Page 94 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2018

heads-n-tails
REEL WOM EN
BUSY OB/GYN LEADS WOMEN’S FISHING TEAM
When she was a little girl, Dr. Michele Pisciotta began trout fishing with her father out of Shell Beach, Louisiana. Shortly after she met her husband,
Vince, the couple fished Chef Pass and Lake Borgne in their spare time.
“He loved that I could bait my own hook and take the fish off the hook without help,” says the OB/GYN and mother of five. “We truly discussed
a prenuptial agreement that would allow him to live on direct access to salt water, and I would never be required to drive a minivan.”
Today, the family lives on the water, she drives a Suburban and together they enjoy the water and the thrill of catching big game fish in the blue seas of the Gulf of Mexico. The couple has been a member of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Big Game Fishing Club since 2001.
Each July, the club hosts an annual ladies-only fishing tournament. Pisciotta and a group of women, which has varied throughout the years, head south in the Gulf anywhere from 100 to 150 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. She’s only missed a few tournaments in the past 17 years. The Pisciottas’ boat, a 54-foot Bertram, and the fishing team are appropriately named Heads-n-Tails because of her specialty as an OB/GYN and her husband’s specialty as an ear, nose and
throat physician. The group catches a variety of deep-water fish including mahi mahi, marlin, snapper, tuna and wahoo.
Angler Michele Pisciotta in the fighting chair ready to reel in her catch.
Pisciotta says her women fishing friends don’t mind getting sweaty and can tolerate stormy seas that are often
found in the southern Gulf. “We have a motto that once we leave the dock we don’t come back until the weigh in,” she said. “Only once have I talked the crew into coming in for the night. It was so rough the mirrors fell off the walls in the bathroom and literally everything in the boat was rolling on the floor.”
Her strategy for catching big game fish includes the use of the “fighting chair” aboard the boat. “I definitely use the chair and gloves to fight big fish because fighting with a belt while standing up is so unsteady it scares me. The chair allows the angler to
use her legs and back and butt to get the fish to the boat.” This year, she devised a strategy to help her reel in a marlin and after two hours of fighting the large fish, she was able to bring it on board.
Pisciotta only blue-water fishes in this one tournament because of the time commitment, but she and her family enjoy snapper fishing a few times a year and all sorts of water sports. “I cannot imagine our family or life without the water,” she added.
94 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • September 2018 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
Barbara Kilpatrick, Cassie Slaton, Michele Pisciotta, Lisa Benfield, Dina Cook and Ashley Rector
story by Alexis Williams photos courtesy of Dr. Michele Pisciotta