Sadly, I only fished 3 days in 2014 on our boat, the Hoosier Daddy. I planned a trip and got my 80 year old dad as well as my niece and her husband down to go out with the rest of the family already here in search of the elusive and going extinct red snapper and maybe some grouper. We had no idea that we were about to have our best day fishing ever.
We left Fourchon at 5am heading out for red snapper first. Our first stop was in pretty dirty water but we landed 3 nice cobia as well as several mangrove and a few red snapper. Fishing was a bit slow so we headed further south which was a great call. I had become interested in deep dropping so I picked up some 5 hook rigs and some 3 lb weights. The platform we went to was full of boats so we stayed away on the outside. We baited up each hook with squid and pogie and dropped down in 390 ft of water. Our deep drop pole quickly bent over and we pulled up 3 very nice 12-15 lb red snapper. We kept dropping down and picking up several doubles and triples of red snapper, yellow edge grouper, and yellow mouth grouper. With one side of my fish box completely filled with 14 huge red snapper, 3 big cobia, 3 grouper, and 10 mangrove snapper, we decided to go to deeper water in search of a Warsaw grouper. We had never caught this many fish and have never brought home a grouper so chances were slim but we gave it a shot.
After arriving to water that I thought might have a Warsaw grouper or tilefish, we baited up the 5 hook rig again and dropped down in 800 ft of water. We were in the middle of nowhere but several hundred yards away there were ledges than went from 800 up to 250 ft. I had slim hopes but told my 15 year old niece, Abbie, to drop down the bait. She guaranteed that she would catch something. After drifting for 30 min and still in 800 ft of water, I was not far from giving up when all of a sudden we got a hit. Not a huge bite but definitely a bite. Abbie started reeling in and soon the bite got bigger and pole was really bending and pulling a lot of line. We started to chase the fish even though we had 1600 ft of 130 lb braid that we just picked up from Superior Bait and Tackle in Baton Rouge. After watching this fish strip line from the pole, we figured we had a big shark. After 1 hour of fight, and an exhausted niece, she got help from her sister Ashlyn and finally her dad stepped in to help out a bit. Shortly after he yelled he could see the shark, followed by, HOLY S***, ITS A SWORDFISH!!! Everyone was immediately on the side of the boat and we were all screaming and giving high fives. We pulled the fish into the boat, still in shock. We snapped a lot of pictures and crammed as much of the fish into the left fish box, piled the remaining ice on top, semi closed the lid, with the entire head and sword hanging out, added a few bean bags on top as well as a Garrett to hold it all down and headed back to the public ramp in Fourchon. We cleaned fish until 1:30am and then headed out for day two.
We caught our largest mangrove and red snapper ever on the Hoosier daddy as well as more grouper and fat red snapper.
What an amazing two days of fishing with our family. My dad, John, brother Andy, three nieces, Alyssa, Ashlyn, and Abbie, as well as nephew Garrett and myself, Greg had the best time ever. So blessed to spend time together, catch more fish than we ever have and end the day with an amazing swordfish will forever be an epic memory for us all. Can't wait for our next trip.
We currently have the sword sitting on an ant pile so we can send it off to be etched and mounted. We will post a picture of it when it's done.
We left Fourchon at 5am heading out for red snapper first. Our first stop was in pretty dirty water but we landed 3 nice cobia as well as several mangrove and a few red snapper. Fishing was a bit slow so we headed further south which was a great call. I had become interested in deep dropping so I picked up some 5 hook rigs and some 3 lb weights. The platform we went to was full of boats so we stayed away on the outside. We baited up each hook with squid and pogie and dropped down in 390 ft of water. Our deep drop pole quickly bent over and we pulled up 3 very nice 12-15 lb red snapper. We kept dropping down and picking up several doubles and triples of red snapper, yellow edge grouper, and yellow mouth grouper. With one side of my fish box completely filled with 14 huge red snapper, 3 big cobia, 3 grouper, and 10 mangrove snapper, we decided to go to deeper water in search of a Warsaw grouper. We had never caught this many fish and have never brought home a grouper so chances were slim but we gave it a shot.
After arriving to water that I thought might have a Warsaw grouper or tilefish, we baited up the 5 hook rig again and dropped down in 800 ft of water. We were in the middle of nowhere but several hundred yards away there were ledges than went from 800 up to 250 ft. I had slim hopes but told my 15 year old niece, Abbie, to drop down the bait. She guaranteed that she would catch something. After drifting for 30 min and still in 800 ft of water, I was not far from giving up when all of a sudden we got a hit. Not a huge bite but definitely a bite. Abbie started reeling in and soon the bite got bigger and pole was really bending and pulling a lot of line. We started to chase the fish even though we had 1600 ft of 130 lb braid that we just picked up from Superior Bait and Tackle in Baton Rouge. After watching this fish strip line from the pole, we figured we had a big shark. After 1 hour of fight, and an exhausted niece, she got help from her sister Ashlyn and finally her dad stepped in to help out a bit. Shortly after he yelled he could see the shark, followed by, HOLY S***, ITS A SWORDFISH!!! Everyone was immediately on the side of the boat and we were all screaming and giving high fives. We pulled the fish into the boat, still in shock. We snapped a lot of pictures and crammed as much of the fish into the left fish box, piled the remaining ice on top, semi closed the lid, with the entire head and sword hanging out, added a few bean bags on top as well as a Garrett to hold it all down and headed back to the public ramp in Fourchon. We cleaned fish until 1:30am and then headed out for day two.
We caught our largest mangrove and red snapper ever on the Hoosier daddy as well as more grouper and fat red snapper.
What an amazing two days of fishing with our family. My dad, John, brother Andy, three nieces, Alyssa, Ashlyn, and Abbie, as well as nephew Garrett and myself, Greg had the best time ever. So blessed to spend time together, catch more fish than we ever have and end the day with an amazing swordfish will forever be an epic memory for us all. Can't wait for our next trip.
We currently have the sword sitting on an ant pile so we can send it off to be etched and mounted. We will post a picture of it when it's done.
