many new ones. The majority of the people turned in early, knowing it was gonna be a long two-day tournament.
The next morning, we were all up early. Half of the team hopped back on the big boat, and the other half opted to fish inshore in bay boats they brought down. Keep in mind, this rodeo had dozens of categories and prizes were given for the top 5 places. Species from catfish to marlin were recognized.
After a comfortable run east, we picked up our weed line that we fished the day before. There were boats scattered all over the gulf. The larger vessels were headed way south to fish the deep water floating rigs and drill ships. The “go fast” boats were headed to Green Canyon. Flat calm seas made any run, that much easier.
It would be a picture perfect weather day, but a slow day on the trolling. The radio chatter indicated that most everyone in range was having slow fishing as well. We did nab a few big triple tail sitting under a floating piece of debris. We decided to pull the lines early and try our luck for grouper. We used sabiki rigs to catch a dozen hand sized hard tails on a rig in West Delta in about 350 feet of water. We were dropping baits near the rig on a “stump puller” I had brought along. Three hundred pound test mono and two pounds of lead were all rigged to a 16/0 circle hook. No bait lasted longer than 20 seconds before it was inhaled. Sadly, none of the fish that bit were in season. Huge amberjack and gigantic red snappers ate all of our bait in a matter of minutes. We took a few pictures, released the fish and headed back to Fourchon.
For the last day of the rodeo, we decided to fish the shallower rigs for cobia. We traded the trolling rods for big spinning set ups. It would be a run and gun day of jigging small oil rigs. It was exhausting but very fun. The action was constant, but not entirely what we were looking for. The big red snappers, jack crevalle, and sharks were beating the cobia to our lures. Since jacks were a category in the rodeo, we kept a few. The funniest part of the day was when Daniel gaffed one of the jacks and put it in the fish box. The fish bled all over the deck and Charlie was in the tower, speechless. Daniel yelled up, “how many jack crevalle do you normally fit in this fish box?” This would be the equivalent of asking a Rolls Royce owner, “how many goats can you fit in the back seat of this thing?” It got a chuckle out of everyone, Charlie too.
Back at the weigh-in, the dock in Fourchon was where all the action was happening. Everything from flatboats to 100-foot sport fishing yachts lined the dock. We had a few jacks and big mangrove snapper to weigh in. A few of our fish were on the board for a minute, but they all were knocked out. With so many people 
fishing, the fish that were brought to the scales were impressive. We saw a warsaw grouper in the 300 POUND range weighed in, it was the size of a couch! Huge tuna, dolphin, sharks, mackerel, grouper and many more species made for a memorable scene that afternoon. Many of the big sport fishing yachts had billfish flags flying high in the outriggers as well.
The awards ceremony was attended by everyone. The door prizes were out of this world. Ice chests, sunglasses, tackle, ATVs, generators and much more were given out for hours. Several members of our crew names were drawn for some high-end prizes.
I have fished several big tournaments over the years, but nothing like the Fourchon Oilman’s Rodeo. Pardon the pun, but it truly is a “very well-oiled machine.” Everything is bigger, including the money raised for local charities. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are raised annually. Being part of such a special event is better than any trophy. That does not mean we will not be back next year, trying to win it all…
As always, have fun and be safe.
Capt. Sonny Schindler
Shore Thing Fishing Charters
Bay St Louis, MS
www.shorethingcharters.com
228-342-2295