Keith Lusher With the influx of freshwater in Lake Pontchartrain and surrounding areas making saltwater fishing tough, my annual offshore red snapper trip couldn’t have come at a better time. For the third year straight my daughter and I joined Wanda Stewart of RodnReel.com on her annual fishing trip into the Gulf of Mexico for what I like to refer to as our annual “meat haul.” With the tightening of red snapper limits and shortening of the season we’ve seen the past few years the resurgence in red snapper numbers has been impressive and the trip has yet to fail on providing a limit of snapper and other delectable offshore species.
As the morning sun peeked over the Venice horizon, I felt confident that we would once again duplicate past efforts. Captain John Coulon of Delta Blue Sport Fishing was at the helm of his blue and white custom built, 47-foot steel vessel known as “The Cougar.”
As we traveled out into federal waters I had a chance to talk with Coulon about how his season was going so far. “It’s been tougher than normal to be honest but we’re still managing limits of snapper plus other species of fish,” John said. My curiosity was piqued as to why this year was any different than the previous and John told me that there are fewer platforms to fish this year as the oil companies are moving their operation further out into the gulf. But with a sideways smirk he looked at me and said “don’t worry we’ll stay out till dark if we have to,” he says. As we approached the first rig I couldn’t help but notice the muddy water that was in direct contrast of what we usually see when 9 miles from shore. John waved it off and said that it was from the high river but the water column quickly switches over to salt after a few feet of freshwater since that water is less dense than salt water.
As the morning sun peeked over the Venice horizon, I felt confident that we would once again duplicate past efforts. Captain John Coulon of Delta Blue Sport Fishing was at the helm of his blue and white custom built, 47-foot steel vessel known as “The Cougar.”
As we traveled out into federal waters I had a chance to talk with Coulon about how his season was going so far. “It’s been tougher than normal to be honest but we’re still managing limits of snapper plus other species of fish,” John said. My curiosity was piqued as to why this year was any different than the previous and John told me that there are fewer platforms to fish this year as the oil companies are moving their operation further out into the gulf. But with a sideways smirk he looked at me and said “don’t worry we’ll stay out till dark if we have to,” he says. As we approached the first rig I couldn’t help but notice the muddy water that was in direct contrast of what we usually see when 9 miles from shore. John waved it off and said that it was from the high river but the water column quickly switches over to salt after a few feet of freshwater since that water is less dense than salt water.
Ashley Coulon prepared cut pogies for our first stop
As we tied up to the rig the crew on the Cougar was once again hustling to keep us supplied with fresh cut pogies and shrimp. Everyone dropped their lines and settled in in anticipation of a stout red snapper bite. But it was the red snappers smaller cousin, the Vermilion Snapper that was biting. Vermilion snapper have a maximum weight of 6 lbs. as opposed to red snapper which grow to 35 lbs. We managed a total of 16 vermilion’s within a half hour until the dreaded first shark was reeled in. John says after those sharks move in the spot usually stops producing because they chase away the sport fish. He was right as the next 3 fish were sharks.
This snapper never made it to the surface alive after it was bitten in half.
John cranked up the engine and we headed a little further out to the next rig. This rig provided the same results as the last one but with one added bonus. We were able to boat 2 cobia which was a first since I’ve been going on the trip. The sharks again moved in to run us off but we were slowly putting a nice box of fish together, all that was missing was the red snapper.
Wanda Stewart battles a red snapper
We didn’t have to go far to find what we were looking for however. A rig with approximately 60 ft. of clean green water from the surface to the bottom. Immediately we started hooking up with red snapper and our trip switched gears. There were red snapper coming in the boat quicker than I’ve witnessed ever on the Cougar. The crew could barley keep up. At one point My daughter and I both set our hooks at the same time and successfully landed our fish which was a special moment for me. Within an hour we suddenly found ourselves with a limit of snapper, over 20 vermilion’s and 2 cobia. John turned to everyone and said “Let’s go get some redfish!” and with a quick run to a stretch of rocks we found ourselves reeling in bull reds faster than we caught the snapper. At one point I counted 5 anglers on the boat hooked up at the same time. After a limit of redfish we headed back to the marina and John and his crew quickly carved up the fish and bagged the meat for us to take home. Finally tally: 32 Red Snapper, 22 Vermilion Snapper, and 16 redfish. Once again or trip on the cougar was a tremendous success I want to thank John Coulon of Delta Blue Sport Fishing and Wanda Stewart of RodnReel.com for a fantastic fishing trip and memories that will last a lifetime!
