Page 156 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2019

SPORTS & OUTDOOR local catch
156 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • September 2019 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
MANTRIP 2019:
Cat Island
story by Frank Wilem photos by Chris Walters
Each year, our ManTrip group of twelve makes a fishing trip. My favorites have been billfishing in places like
Panama, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. But this year, the group decided to stick closer to home and spend a
few days out at Cat Island trout fishing. Don Gaddy graciously agreed to host us at his place on Cat.
Dave Shoemake, Frank Wilem and Don Gaddy.
Based on the reports I had heard
of fishing being affected by all the freshwater from the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, I was a little skeptical about how this might turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised when we began catching nice trout despite the conditions. I credit this to Shore Thing Charters crew of top- notch guides.
trout on nearly every cast.
And this continued until... the dolphins arrived. We still caught fish, but not in the same numbers, and I even had a dolphin chase my trout as I reeled in fast enough to boat the fish before he became dolphin fare.
I then hooked up something big.
The first afternoon we fished an area on the north side of the island. While it had been producing, we found it to be a little slow. So the next day, Capt. Kenny Shigyou proposed that we switch to Plan B, saying, “Let’s shift to the south side of the island. I think there’s an
“Might be a big bull red... or maybe
a shark,” Capt. Kenny surmised. I was hoping for a red as I fought the fish on light tackle for several minutes, during which time I was nearly spooled. After a fun fight, I fought him to the boat
to find I had hooked a four-foot shark – my personal best on light tackle. Luckily, the hook caught him in the corner of the mouth so he couldn’t
bite the line. We released him and continued to trout fish.
area there where we might do better.” And he
was
right.
I had heard about anglers using a float plane to reach the far southern end of the Chandeleur Islands and had always wanted to try it. I had my
Immediately we were catching
Wendell Lee, Sonny Schindler and John Rester.
Brent Gutierrez, Capt Kenny, and Don Gaddy Fishing at Cat Island.