Well, the fishing trip started with a bang – literally. If you read my earlier post, you know about my dilemma regarding fishing during the rut. This is the best time of year for deer hunting. It is the time when bucks are moving around looking for does. In most of Texas, it is also during the first two weeks of the season, which is also called doe season. It’s hard to leave town during that time, but that is when the boat was going, so the #OldManInTheWoods is getting his fishing rod packed.
I had a little more cooking to do first. The chili and creole sauce was safely in the freezer; time to get ready for breakfast. One of my goals for this trip was to get us on the water within an hour of the time the alarm clock went off. This is a challenge because this is a big breakfast crew. I’m talking sausage, eggs, biscuits, and occasionally gravy. It’s possible but everything has to go like clockwork – and with the #OldGuys not much goes like clockwork.
I had a plan to speed things up. Part one of the plan – scratch the gravy. That just takes more time, adds to the clean-up hassle, and the #OldGuys don’t really need the extra calories anyway. Part two is to pre-cook the meat. So the final breakfast menu was:
Monday – Biscuits, scrambled eggs, and bacon (baked in the oven on Thursday and frozen).
Tuesday – Breakfast burritos. Sausage, onions, and peppers pre-cooked and frozen.
Wednesday – Biscuits, fried eggs, cheese grits, and sausage (pre-cooked on the grill and frozen
Thursday – Re-run of the breakfast tacos
Friday – Re-run of Monday
I have to tell you about the pre-cooked meat. I learned the tricks about bacon and sausage from two generations of my family. My father-in-law taught me to grill sausage patties. You know, when you cook sausage in a skillet the kitchen is a mess with little spots of grease everywhere. I also usually manage to make it look burnt. When it’s cooked on the grill, the grease all goes away magically and if you watch it you don’t get the burnt pieces. The added bonus is you get those pretty grill marks. It just works – thank you Dad! The bacon lesson came from my son, #EagleScout. Just like with the sausage, baking your bacon eliminates most of the mess, and you get a consistently nice looking piece of bacon. I under-cooked each of these just slightly so I could finish them in the microwave.
So, all of the pre-trip cooking was complete. The next step in the fishing trip protocol is the shopping trip and the packing. In a previous post, I talked about how not to do the shopping. Even though #TSip was going with me on this trip, I was determined to beat the four-hour record. We started on Thursday night with a review of the grocery list and an inventory of the items we already had in stock at the Blue Hole, spices, canned goods, etc. The plan was to come back to the Blue Hole Friday evening, load the camp supplies, then buy groceries Saturday morning.
Now, before you forget, this is primo deer hunting time. So, the #OldManInTheWoods had an idea. Go out Friday afternoon, get in a few hours hunting at the Blue Hole, then meet #TSip to load supplies. Of course, that was the day God sent that doe out in the almost-perfect position for a shot. I waited about 20 minutes while she browsed around. I hoped she would move a little closer, but she never did; just back and forth under the oak tree. Just before dark she gave me a good look – decision time. She was standing there with her head down, browsing. I took the shot, and about that time she raised her head and turned slightly, but I could tell she was hit.
Now, when you shoot a deer, you don’t just run down to where you shot it and start looking around. If you don’t see it fall, the best thing to do is wait. So, I waited. I watched for a few minutes to see if I could see her moving – nothing. I climbed down, loaded my stand, and went back to put everything in the truck and get my flashlight. I also called #TSip to let him know I would be late coming to the Blue Hole to load supplies. He said he would come with a flashlight to help.
To say that #TSip is a traditionalist is an understatement. The flashlight he brought probably belonged to his grandpa and still has grandpa’s batteries in it. The light it put off was only slightly better than using a match, although a match might have burned longer. Anyway, I loaned him a flashlight and we continued. When you make a good shot, the deer drops right away. Even with a good shot where the vitals are hit though, it’s not uncommon for the deer to run 50-75 yards. Within the first 10 yards, I found a small spot of blood and a piece of rib so I knew she was going down. It’s just a question of finding signs of a deer running through the woods.
This is not generally a problem during the daytime but we got started about 6:00 p.m. and it was definitely dark. It would have been much easier if #EagleScout was helping me, but you do what you can. We looked for about 2.5 hours before we found our deer. The only time I remember when tracking was more difficult was the time #EagleScout and I tracked a deer that decided to run through several thickets of brush and vines. At times that day, we were crawling on hands and knees looking for spots of blood. In both cases we found them so the hunt was successful.
I’ll spare you the details but, by the time I had the deer ready to transport it was nearly 10:00 p.m. I still had to put the deer in a cooler, so #TSip and I agreed to meet back at the camp Saturday morning to load the supplies for the fishing trip and go straight to Kroger’s to buy groceries. I had my list ready and sorted by location within the store so I was hoping we could beat the four-hour record.
All went according to schedule on Saturday morning, we were at Kroger’s about 10:30. Could we do it? It was not looking good in the beginning. #TSip wanted to start in the meat department to make sure they had the steaks he wanted. Wait a minute…everybody starts in produce, right?? Meat is at the opposite end of the store. OK, the #OldManInTheWoods can be flexible; we’ll just run the list in reverse order. All went well and they had the steaks. #TSip said, “How about I go get the salad makings?” NO…that’s the opposite end of the store, and can you imagine what would have happened if I’d turned #TSip loose in there?!? By the time we got that sorted out and eliminated duplications, it would have been Sunday morning and time to leave for Venice!!! Being always gracious as my mother taught me, I didn’t choke #TSip. Instead, I suggested that since we were here, he could help me pick out the lunch meat – next item on the list going in reverse.
We continued working the list and only had to backtrack one time because I didn’t really know where the Off was. Allowing for a little time for #TSip to scratch his head over which quart size zip lock bags to buy, we made it in about an hour and fifteen minutes. Not bad – I still had time to have lunch with #ShoppingBeauty before meeting to load everything in the truck and boat for the trip. Everything is going like clockwork now – looking forward to a good trip.
We got everything to Venice and loaded in the houseboat. The Sunday evening supper went off without a hitch – chili and crawfish cornbread. Yum! Monday breakfast worked as planned and we were on the water at 6:10. An hour and 10 minutes from the alarm to heading out – yes! Spoiler alert – things are going downhill from here.
Monday looked like the best weather day for the week – there was a cold front due to arrive Monday night. We took advantage of the good weather to make the run to the mouth of Southwest pass – an hour ride of 26 miles. The river was muddy and fresh (not much saltwater) due to rains upstream. We only found one hole that was holding redfish and a guide-boat was camped out in the only spot to fish it hauling in fish one after the other. We tried several ways to fish near them on the other side of the jetty. We hoped that we could drift our bait into the hole. Turns out the #OldManInTheWoods is not very good on the water. As we were trying to anchor upstream of the hole, the rope got tangled and I couldn’t hold it. Anchor overboard!! The rope sunk before we could motor back up to it, so we were 26 miles down the Mississippi with no anchor. No way to fish here.
We motored back upriver and tried a couple of other spots where we could use the trolling motor or tie off to a pole pushed into the mud. Because of the water conditions, we never found any place where the redfish were biting. We did find one promising spot on the east side of the river near the gulf. The water was clearer and moving nicely. There were a lot of baitfish moving around and we could see swirls in the water where bigger fish were hitting the bait. We worked this area for an hour or so before we caught anything. #RawButt’r hooked one and got a pretty good fight. Things are looking up. He worked his fish closer to the boat and it jumped – a bass!!! We just drove 9 hours to the end of the road in Venice, motored 26 more miles to the mouth of the river and we caught the same fish I could have caught within 15 minutes of my house. We tried a little longer and decided to call it a day.
All day long a thought had been worrying around my brain – dinner. Tonight was the night for King Ranch casserole and one of the other guys,#MusicMan, had brought that. Not my night to cook, but I should have asked him that morning if everything was ready to cook when we got in for the evening. When we got to the camp, I put the foil pan with the King Ranch in the fridge – but our friend and #TSip decided it should go into the freezer. And there it sat. 4:30 in the afternoon and the casserole is frozen. I know we could have thawed it, and maybe eaten a little later. But we decided to switch, steaks tonight and put the King Ranch in the fridge right now so it will be thawed for dinner tomorrow. See, the #OldManInTheWoods can be flexible.
The cold front arrived right on schedule and we awoke Tuesday to 25 mile per hour winds. To complicate matters, #TSip awoke with a cold. We decided the best course of action was no action, so we stayed in and played Phase 10 Tuesday. That gave us plenty of time to make sure the King Ranch casserole was thawed and cooked properly – our greatest accomplishment of the day. That and a 45 minute run to the pharmacy in Sulphur to get cold medicine, set us up for a better day Wednesday.
Wednesday started out better; wind only about 10 mph, but the temperature was 45. The brave(?) crew bundled up as best we could and headed out. The plan for the morning was to head to an area west of camp called the wagon wheel. It’s a circular cut around an area of flats that we hoped would hold redfish since it was close to the gulf and should have more saltwater.
We tried several places and got nary a bite. We did see Jesus though. We were fishing in an area where the water depth was less than 2 feet, barely enough for #RawButt’r to get his boat in, when he said look at that. About 25 yards in front of us was a racoon walking on water. The water was so shallow that you could see his feet as he walked, so we named him Jesus. Unfortunately, all this wasn’t getting us any fish. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking – tonight we’re supposed to have redfish court bouillon but we don’t have any fish. What do we do? Go to the bait shop and buy some shrimp and re-name it shrimp court bouillon? The shrimp at the bait shop are usually pretty good….but???
We had one other shot. We all motored on out into the gulf and found an island with a lot of birds around it. Pelicans and seagulls are usually a harbinger of baitfish, but these guys we’re circling. They were mostly just sitting around. We decided to anchor – using a spare borrowed from #OldAg and try. We cast around several places with no result. Finally, I put a shrimp on a hook and let it drift in the current. I was sitting there hydrating when I saw my rod bend…. and bend. Could this be it?!?
I got on it and worked for about 10 minutes. Gradually got the fish closer to the boat, but I could never see it. Usually, when a redfish gets close, there is a final run when it sees the boat. This one got close, never really broke the surface so we could see what it was, and….snap. It broke a 30# braided line just like that. So close, and yet, nothing.
A few minutes later, #OldAg in the other boat, hooked something. He brought it in and had an 18 pound black drum. Not a redfish, but we could have court bouillon tonight! Finally, some good news. And then #MusicMan got another; 21pounds. We were on a roll. We continued fishing with shrimp until lunchtime. Then things got interesting.
RawButt’r and I were fishing in his boat. We sat down to eat our lunch but left our lines out in case another fish decided to come along. I had a sausage biscuit and a small bag of Cheetos. The wind blew my bag off the seat and around the other side of the boat, scattering Cheetos in the bottom of the boat and overboard. Now, the 3-second rule doesn’t apply to things that fall in the bottom of the boat on the Mississippi – mud, fish slime, and other things you don’t want me to talk about. So, I went around cleaning up; picked up the bag with two safe Cheetos and threw the rest overboard.
I swear there we no birds in sight except a few pelicans floating near an island, but within 10 seconds a seagull swooped down and picked up a Cheeto. 5 seconds later another came by and, before I could say “Oh Shoot”, we were in a scene from “The Birds”. I remember seeing that movie when I was a kid. Picture the young version of the #OldManInTheWoods sitting on a couch at my cousin’s house, with a blanket in our lap, watching a black and white TV. Every time the birds started swarming, one or the other of us would pull the blanket up over our heads.
I’m really thankful for the current. By the time the first bird swooped in, the current had carried the Cheetos 15 yards away from the boat. At least the birds weren’t in the boat with us. After just a couple of minutes with no replacement Cheetos, the birds started flying off – all but one. This one guy just hung around. After we finished lunch #RawButt’r started to reel in and check the bait on his line. There was a little tug, but nothing big – you can just tell. He reeled a little harder and the seagull started flapping around. Oops! The seagull was tangled in the line. What to do. #RawButt’r reeled him in gently and got him right up to the boat. We picked him up to see if we could untangle the line. Remember “The Birds”? The one that splatted into the telephone booth was in our boat.
RawButt’r asked me to get a rag to cover its head so maybe it would stop flopping and pecking. It was a challenge, but thankfully no one got hurt and when I had it subdued #RawButt’r was able to untangle the fishing line and we successfully released the seagull so it could go find another telephone booth or, at least a Cheeto.
We hung around for another hour or so but no one caught any more fish – well nothing we wanted to keep anyway. I managed to bring in a stingray that had completely swallowed my hook. The best thing to do there is to cut the line and move on. Nobody really wants to mess with a stingray in the boat. So…we went back to the houseboat and cleaned our black drum for dinner. The court bouillon turned out almost as good as when #ShoppingBeauty makes it at home.
Thursday morning we woke up to a steady rain with more forecast as the day progressed. It was not a good day to be motoring down the Mississippi. The other guys had to stay because they had other people coming to meet them to fish on Friday, but #RawButt’r and the #OldManInTheWoods decided to just declare victory and head home.
The trip home was mostly uneventful. It rained most of the way home, but we made good time. Do you know what you do at the end of an unsuccessful fishing? You stop at the best fish market you can find and buy what you can in place of the missing redfish. We stopped at Tony’s in Baton Rouge and that place was hopping!! Besides the fresh fish and shrimp, Tony’s has a good selection of frozen items such as boudin balls, and stuffed crabs just to name a few. They also have the kind of Po’ boy bread you can only get in south Louisiana, so we loaded the cooler and headed on home.
We made one more stop in Krotz Springs (Look it up if you don’t believe me). This time we stopped at Billy’s to pick up some food for dinner. Billy’s makes some of the best boudin balls, and we got a selection to take home with us. #ShoppingBeauty and Mrs. #RawButt’r were counting on a taste of good cajun food to celebrate our “victory”. We made good time for the remainder of the trip and made it home in time for supper with the ladies.
The redfish are safe…until next year!