Page 68 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2018

SPORTS & OUTDOORS non-stop action
story and photos by Frank Wilem
Make Offshore Fishing Interesting
We are blessed with great fisheries here in South Mississippi with plenty of crappie and bass in freshwater and loads of tuna, wahoo, mahi-mahi, and billfish offshore. And in-between, lies a healthy trout and redfish population along with
Sharks are often a serious problem when trying to fill a box with fish. I’ve had twenty-pound red snapper and even larger tuna bitten in half before I could get them in the boat. And it’s not hard to find tales of having hungry sharks steal strings of fish from wading anglers. But with that said, they are fun to catch, especially for inexperienced anglers who have never fought larger, hard-fighting fish.
Recently, we had a chance to film an episode of our television show, Gulf South Outdoors, with Capt. Ron’s charters out of Gulfport. We’ve fished with them before and his crew never fails to find the fish. The designated anglers for this trip were Tom, Mikel, and Ian Henry and Ian’s friend Aiden. Though none were experienced with offshore fishing, they were fired up about giving it a shot. And I was sure hoping they wouldn’t be disappointed.
We loaded up and Capt. Dustin headed out the Ship Island channel with a clear azure sky and mirror-flat seas. Once anchored up, they set out a spread of lines with a live croaker free-lined behind the boat. Twenty seconds later, he was still briefing the anglers when Ian hooked up a nice bull red.
Our anglers quickly gained experience fighting one big red after another before another species entered the mix. With all the chum in the water and action going on, Mr. Jaws showed up...in force. But fortunately, the bull redfish kept coming as well and in no time, we had a limit of redfish in the box.
The Henry crew posing with the redfish, mackerel, and sharks they caught that day with Capt. Ron’s charters.
Mr. Jaws, the Blacktip shark
68 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • July 2018 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net