Page 157 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2019

FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net September 2019 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 157
Standing: John Dane, Don Gaddy, Brent Gutierrez, and Frank Wilem. Seated: Dave Shoemake, Richard Tilley, John Rester and Denton Gibbes.
chance on this trip when we loaded up and flew down to Curlew, some 50 miles south of Gulfport. I was under the belief that the plan would be to spot fish from the plane and then land where we knew there were plenty of fish to be caught. But with the dirty water, that was not the case. The pilot simply took us to a spot he had fished in the past and landed on the protected west side of the island.
We gathered our gear and hiked to the east side of the island to begin fishing the surf. We caught a few lady
fish and then were all three hooked up with trout and a redfish. As the surf continued to build, we retreated to the protected west side. It was at this time that I realized the problem with using a float plane. It appeared that every approaching boat saw the plane and assumed we were there because we had spotted lots of fish.
So the boats all congregated around us and we ended up fishing shoulder to shoulder – not what I prefer. But we caught a few more trout before heading back to the camp for lunch and then another boat trip in the afternoon.
By the end of the trip, the group had caught around 250 trout, many of them 20-23 inches and 35 redfish. Despite the tough conditions, Shore Thing Charters made sure we had a successful trip.