True Fishing Tales

By Patrice Doucet  |  Submitted Photos

Who doesn’t love a good fishing story?  Every angler dreams of unexplored waters and uncountable fish, but the most memorable fishing trips always involve a good story – those are the real keepers. 

The following stories encompass what fishing is all about. Some are action packed, some are funny, and all include bonding and laughing.  For many of you some of these anecdotes will sound all too familiar and will bring back lifelong memories of your own. 

Dr. Ed Lyons

Internal Medicine physician Dr. Ed Lyons has thoroughly enjoyed fly fishing for 65 years and looked forward to the day he would share his passion with his grandson, Will.  “It was seven years ago, just before the end of the school year and I’d made arrangements to check him out of class early and head to a farm pond north of Cankton.  I put a popping bug, aka a ‘Sneaky Pete’ on the hook and Will casted his line about 20 feet out.  On the first hit, the line began to stretch out; a brim had taken the bait.  But, we could see the fish was struggling and then in a large swirl of water it disappeared, the fly line stretched again and a largemouth bass jumped up, after engulfing the brim in his mouth.  Will managed to pull the bass in on his own.  We took a picture before releasing the prize catch.  As happy as my grandson was that day, the interest of fly fishing was short lived.”

Hank Giruard

Hank Giruard smiles ear-to-ear still today as he recounts a fishing trip from years ago with a relative, now deceased, late one spring in Bayou Prejean, near Bayou Benoit.  “Once you make the 18-mile drive from Broussard, it was a good 45-minute boat ride to where we were going to be fishing.  After we arrived, we were there maybe five minutes when I hear, “What happened here! What happened here?”  I looked over and see that the barb of the hook had gone completely through my partner’s ear on his first cast!  At that point, the only way of getting the hook out was by cutting it, but we didn’t have cutting plyers.  And then I heard what I was hoping I wouldn’t hear: ‘We’re gonna’ have to go back home.’  Before I could start heading back, here comes another boat with a young couple.  I flagged them down and explained what happened, and the man pulled out a pair of needle nose plyers, cut the barb off, and pulled the hook out.  Right after that, I heard the line that still makes me laugh when I think about it: ‘How much do I owe you doctor?’”

John Vannoy

“I would often fish with my father-in-law and his friends from Broussard.   The one trip that will always stand out from the others was when he and I went to Bayou Bernard in Catahoula with Louis Michot.  We arrived around 8 in the morning.  My father-in-law and I launched off first; we got out in the middle of the bayou and were waiting for Louis to launch his boat.  We watched as he backed his boat into the water slowly and then when the boat hit water he put the breaks on and got out of the car.  Suddenly, we heard the car’s emergency brake pop loose and the boat trailer and the car slowly started rolling into the water.  Louis hurried to jump into the car just in time to stop it; and the boat launched by itself.  I pulled our boat next to Louis’ and jumped in.  All of a sudden, I realized water was coming in because there was no plug!  Louis was hollering from the landing telling me where he kept the plug so I could stop the boat from sinking.  While I’m plugging the boat, Louis realized the boat trailer had gone too deep and was stuck under water.  I stripped down to my underwear and swam with a rope in hand to tie it to the end of the trailer under water.  Then, I got back to the boat with my father-in-law and picked up the rope to lift the trailer to get it unstuck enough to pull it out.   I got dressed and sat in the boat feeling like I had worked out and I hadn’t even caught the first fish.  Even though it was a commotion to get started, it turned out to be a good fishing day.”

Anonymous

“I was fishing one time in Vermilion Bay with two of my sons-in-law in a 19-foot Chaparral.  When we got to ‘our spot,’ I told one of them to drop the anchor.  He grabbed it and I mean he threw it!  I watched it fly over the boat – with no rope attached.   Good thing I kept an extra anchor.

Another time I went to Cypremort Point and I was fishing not far from another boat.  My line started tugging hard and I was reeling it all excited.  I hear the guy in the other boat holler, ‘I got a big one!’  ‘Me too!’ I said.  I was fighting with the line.  The next thing I know, the line popped out of the water real tight and I see that our lines were hooked together!”

Darius Girouard

I was captain on a boat that fished the Orange Beach Bill Fish Classic three years ago in May.  The tournament started great; one and a half hours into it we had a 350- pound marlin hooked and tagged.  We caught a nice 80 to 90-pound tuna, too.  As the day progressed, seas got terrible – 4-to-5-feet, occasionally 6-foot seas.  We trolled around for the rest of the day into the night and ended up at the drilling platform Horn Mountain about 120 miles southwest of Orange Beach where we spent the night fishing for tuna.  At about 1 in the morning, we chumed up a 164-pound yellow fin and hooked him.  Fought him for 4 ½ hours with stand up gear, drifting five miles in the meantime.  When we finally pulled the tuna on the boat, we realized that the hook was broken in half and just hanging on in the corner of his mouth the whole time.  In fact, it fell out of his mouth on the boat floor when we pulled him in.  We ended up placing 1st and 3rd in the Tuna Division and 1st in Catch and Release with the marlin.

David Musumeche

“One amazing experience was an occasion when my son and I were fishing at Mud Point in Weeks Bay, a short boat ride down from the Bayou Patout boat landing on the way to Weeks Island.  It was the fall, which is my favorite time to fish because of the cool weather and (normally) good fishing.  It was rumored that redfish were biting so we hit the water early one morning.  After a couple of hours catching mostly trash fish – hardhead catfish and Gaff topsail catfish – we finally hooked the first speckled trout, bringing us little hope.  Suddenly, about 15 to 20 Laughing Gulls began to dive all around our boat.  They were after shrimp.  As they were being attacked, above and beneath the water, the shrimp began to jump from the water; several landed right in the boat!  Knowing the fish would be feasting on the shrimp, too, we hurriedly casted our lines into the water.  Our luck had changed.  Just about every cast brought in a speckled trout.  As we’d flip a fish into the boat it would regurgitate the shrimp it had just eaten.  The bottom of the boat was nearly covered with 30 or so speckled trout, each about two to three pounds.  And then – just as soon as it began – the action stopped.  That was one memorable day.”