I had the only offshore boat for the weekend and there were several guides from surrounding services the helped out and provided boats to fill the inside trips. I never got to see them because I fished long hours but I hear that the chests were filled to the brim with trout and reds.

Offshore the guys decided that they wanted to fish the tournament(variety) so we traveled long and hard. Friday found us on the board with amberjack, lemons, bonita and a whopping 10+ pound mangrove. We ended the day with a boat limit of amberjack, I think 4 lemons, about a half dozen snapper and whole slew of other fish. Total count was probably around 600 pounds of fish. It was rough and we got our butts kicked by mother nature making the long run.

Saturday we had a request for a repeat performance so we made basically the same run. The AJ were a little smaller this day and we were booted off the board but only by about 2 pounds. The lemon fish were bigger and we booted ourself off the board. We also secured our spot in the red snapper catagory with a lone 21 pound snapper.

The guys had a doubtful look on their faces when I warned them about the chaos that ensued when there were multiple lemon fish swimming around the boat and everyone was hooked up. I think that I made believers out of them. We had one in the boat, 2 others hooked up when the reinforcements of 4 more lemons arrived at the boat to see what the confusion was all about. One customer hooked onto the same lemon 3 different times. The first 2 times he spit the hook and came right back for more. The third time he hit a chick dolphin that we threw to him and with part of the bait still hanging out of this mouth a UFO came along and cut the line. Not a problem, I promised chaos and here it comes. Kirk had his lemon wore out and it was circleing boat side and the other one just would not leave. He kept hitting the hooked lemon, so out comes the 6 foot gaff. Roger Just could not understand why I kept telling him to grap my ankles. One gaff in place and he learned quickly. Thanks Roger for keeping me from swimming with the fishes. A few minutes later and there were 3 leomns flopping on the deck at the same time, people were looking for a tree to climb in the middle of a center console Hydra Sport. Chaos baby, I love it. My deck hand picks on me to this day at how excited I get when lemon fish show up. I hope I never loose that excitement and now certain members of the wonderful Shaw Group have caught the same bug.

I believe that we finished with 7 1st and 2nd place plaques and missed best boat by 2 points. It was a wonderful time with really good people. Thanks guys and I will see you next year.

A special thanks to Hot Rods, Dream Catcher, Chad Dufrene, Blazing Tails and Marsh Masters for supplying overflow boats to make sure that everyone that wanted to fish had the chance. We ran a total of 17 trips in 2.5 days. I like to see a bunch of guys working together.

I have pictures from the inland trips as soon as I get the camera working (Loaner). The offhsore camera was left on the boat that is getting a new lower unit this week, as soon as I get the pictures back, I will post them. Highlights should be available in about 3 weeks on Paradise Louisiana, Thanks Gary Rispone.

For a good day on the water, give us a call, we would love to have you. If you have been trying to call, I apologize for any delay in returning your call, from the post above, you can see it has been a long W/E followed by a period of deep coma in an effort to recover.

The trout trips have been spotty with most of the fish being caught on the incoming tide in the mornings. With all of the wind and the rain, the outgoing tide has been muddy as hell and the fish turn off. The reefs behind the island have been good and we know that the trout are stacked on the beach, we just have not been able to get to them.

Looks like the weather is starting to straighten up and it should be a good weekend.