Welcome to The Captain's Lounge....pull up a stool, grab a drink, and read about what is going on in my world. Feel free to comment, or don't and just let me ramble on.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Time spent with the kids....
For the past three weeks, Marlina has been helping out a fellow island couple by watching their two kids during the day. Well, her day starts at 5:00 am, and she is out the door by 5:45 to be on the job by 6:00. That leaves dear old Dad to wake the kid's up, feed them breakfast, get them ready for school, and delivered to different schools between 8:00 and 8:30. A seemingly innocent list of tasks for the experienced, but I have not had to perform these tasks for any of the kids previous school careers. So, Marlina left me a list of how to get things done.
Needless to say, I do things a little differently than Marlina.
I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that spending some time in the morning with my two favorite kids has been extremely rewarding for me. From fixing breakfast to getting dressed, I watch the two of them with their different styles and attitudes and think to myself that I am a lucky son-of-a-gun.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Tuna pictures...
I finally downloaded the pictures to my computer.
And now for the fish pics....
And my favorite....
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Tuna!!!
Welcome to the initial post in The Captain's Lounge....pull up a stool, grab a drink, and read about what is going on in my world. Feel free to comment, or don't and just let me ramble on.
A few months ago, I was emailed an opportunity that I couldn't say no to. My friend Mark was putting together a tuna fishing trip and he had a spot with my name on it. We were to launch out of Venice, Louisiana, which is about 7 hours from lovely Clear Lake Shores. We left out on Sunday, arrived in Venice in time for dinner and beverages. Mark, Nathan (Mark's son), Andrei, Will, another Nathan, and I all were excited about what was to come as none of us had ever caught yellow fin tuna out of Louisiana before.
We launched at a little before 7 on a beautiful morning.
The boat ride out of the channel took about 30 minutes. We were riding aboard a Freeman Catamaran, and it was pretty smooth. Once we broke out of the channel, the thoughts turned to bait. The captain had informed us that lately no bait activity was occurring and that we might use artificial bait to catch the tuna. About that time, he spotted some birds dive bombing. We high tailed it over there and watched him cock the cast net. He threw once and retrieved about three bait fish. He paused, cocked it again, threw, and stood up and smiled. "It's gonna be a good day, fellas!" he said as he pulled in about one hundred pogies.
With our bait in the live well, we proceeded onward about 60 miles off shore. When we got to the targeted space, we were in approx. 2500 ft of water, and we were circling an oil rig. The captain's eyes were scanning the water when all of a sudden, a big splash occurred near us and we watched as a tuna went airborne. Our eyes got as wide as watermelons.
At that point, I was expecting the captain to give us a run down on how the fishing will take place, how he is going to find the fish, what type of tackle we will be using, taking turns, baiting the hooks, removing the tuna, etc. What I got instead was a flurry of activity. The captain immediately began throwing lines as fast as the deckhand could bait them. After about 30 seconds of being in the water, the captain would hand the rod off to whomever was closest shouting reel this in. Almost instantly, 5 out of the 6 of us were hooked up and fighting the most powerful fish we had ever fought. All of us except one. Me. I was on GoPro duty first. In the flurry of activity, someone handed me the GoPro camera and told me to film. I filmed as one after one reeled their fish in. I filmed the sheer glee on their faces as they brought in their tunas. I filmed tirelessly as I watched each of them land 40 pound fighters. Then someone told me to turn the camera around as I only been filming myself for the last ten minutes. Sorry about that.
Anyway, then it was my turn to land one. I put the camera down and grabbed a rod and reeled as I have never reeled before. Those fish can fight!! It was amazing to feel the power those fish have. My first fish ended up being around 45-50 pounds of pure muscle. It was tiring but exhilarating at the same time. Well, we each were nearing our limit of three fish per person when I the captain handed me another rod. I grabbed it and tried to hang on. This fish kept peeling line off! I was pumping the rod and kept trying to take line back. Every time I managed to get few inches, the fish would pull a few feet. At one point, Andrei and I got tangled up as the fish crossed beneath the surface. To get us untangled, the captain grabbed my line and moved it around, then grabbed the rod, and lifted it up and over Andrei. Andrei made a comment about watching out for him when the captain replied that I had the right away because, in his words, "his is a better fish." Well, needless to say, that got me excited.
I fought that fish for 30 minutes, with eventually the whole boat reaching their limit and all watching the fight between me and the fish. I was literally taking line back by the inch. I would crank the reel with just my index finger and thumb instead of my whole hand. I bruised the inside of my thigh because I was holding the rod so tight up against my leg. In short, I was getting worn out. Then I heard the magic words, "I see color!". The flash of silver beneath the turquoise water is something I won't soon forget. As the fish kept getting closer and closer, the whole boat leaned over the railing to get a closer look at it.
Watching the video again, I see how whooped I was. It was AWESOME!!!
Well, that was the last fish of the day, and I gotta say, it couldn't have ended on a better note. I don't know if I have ever caught the biggest fish of a fishing trip before, but I can't say that now. We are estimating that the fish was 100 lbs.
More pictures will follow this post, but for now, I hope you enjoyed the stories and video.
Captain Hoggatt
A few months ago, I was emailed an opportunity that I couldn't say no to. My friend Mark was putting together a tuna fishing trip and he had a spot with my name on it. We were to launch out of Venice, Louisiana, which is about 7 hours from lovely Clear Lake Shores. We left out on Sunday, arrived in Venice in time for dinner and beverages. Mark, Nathan (Mark's son), Andrei, Will, another Nathan, and I all were excited about what was to come as none of us had ever caught yellow fin tuna out of Louisiana before.
We launched at a little before 7 on a beautiful morning.
The boat ride out of the channel took about 30 minutes. We were riding aboard a Freeman Catamaran, and it was pretty smooth. Once we broke out of the channel, the thoughts turned to bait. The captain had informed us that lately no bait activity was occurring and that we might use artificial bait to catch the tuna. About that time, he spotted some birds dive bombing. We high tailed it over there and watched him cock the cast net. He threw once and retrieved about three bait fish. He paused, cocked it again, threw, and stood up and smiled. "It's gonna be a good day, fellas!" he said as he pulled in about one hundred pogies.
With our bait in the live well, we proceeded onward about 60 miles off shore. When we got to the targeted space, we were in approx. 2500 ft of water, and we were circling an oil rig. The captain's eyes were scanning the water when all of a sudden, a big splash occurred near us and we watched as a tuna went airborne. Our eyes got as wide as watermelons.
At that point, I was expecting the captain to give us a run down on how the fishing will take place, how he is going to find the fish, what type of tackle we will be using, taking turns, baiting the hooks, removing the tuna, etc. What I got instead was a flurry of activity. The captain immediately began throwing lines as fast as the deckhand could bait them. After about 30 seconds of being in the water, the captain would hand the rod off to whomever was closest shouting reel this in. Almost instantly, 5 out of the 6 of us were hooked up and fighting the most powerful fish we had ever fought. All of us except one. Me. I was on GoPro duty first. In the flurry of activity, someone handed me the GoPro camera and told me to film. I filmed as one after one reeled their fish in. I filmed the sheer glee on their faces as they brought in their tunas. I filmed tirelessly as I watched each of them land 40 pound fighters. Then someone told me to turn the camera around as I only been filming myself for the last ten minutes. Sorry about that.
Anyway, then it was my turn to land one. I put the camera down and grabbed a rod and reeled as I have never reeled before. Those fish can fight!! It was amazing to feel the power those fish have. My first fish ended up being around 45-50 pounds of pure muscle. It was tiring but exhilarating at the same time. Well, we each were nearing our limit of three fish per person when I the captain handed me another rod. I grabbed it and tried to hang on. This fish kept peeling line off! I was pumping the rod and kept trying to take line back. Every time I managed to get few inches, the fish would pull a few feet. At one point, Andrei and I got tangled up as the fish crossed beneath the surface. To get us untangled, the captain grabbed my line and moved it around, then grabbed the rod, and lifted it up and over Andrei. Andrei made a comment about watching out for him when the captain replied that I had the right away because, in his words, "his is a better fish." Well, needless to say, that got me excited.
I fought that fish for 30 minutes, with eventually the whole boat reaching their limit and all watching the fight between me and the fish. I was literally taking line back by the inch. I would crank the reel with just my index finger and thumb instead of my whole hand. I bruised the inside of my thigh because I was holding the rod so tight up against my leg. In short, I was getting worn out. Then I heard the magic words, "I see color!". The flash of silver beneath the turquoise water is something I won't soon forget. As the fish kept getting closer and closer, the whole boat leaned over the railing to get a closer look at it.
Watching the video again, I see how whooped I was. It was AWESOME!!!
Well, that was the last fish of the day, and I gotta say, it couldn't have ended on a better note. I don't know if I have ever caught the biggest fish of a fishing trip before, but I can't say that now. We are estimating that the fish was 100 lbs.
More pictures will follow this post, but for now, I hope you enjoyed the stories and video.
Captain Hoggatt
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