Grand Isle 1-6-08

[Reel Screamers]

I actually had no intentions of fishing this week. The little one was sick all last week and anybody with little ones knows that when they are sick, you are not far behind. Besides the forecast sucked and showed no signs of a break.

Thursday the phone started ringing with the guys from Paradise Louisiana wanting to throw something together. Seems they had hooked up with an organization called Soilders Angels and had a wish to fullfill.

Now if I got it correctly Soilders Angels is a group that assists our military guys while they are overseas. They send care packages, write letters and just generally do whatever it takes to keep morale up. One of the things that they do is try to grant our military guys a wish upon returning home from combat.

Sgt. Ernie Chaney, I learned was 40 years old, had a full enlistment in the Navy, then re-upped for a career in the Army and had been in Iraq for many many months. To hear him tell it he was the victim of no less then 5 roadside bombings and is one of the lucky ones to be talking about it.

As it turned out Sgt. Chaney's wish was to fish and he wanted to fish Louisiana because that is where the fish are right..... The Paradise Louisiana guys knew that this time of the year could be tricky so they called and placed the order to fish. Offshore was the preference but they knew that we were outfitted to fish inshore if needed. I really did not want to go, with a hacking cough and fever the last two days I was just not looking forward to it but I could not say no.

Sunday the forecast looked like crap for offshore so the bay boat was launched with some effort I might add as there was like NO WATER in south Louisiana.

We hit the marsh north of Grand Isle and it started to look good, after a few minutes of settling in Gary put a nice red fish in the boat on a spinner. Shortly after we came upon a school of redfish that had hemmed a bunch of mullet into a small pool and it reminded me of the ole catfish farms at feeding time. The only problem was that they did not want anything but the mullet that they were chasing. We did manage to get another red out of this school on what was probably a reaction strike by ripping the bait through the school. By this time the SE wind was starting to howl as predicted making casting a little tough. We saw plenty of reds pushing but just could not get to them with the low water and the wind preventing long casts.

We did pick away at the fish all day long ending the day with a nice box of reds mixed in with sheepshead and flouder.

This was really a trip that I did not want to take to begin with but looking back on it, I would not have passed it up and would certainly do it again. The conversation with the good Sgt. was wonderful and eyeopening.

****************** The thought however that will stick in my head, was when Sgt. Chaney told me of his units arrival from Iraq. (minus the 100+ that were KIA) Seems that they flew into Texas and even though they were showered with well wishers and loved ones, there were protesters there holding signs and chanting that the only good soilder is a dead soilder and other anti war slogans. C'mon people, I'm for free speech and have my opinions about the war but our military guys are only doing their jobs, they do not choose their conflicts. My request would be to make sure that we let them know that we support them, regardless of what you think of the mission. *****************

The wind will stop blowing one day and we will get back to fishing offshore.

PS: Thanks to Capt. Herk who was in the area scouting and humbly offerd his catch of red fish to the Sgt. so that he could have more meat to bring home to Texas. Thanks to Bridgeside Marina for the accomendations.