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International Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo 06' from Grand Isle Louisiana
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International Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo 06' from Grand Isle Louisiana
Where to start? It was a wonderful week of fishing the “Grand Daddy of them all”, the 85th Annual International Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo. My dad has been taking me fishing for the GITR since I was a very young child, 4 or 5 years old. Most of the first years we burned a lot of gas pulling “Pet 21” spoons in “Lil Pass” for Tarpon. After at least 10 years of not putting a tarpon in the boat we gave up the dream of winning the tarpon category. The next 10 years or so were spent close in rig fishing with no real target. A few years ago an extremely hard pulling and damn smart reef fish became our target species, the mangrove snapper. Last year after more than 25 years of fishing the GITR my dad’s dream of winning was realized when he took 2nd place in the mangrove snapper category with an 11lbs 11oz fish (without me since I was working). This year “The Sharbait Fishing Team” came back with vengeance taking 1st & 2nd place in the mangrove snapper category! I took first place with a 12lbs 0oz fish and my younger brother, Cody, took 2nd with an 11lbs 3 oz fish. It doesn’t get much better than this!
The crew of the “Sharkbait” for this trip was myself, younger brother Cody and my dad. The “Lil’T” was our sister boat with Terron, Jay Jay, Mikey & Ron. Both boats are identical 1900 Sportsman Key West. We started our adventure on Thursday July 27th leaving home with all the essentials for 3 hard days of fishing. The weather looked bleak with a tropical low system dumping rain on southern Louisiana and Texas. According to the weather guessers Saturday looked like our only shot at mangrove fishing. The lack of perfect weather couldn’t get these coonasses down! We marched on with fishing dreams in our heads. We had a room at the “Kajun Sportsman” motel booked from Thursday thru Sunday. They have a great setup and if you are looking for a place to stay with your boat give them a call. There is area to clean your catch, store your boat in the water right next to your room, and best of all a store, restaurant and bar just a walk across the wharf. The “Kajun Sportsman” was our first stop to get “home base” setup. Check in time was 3pm. They were nice enough to let us check in at around 12:30pm since the room was ready to go. After unloading all cloths and gear we were off for our first afternoon of fishing. The wind was howling from the southeast and had the gulf stacked with a nasty 3-4’ chop. We fished the Bell Pass jetties not catching very much. My dad and brother thought we could make it to the Bay Marchand blocks to try some rig fishing. The “Sharkbait” and “Lil’T” (both 19’ Key West) fought the head sea getting pounded and soaking wet. Made it to a rig and it was hard to stand up. So hard that I lost my balance and missed the console rail hitting the windshield instead. I cracked the windshield right in half. Dad loved that! Soaking bait only rewarded us with Texas trout, 3 point snapper and hell divers (all are hard head catfish). Rolled with the seas back to the jetties and tried the outside of the Western jetty since it was the calm wide with the wind blowing from the Southeast. Picked up a few trout and channel mullet (southern kingfish, gulf whiting). I started feeling pretty badly with horrible indigestion/acid reflux so it was decided to head to “home base” since the fishing wasn’t great. The “BBQ” pit was hauled out and burgers and sausage where grilled for everybody present. I took a shower and tried to get myself feeling better. While out we had burned up the live well pump on the “Sharkbait”. My dad and I headed “up the bayou” to Walmart for a replacement. We made good time and where back by 8pm or so. I went on to bed, but the remainder of the crew from “Sharkbait” and the “Lil’T” had other plans.
The alarm went off Friday morning and found everybody but me having a bad case of the “Bud-Lite virus” (BLV). I knew this morning of fishing wasn’t going to be a very serous one! Once again as forecast the wind was howling out of the Southeast. We fished a few spots at the Bell Pass jetties picking up a trout or channel mullet here and there. To the west dad noticed a flock of birds working a school of bait. We made the run and were rewarded with doubles of specks on every cast. Only problem was none were keepers. All were school trout measuring short of the 12” minimum. At least it was action and it was fun. Right before this run we had lost one member of our team as his case of BLV had gotten so bad sleep trumped fishing and down he went! After getting our fill of catching undersize trout I suggested we anchor up-wind of a small platform near by. Upon anchoring our guest for the morning, Jordan (Cody’s brother in law), went down for the count as well. Not only was the BLV kicking his butt the 3-4’ rollers had him sea sick. We caught a crab so I cracked it and tossed it out knowing we would soon catch a redfish. While the crab soaked we picked up a few channel mullet and plenty of 3 point snapper (hard head catfish). After about 15 minutes the line with the crab started singing. I grabbed the line and fought what I figured was a redfish. Sure enough it was a nice red of about 15lbs. We kept it to grill on the half shell later. With half the crab left I tossed it back out. No more than 10 minutes later another red was on. This time Cody took the rod. This fish had a lot of heart and fought much harder than the first one. A couple of trips around the boat and I was able to slip the gaff in him. All the while our “guest” had been chumming off the side of the boat. Having been in his situation many a times it was called to head back to “home base”. We still had to put the boat on the trailer and change the live well pump out. Once back I cleaned the fish and dad changed out the pump while Cody and Jordan nursed the BLV. Jordan decided that was enough fishing for him and he headed for home. After catching a siesta Cody, dad and I were ready to try out the afternoon bite. Unfortunately the wind was still howling out the Southeast. With it too rough and everyone over the “Bud-Lite virus” a little effort was put to the trout fishing. We got on them and plenty were coming over the side. As usual plenty action meant weeding thru the undersize fish. While in the thick of a hot bite a small Coast Guard RIB approached and boarded us. They did a thorough inspection taking 30 minutes to go through everything. The “Sharkbait” passed with no citations. We were given a copy of the inspection to keep aboard and they were off. It took a little time, but we got back on the fish. Again mostly small fish, but the action was there. It was called to head in with about 30 minutes of daylight left to make the run back to “home base”. Our sister boat the “Lil’T” had left earlier and had already fired up the pit! We were treated to some more mouth watering burgers and grilled tuna from our “Brutus” trip. Man was that tuna good! So good I think it made the 83 mile trip worth it! Everybody vowed no late night tonight so off to bed we went.
Saturday morning we awoke before daylight to get some serious fishing done. The weather guessers were right and the wind had lightened. The chop was gone and the seas had lightened to the promised 1-2’! We fished the pass for an hour again catching a few trout and channel mullet. At 8am we were satisfied the weather would hold and the few clouds present would not threaten. The bow was pointed southward and off we went! We were able to make 22mph or so comfortably. After a delightful hour long ride we approached our destination. A lonely storm cloud kicked up the wind hard from due east. The last 3 miles were a little bouncy and a lot wet. Once tied up to the first rig the conditions were perfect. In my opinion perfect conditions for mangrove snapper are lite current and clear green water. My first bait in the water was taken instantly and he pulled me into the rig. I retied and my second bait had me hooked into another big fish. I won this battle and was successful at keeping the mangrove out of the rig. When my dad netted the huge mangrove snapper he commented it looked bigger than the 11lbs 11oz fish he had caught last year. I was pumped up! A quick look at the boga grib showed the fish weighted at least 11 maybe 12 pounds. The action was just non-stop at this rig. This is what we had persevered the less than good conditions the other two days for. We were on an insane mangrove snapper bite! In less than 20 minutes we had 10 huge mangoves in the boat. Just as many managed to make it into the rig and broke us off. At this point we had a big fish in the chest and enough meat. I made the call to move to try and get a bigger fish (the smallest on in the chest was 9lbs!) since we were fishing the rodeo. We hopped to two more rigs with not much to show for it. The fourth rig was the charm. A handful of shrimp as chum had the mangroves everywhere under the boat. Cody boated a mangrove and then out came the lemon fish (cobia). There was a small school of about 6 of them. I hooked up first and then Cody. Cody’s came to the boat first and looked a little small. It was released to fight another day. Cody stuck the gaff in mine like a pro. It was no monster, but a good eating size fish. It buried the boga grip so it was probably a little bigger than 30lbs. The school disappeared so back to work on the mangroves we went. My dad has the first bait in the water and the fish isn’t fighting like a mangrove. The fish is running away from the rig. After a short but tough fight another lemon fish appears. It looks to be a twin of the one we have cooling in the chest. This one goes nuts when I gaff it and throws blood everywhere. After cleaning up the murder scene we try to organize the ice chest. It won’t close with the amount of fish we have so the call is made to head for “home base” It is only 10:30 am, we have only been fishing for 1 hour and 30 minutes and we can’t fit another fish in a 128 quart ice chest! It was an amazing morning. My only regret is in the excitement of “battle” I clung to my fishing line instead of grabbing the camera and getting more of the action saved. Oh well next time. I’m sure it will remain in the mind of Cody, dad and I forever! Upon getting back to “home base” we weighted the fish. We ended up keeping 13 mangroves. The largest was 12lbs, the second largest 11lbs 3 oz, 10 more over 9lbs and one that was 5lbs. I’m very happy with that! My dad said lets go to the scales! We took the truck and the largest two mangroves to the Sand Dollar Marina on Grand Isle which is the site of the International Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo. The largest mangrove on the board was 10lbs 5 oz. We knew we had that beat! After weighing the fish I was in first place with the 12lbs 0oz fish and Cody was in second with the 11lbs 3oz fish! We were pumped! We headed back to home base to clean the fish and meat up with the wives. My dad and I cleaned the fish while Cody played with my sisters young ones. After cleaning the fish we took showers and then headed to the island for the awards ceremony. After fishing the event for more than 20 years it was the first time I was actually at the awards ceremony. It was great! The excitement under the tent was amazing. Everybody was congratulating each other and many a fishing tale was being told. My cousin Clay who fishes for Bull Drum took first place in the category. The team he fishes with, BLUMF (Big Lip Ugly Mother F******), swept the category with 1st, 2nd & 3rd! Good thing his fishing partner and father-in-law is a dentist. While out fishing he had his two top front teeth knocked out by a 16oz weight. They saved the teeth in a Pringles can and high tailed it to father-in-laws office. The teeth were fixed and then back out fishing they went! I’m sure he was hurting yesterday after the beer “pain reliever” wore off!
After the ceremony Amanda (my fiancé) and I walked around the dock at Sand Dollar taking in the sites. She fell in love with a beautiful 34’ Fountain center console with triple 225hp optimaxes on the back. She asked how much one would cost and she almost fell down when I told here probably $150,000! She made me take a picture of it she liked it so much. I was worn out so we headed back to “home base” for one more night of sleep. As we left it looked like the wild party was about to begin. One boat was flying money all up one outrigger to entice young ladies to take off there clothes.
Sunday we awoke and packed everything up. How is it when you go some where for 4 days you end up with twice what you left with? I was still on the high of my first winning fish! It was a sweet drive hom. Can’t wait until next year!
Re: International Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo 06' from Grand Isle Louisiana
OUTSTANDING Gary!What kind of a name is Gautreaux anyway? I need to hook up with you and Chris one day to learn the mangrove thing. Thats got to be waaay cool to take 1st and 2nd.
International Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo 06' from Grand Isle Louisiana 
I need to hook up with you and Chris one day to learn the mangrove thing. Thats got to be waaay cool to take 1st and 2nd. 
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