Like BY HEK used to say..'we put da aints on'em"

Both Saturday and Sunday, Capt.'Poppa' Reboul of the "Yscloskey YAT Fishing Club" took his charter group of three out to the Central Rig area and worked all the small platforms.

We started with a 100 crockers and a 100 live shrimp each day working out of 'Blackie's ...he's got gas and bait...Blackie is still hanging on telling stories about his place before Mr.GO and the storms he's been through...and he's still fighting with the insurance companies...trying to get what's due to him.It's a real shame...that a guy like him who has paid like a 'slot machine' has to fight for what is right.Anyway.......

When we got to Central it was pure heaven on the first cast...like in the 1960's when all you had to do was tie a lil' piece of white hankerchiek on the hook. I remember those days down in Port Sulphur around 'Four Bayou Pass' and the Sulphur Mine area...that's were I broke my teeth on fishing with my dad on the old Penn reels and nylon line. Twice I watched him go after big reds after the line broke right above the cork. He would re-rig with cork and all ....throw at the lost line, cork and red ....and get it all tangled up and land the big bad boy...one time in a submerged crab hamper when we forgot the net at the camp.

Now back to the Central action...We caught flounder, pompano, spanish mackerel, bull reds and mule trout. The sharks were there too along with the lady fish doing tarpon jumps across the water.

Two or three things happened very unusual on this trip...Capt. Poppa had never seen it before...
Twice we caught trout so gigantic that the 'weak fish' already had hooks in their mouths!@#$%?...that's how big these monsters were....real elephant trout.

And then the next thing happened...all during the trip we had multiple hook-ups so fast that we just threw the fish on the floor...the action was fast and furious...so two of us were fighting two big bull reds, so we thought on the same side of the boat...we discovered after ten minutes of line spooling we both had the same fish...no side hook-ups now...both hooks were down its throat...that's how hungry these big boys were.

The other thing...we were breaking lines like no tomorrow...
It was a great trip with my fellow fishing buddies Andy Reboul(the Capt's son)and Mike Kingston.

The ghost of 'BY Hek' and the "Dead Bait" was right there with us...just the way it it used to be told in his weekly colums in the Times-Picayune.

My dad (long past) too was right there...always saying.."keep your pole up and don't 'horse it'... Mark."

Remember take somebody fishing ...I still have great memories from the 60's onward.

Bayou Bull
Mandeville