Fishing Report: Houma Oilman’s Rodeo 2004 (May26-30)
By now, most all of you know about the Houma Oilman’s Rodeo. It is an Oil Patch industry tourney that gives Salesmen an opportunity to smooze the clients. This year I had plans to fish with the same crew as in previous years, but alas Jefe’s Revenge was still down for repairs. So, I had to go to plan B which meant I was going to fish on the charter boats from the Point Cocodrie Inn.
I left Houston on Wednesday at 1300 “East bound and down”, loaded with fishing stuff and several cases of Ziggenbock Beer. The trip was uneventful and seemed to fly by, maybe because I was traveling much faster without the boat. I made it to Cocodrie just in time for desert…Miss Naomi’s famous bread pudding. Boy, that’ll make you forget about the long hours on the road.
The crew at the table put a smile on my face. Of course Dan Franz was there, my great friend and fishing buddy. Like Houma, most all of you knows about Danny. Also, there was Benny Savoie, good friend, excellent angler and standing crew on Jefe’s Revenge during these tourneys. Benny seemed more disappointed than me about the big dog still being out of action. Also, there was Larry Moore, again a good friend and excellent angler, and a recent transplant to Texas. Rounding out the crew was Capt. Joey Seber, top shelf guide and friend. Joey has selflessly shown me many things about being a good captain (as have all the others mentioned) and helped me out many times during my stays in Cocodrie. It was great to see them all. We got caught up on events (I had forgotten how many things have happened over the last year) and had an enjoyable visit. It didn’t take long for me to get in “Bayou Mode” and relax into the easy going way of life “down da bayou”.
Thursday morning we were fishing with Joey on a pre-tourney trip. Dan, Larry, Benny and me. As much as I like running my own boat, it was still nice to be able to just concentrate on fishing. We headed out on SeaBear along with Joey’s older brother Capt. Chip Seber on SeaBuck and the rest of the Point Cocodrie Inn guides. The weather so far this year has not been great. The wind was SW and everything was chopped up pretty bad. But Joey knew right were the fish were. On the beach, outside Last Island…right in the middle of the rough stuff. We turned the corner at Whiskey Pass and rode the surf to a spot Joey had picked out. Then it was cast, hang on and try not to get thrown out of the boat (this happens to me pretty often if you’ll recall past reports). Also, we watched several boats try to get offshore, but none had the bal.….…determination, to rough the seas. We did pretty well considering the weather and put about 30 trout in the boat, but Joey’s bilge pump quit working so we had to run to calmer water to try and get it going. No luck, so we decided to call it a day. When Joey called Chip to let him know; Chip offered to take me on SeaBuck…Damn Skippy I’m in plus I got to fish with another great friend, Eric Bollinger. Chip’s crew was not into surfing all day, so we stayed in the calmer waters, but still did very well and boated about 60 trout.
When we got back to Cocodrie, the McIntyre entourage had arrived and was setting up the booth in the tournament tent. Jack McIntyre is a prince of a man, good friend, great boat mate and top shelf cook (he even caters on the side). He always cooks for his brother Phil, whose company sponsors a booth at the tent. We all head over to help them set up and get ready to cook deep fried pork loin with Jack’s special seasoning and BBQ sauce (Jack calls them rich man’s cracklins without the fat). This stuff will make you hurt yo’self it’s so good. The tent is awesome with all kinds of free food and drinks, but I was not really in the party mood. With all that has been going on, I needed some quiet time…and the Point Cocodrie Inn fits the bill, so I headed back to the Inn and relaxed on the front deck watching boats go by and enjoying the lapping of the bay waters.
Friday Morning, the tournament is on, and it came pretty early for most of Houma’s Oilmen. Many braved the hangovers and headaches to make it to the boat, but some decided to stay in bed. So, after a nice breakfast from Miss Naomi, Danny asked me to represent him on SeaBuck with Capt. Chip while he stayed back to tend to the Not-So-Early Risers. The sacrifices Dan makes for his customers…..Just one of the reasons why he is my hero. Phil brought his boat this year and split his crew between it and SeaBear with Capt. Joey. Unfortunately, Jack had to go back to Lafayette to tend to some business, so Benny went with Phil.
Chip and I had a crew from Week’s Marine. We got bait from the Tracie Macie and headed west out to Whiskey pass and back into the surf outside Last Island. This was the spot. Joey, Phil and about 5 other boats were already there. We took our place, held on and started casting. It wasn’t long before we started bringing trout to the boat. Of course I was representing Dan so I was “Customer Fishing” and letting the Week’s Boys do most of the catching (It sounds better when Dan says it). The surf took its toll on the “weakened” stomachs of a few. Phil actually had to weigh anchor and look for calmer waters. One of our guys got sick, but toughed it out and actually caught more fish than anyone else. My kinda Angler! Around 0900, we had a boat show up with a nice Yellow Bikini aboard. She even hooked up to a fish that ran her around the boat several times. I was concerned about Joey though. He had the Binocs out taking a closer look…I’m sure to see the size of the fish she had on the line, but he was so intent that he forgot his customers onboard……just kidding, I was just mad HE had the Binocs.
Eventually, things slowed down, so we decided to run to a clam spot to look for Bull Reds…this is a tournament after all. Once there, we got the Bull Red lines in the water, so I started casting my trout rig just to pass the time. Suddenly, wham, hook up, rod bent over, and line start screaming off the Shimano Curado. I thought it was a Sting Ray, but as I gained some line back, a Nice Bull Red breaks the surface about 50 yards from the boat. Well the fight is on. Me with 10-lb test and him with about 30 lbs of Incentive. This was like some of my Blue water fights. He took line, I got some back, he walked me around the boat a few time, even under the anchor line, but finally I got him to the boat and Chip got him netted and aboard. WOW, that was fun. Let’s do it again. In the mean time we hooked up a Bull on the big lines and Tommy Weeks did a nice job bringing him to the boat. Plus we were getting several Sting Ray’s on the lines….Oh Benny where are you…We need the “Ray-Man”. Before long I had hooked up again. Same trick, except that after about a 5 minute fight, this big boy decided he had enough and spooled my line. Fortunately, the line broke at the fish and not the reel, so I was able to spool it back up and keep fishing. We called it a day soon after and fought the wind all the way back to Cocodrie. When We got back, we took my Red over to be weighed in….27lb 5oz…Not too bad and we got on the Leader board for Friday. Friday night was much like Thursday night at the tent. It is always fun, but I still was looking for some quiet time so I headed back to the Inn with Dan to watch the Lightning and Flames battle for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Saturday we had even more Not-So-Early Risers than Friday; Benny actually had to go back to work. Miss Naomi was disappointed that Benny was not there for her to pick on, and the rest of us were nervous that she would decide to focus on one of us since Benny was not there. So, Larry Moore called the BJ Camp to see if anyone wanted to join us. We had one taker, Jack Burman. So Dan, Jack B., a couple of the Week’s Marine guys and me headed out with Chip on SeaBuck. Phil and Jack Mac were on his boat and the rest of Phil’s crew was with Joey on SeaBear. Nobody was in the mood to fight the surf today, so we headed back to Chip’s spot where we caught the Bull Reds on Friday. Fishing was great, but the catching was slow today. We picked up a few trout, and some sting rays. Then Dan hooked up a “Big ‘un” with the Calcutta 150 I won at last year’s Texas Oilmen’s tourney. He had the same fight I did the day before; 10lb test line, several runs, and he too brought the fish to the boat for Chip to net. NICE Red. Eventually, Every A-hole with a boat in South LA decided that it was a good idea to motor right past us in the cut. I mean within casting distance. I even made a cast at one boat but missed by a few feet…then this idiot decided to stare me down. So I reeled in and cast again…..Some people….I thought that stuff only happened in Texas. Anyway, we tried several other spots, but the fish were not on that day and finally decided to bring her back to the dock. We had fish and did OK, but nothing compared to the norm of Cocodrie. Still it was a great day, spent with good friends. I can think of much worse things.
Saturday Night, I went to the tent for a short time, but chilled at the Inn mostly and got some more rejuvenation.
Sunday I had a nice breakfast with Danny, Larry, Benny, Jimmy, and Jack. Said my Thank you’s and goodbyes to all, loaded up and headed west. The trip home was uneventful and shorter that most times….no boat.
It was strange not having Jefe’s Revenge, but still I had a wonderful time with many friends I don’t get to see as much as I’d like.
Tight Lines;
JEFE
