Trawling for brown shrimp - 6-2-07 Fourchon, Louisiana

[Gmack]

Made a trip down to Fourchon with my dad to put a few more shrimp in every bodies freezer. With the water very high and us the only boat trawling in the area we didn't know what to expect. We got a pretty early start and caught the beautiful sunrise as we were pulling out of the launch.

Sunrise



Camps that stood at the entrance to Devil's Bay before the twisted sisters







We pull a 16' balloon trawl. The shrimp were good size (mostly 40/50 with a few 15/20 and a few 80/100 count by my uneducated guest). We were able to pull six drags to catch 2 x 48 quart ice chest full. Not bad!

On the third drag we cut it short because we felt a quick stop and then the trawl didn't seem to be pulling "right". Upon getting to the "bag" all kinds of splashing was going on. On top was a big stingray so we thought that is all it was. After carefully getting the stingray out of the picking box a sizeable black drum flopped it's way to the top of the pile. It was a keeper at 19"! After putting it in the chest low and behold another tail flopped out. I knew what it was right away and I was excited. It was a tripletail! Now I have never been able to catch one on rod-n-reel so it was cool to check it out up-close. Again it was about 16" long so it kept as well. Fish this size are rare in a small trawl in the shallow water we pull in. We were pretty happy, unfortunately the shrimp were not plentiful in that drag.

Here's dad picking up the trawl:





Here's dad with the tail' and the drum:



Here's the "picking" box on one of the drags. We keep the pogies and squid for bait. We throw back the other fish.







Then the finally! On the last drag we caught a monster garfish! Again I had never seen this. Dad had experienced it before, but it's pretty uncommon. Not sure of the weight or length, but I couldn't pick the whole thing up. I'm 6' to give you some size reference. I was happy it revived and swam away. From what I understand it takes many many years for them to get that big.







Again the two fish at home:






The fillets off the triple tail look good and tasty. Sort of reminds me of triggerfish. Can't wait to try it up.

Again it was a great day getting to spend it with one of my best buds........my dad!

Gary

[tommyr904]

how deep of water do you pull in?

[Gmack]

2'-3'.......Usually the small bay we pull in is 2'+/-. Today with the really high water it was 3'.

Gary

[welder]

Do ya make chum with the bycatch.

[xxmikexx]

Why do all the pics have the dreaded red X's?

[Gmack]

welder - 6/3/2007 5:50 PM

Do ya make chum with the bycatch.

Yes we keep the pogies for chum. We sometimes keep the croakers, but didn't on this trip.

Gary

[Gmack]

xxmikexx - 6/3/2007 6:24 PM

Why do all the pics have the dreaded red X's?

Really........I can see them......is that a problem for everybody else?

[dragn3]

i can see the pics just fine. good pics man. looks like you had a good day of shrimp'n!

[billh1963]

Wow..that brings back some memories from my shrimpboat days......

[JCC123]

Nice catch Gary
Glad one of us got on the water this weekend.
Jim

[BOOMER]

Hey Gary, tell the old man I'll be down next weekend for the boil,and gumbo!

[Towboat Ed]

Roger on the memories.Most of the shrimping I did was in Florida , but I worked out of Fourchon on Crew & Supply boats.Those Tripletail are very tasty.

[Tireless]

Sweet......fwiw, you had a relatively small by-catch compared to what I see in GA. That shrimpzilla would almost make a meal by itself.

Were you working the in or outgoing tide?

[Gmack]

Tireless - 6/4/2007 6:46 AM
Were you working the in or outgoing tide?

We were forced to work incoming and high tide. The water level was 1'+ higher than normal at high tide. I have to think if we could have waiting until low tide we would have done even better!

Gary

[prockvoan]

Nice trip,been a long time for me sent the last time pulling a rag.That garfish remines me one time one of my uncles wanted to try trawling.I had set him up with a 16'.Pulling a small bay,he starts jumping and yelling.I pull over to him and see whats going on.The net was jumping out the water.I climb into his boat to help him pull the net in.Man,one hell of a garfish.I'm talking one that was over 10' long.Pull out the 357,one shot to the head.That man was one happy person.The man made over 2000 fishballs.Kid you not!Hell,that was over 20 years ago!
Anyway,did you notice the size of the croakers?My brother is telling me that they are small too on the east side of the river down in Hopedale.Guess the cooler water temp we had this spring.

Now,only if I can get away from work.Haven't fish and a long time.Guess it will be another two weeks.That sucks!Finish adding a third axle to the trailer,waiting on a lift kit for my Jeep so I can install that for the duck hunting season.Why is there never enough hours in a day?

[cgrand]

nice
we caught tripletail all the time in our bait trawling days (right out of tiger pass and to the west)
very, very good eating

[Lngshrman]

how much line do you let out on your trawl and do you pull from the front or the back of your boat?

[croaker501]

We pull 100' of rope on each side and acually pull from the back end of bow rails which end pretty close to the middle of boat, well about one third from front. Pulling from middle of boat makes turning easier. Hope this helps.
Gary SR.

[Lngshrman]

Thanks. Do you have a certain speed that you stick to that you find works best?

[croaker501]

On my boat pulling a 16' trawl, I pull at approx. 1500rpm. I am sure it would vary with boat ,size motor, and size of trawl.
Gary