Well gang, as many of you saw a few months back, I put up a thread looking for information about going to the Chandeleur's via one of the charter boats. Many of you recommended the VI out of Biloxi and we indeed booked the trip for July 10-12, three full days of fishing and fellowship... We had 12 men in our group and one of them brought his grandson (age 11) along. We all left our homes in small groups early Sunday morning and rendezvoused at a truck stop in Orange, Texas for a caravan to Biloxi. With much help and advice from our brother/TBH'er Cajun Blake on the traffic advisories, we made it to the VI about 4:00 PM Sunday night, got all boarded and headed out to the islands.
The VI is an old converted crew boat, but it is well appointed with nice, comfortable quarters and an absolutely GREAT crew! They were ready to do anything within their power to make our trip a success, and in all honestly catching fish was a bonus! What a nice trip just to be there on the VI and be waited on hand and foot by those guys...
Monday morning, broke with a good incoming tide that would make for good fishing potential until at least 11:00 AM before high tide. We paired off and boarded the skiffs provided by the VI and armed with the latest inside info as to where the fish were hiding from the crew, we struck out in several different directions. My group of 6 guys took off southeast to a cut in the islands that would allow us to get "on the outside" with the intention of wading the gulf side of the island... after encountering a few mishaps with shallow water by missing the channel in the pass, we finally got on the gulf side and headed back up the beach about 300 yards off the beach
We were practically immediately into fish - some good ones too! We brought in 90 trout and 10 reds on the first morning!!
The way the tides were, we had a hard time finding fish in the afternoon with most of us catching little. Our senior group members still managed to catch fish however!! I should hope to some day know as much about catching fish as those 2 guys! Bright and early on Tuesday morning, we were back on the surf side of the island right at daylight, and the fish were still there! We nuked 'em again. This time, the whole group together brought in over 200 trout and another dozen or so reds. One of our more senior members of the group got a 40+" redfish and because of the beautiful coloration, decided to save it for mounting.
The last day, Wednesday, we were all pretty worn out, but none-the-less excided to get out there and give it one more shot. We went back to the same spot only this time the surf was up a bit, but not so much we couldn't get to the gulf side safely. We anchored and slipped into the water in anticipation of that first strike... we cast, and cast and cast.... FINALLY I caught a smallish one, about a 16" spec..., then one of the others got a nice red, and slowly we began to string/bag fish, but it was not like the previous two mornings, yet it was still pretty good fishing. The surf was building a bit more. My buddy and I were standing about waist deep and talking about how rough it would be on the ride back around that pass to get back on the inside, when I felt a hard "bump" just as I was about to lift my DSL Texas Roach out of the water to make another cast. My Diawa Coastal started to let out line at a pretty good clip no matter what I did with the crank. The Castaway 7 1/2 foot medium action rod by now had a pretty good ark of a bend in it and the fight was on! I almost immediately felt that characteristic "head shake" that good trout do when hooked! Could this be the fish I was looking for?! After a good long run, I began to get line back and turned the fish back toward me. After what seemed like an eternity the struggle was over and I had a 27" monster of a trout in my net!! I was PUMPED to say the least!! Now a 27" trout to someone who has caught as many trout as I have shouldn't be that big of a deal, but that's the biggest trout I'd ever caught!! I've caught a bunch between 25 and 26 inches, but nothing bigger!!
In the end, our total was 400+ trout and somewhere between 27 and 30 reds with many over sized reds released. I can say this was my best Chandeleur trip ever! And finally, I'd HIGHLY recommend ANYONE wanting to book a trip to fish the Chandeleur Islands, contact the boys on the VI!!
Our group after that first morning...
A good first morning Stringer
My second morning's "bag"!! By the way, anyone thinking about switching to a bag instead of stringer, I'd HIGHLY recommend it!! Best thing I've done to my wade fishing in YEARS!! MUCH faster than a stringer and like so many have reported on here, there are PLENTY of sharks! I did not lose a fish to sharks once in my basket. Everyone else lost fish, some multiple fish, and Ernie lost his whole stringer! Shark grabbed it and took off and it fortunately popped out of its latch (like it is designed to do) never to be seen again!!
Our group's second morning...
The whole second morning's catch... note the fish on the bow of our boat plus the fish in that GIANT Yeti cooler. That's one morning's catch!! That yetti must be 350-400 quarts! It's 6 foot long or more!!
Doug's red, look at that color!
And my 27" trout on the last morning. I caught the only red of the trip for me on the last evening, but didn't get a pic of it (I know the TBH rule, but I was plumb wore out and fergot!)
With all the clouds and Thunderstorms around, the sunrises and sunsets were just amazing. There's just no way to capture the grandeur of a sunrise, especially offshore or in the mountains!!
The VI is an old converted crew boat, but it is well appointed with nice, comfortable quarters and an absolutely GREAT crew! They were ready to do anything within their power to make our trip a success, and in all honestly catching fish was a bonus! What a nice trip just to be there on the VI and be waited on hand and foot by those guys...
Monday morning, broke with a good incoming tide that would make for good fishing potential until at least 11:00 AM before high tide. We paired off and boarded the skiffs provided by the VI and armed with the latest inside info as to where the fish were hiding from the crew, we struck out in several different directions. My group of 6 guys took off southeast to a cut in the islands that would allow us to get "on the outside" with the intention of wading the gulf side of the island... after encountering a few mishaps with shallow water by missing the channel in the pass, we finally got on the gulf side and headed back up the beach about 300 yards off the beach
We were practically immediately into fish - some good ones too! We brought in 90 trout and 10 reds on the first morning!!
The way the tides were, we had a hard time finding fish in the afternoon with most of us catching little. Our senior group members still managed to catch fish however!! I should hope to some day know as much about catching fish as those 2 guys! Bright and early on Tuesday morning, we were back on the surf side of the island right at daylight, and the fish were still there! We nuked 'em again. This time, the whole group together brought in over 200 trout and another dozen or so reds. One of our more senior members of the group got a 40+" redfish and because of the beautiful coloration, decided to save it for mounting.
The last day, Wednesday, we were all pretty worn out, but none-the-less excided to get out there and give it one more shot. We went back to the same spot only this time the surf was up a bit, but not so much we couldn't get to the gulf side safely. We anchored and slipped into the water in anticipation of that first strike... we cast, and cast and cast.... FINALLY I caught a smallish one, about a 16" spec..., then one of the others got a nice red, and slowly we began to string/bag fish, but it was not like the previous two mornings, yet it was still pretty good fishing. The surf was building a bit more. My buddy and I were standing about waist deep and talking about how rough it would be on the ride back around that pass to get back on the inside, when I felt a hard "bump" just as I was about to lift my DSL Texas Roach out of the water to make another cast. My Diawa Coastal started to let out line at a pretty good clip no matter what I did with the crank. The Castaway 7 1/2 foot medium action rod by now had a pretty good ark of a bend in it and the fight was on! I almost immediately felt that characteristic "head shake" that good trout do when hooked! Could this be the fish I was looking for?! After a good long run, I began to get line back and turned the fish back toward me. After what seemed like an eternity the struggle was over and I had a 27" monster of a trout in my net!! I was PUMPED to say the least!! Now a 27" trout to someone who has caught as many trout as I have shouldn't be that big of a deal, but that's the biggest trout I'd ever caught!! I've caught a bunch between 25 and 26 inches, but nothing bigger!!
In the end, our total was 400+ trout and somewhere between 27 and 30 reds with many over sized reds released. I can say this was my best Chandeleur trip ever! And finally, I'd HIGHLY recommend ANYONE wanting to book a trip to fish the Chandeleur Islands, contact the boys on the VI!!
Our group after that first morning...
A good first morning Stringer
My second morning's "bag"!! By the way, anyone thinking about switching to a bag instead of stringer, I'd HIGHLY recommend it!! Best thing I've done to my wade fishing in YEARS!! MUCH faster than a stringer and like so many have reported on here, there are PLENTY of sharks! I did not lose a fish to sharks once in my basket. Everyone else lost fish, some multiple fish, and Ernie lost his whole stringer! Shark grabbed it and took off and it fortunately popped out of its latch (like it is designed to do) never to be seen again!!
Our group's second morning...
The whole second morning's catch... note the fish on the bow of our boat plus the fish in that GIANT Yeti cooler. That's one morning's catch!! That yetti must be 350-400 quarts! It's 6 foot long or more!!
Doug's red, look at that color!
And my 27" trout on the last morning. I caught the only red of the trip for me on the last evening, but didn't get a pic of it (I know the TBH rule, but I was plumb wore out and fergot!)
With all the clouds and Thunderstorms around, the sunrises and sunsets were just amazing. There's just no way to capture the grandeur of a sunrise, especially offshore or in the mountains!!
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