Nicky sent me a text Wednesday evening asking if I wanted to do some snapper fishing Thursday offshore. Meeting at his house at 4 for the drive down to Venice LA where we'd put in. I was up at 2 and left the house at 2:30 for the 1h 15 min drive to his place in Slidell. It was him, his wife, another couple, and me for the 2 hour drive down to Venice.
We launched about 7:30 and headed out for the 30-mile run down the remainder of the MS River before it empties into the gulf where the waters open up and the horizon is dotted with oil and gas production platforms.
15 miles offshore past the mouth of the river is the first rig. We pulled up and got to business. The current was ripping by the rig that sat in about 380-400 feet of water. The fish were about 180 feet down which required a 12-16 oz lead just to get down to them without your bait being blown a hundred yards down current first.
At the first rig, we hooked up on quite a few of what was likely some big amberjacks that effortlessly broke us off within 30 seconds of hookup. 65lb braid to a 65lb fluro leader and they'd peel off line until they could get you wrapped in the rig and pop off. I bet we tied 20 hooks on that first rig and had two red snapper to show for it. We were getting our asses beat but it was a beautiful day and the waves were pretty flat at less than a foot.
We tried up down left and right of the rig. We decided to do a drift so Nicky cut off the spot lock on the trolling motor and we drifted by pretty quickly. After we got down current of the rig he hopped behind the console and pushed the throttle. Nothing. At some point, the engine went down and we couldn't hear it over the sound of the rig. A couple of attempts to get it cranked and we realized we were adrift 15 miles offshore with nothing between us and the Yucatan or Cuba but open water and a pending hurricane. I mentioned that we need to get back up to the rig and tie off. Nicky handed his buddy Eric the trolling motor controller and that motor was giving it max power. In the wind and current, we were making maybe 1/4 mph and the rig was about 100 yards off.
We both went to work trying to figure it out, we had a crank but no start, somehow it lost prime and the primer bulb was soft with zero squish. We narrowed it down, hopefully, to the fuel water separator filter. He undid the hose clamp at the primer bulb, cut the exit line off the separator and ran the line directly to the motor bypassing the filter. The primer bulb had squish and it primed up, turned the key and she fired up.
From there we ran about 9 miles east and the motor ran like a champ. Confident we fixed it we decided to stay out and keep trying. We didn't have much luck at 2nd rig but did catch some vermillion snapper and Nicky caught a lane snapper.
We decided to head back to the original rig because there was a guy there that was catching who was sitting on the X. When we got back they were just finishing up and we slipped in the hole behind them. It was on like Donkey Kong. We couldn't keep 5 rods down because everyone was getting hooked up. In the last 1.5 hours, we boated 10-12 back to back. The trolling motor wouldn't hold so we took turns motoring about 100 yards up then drifting back to within about 20 yards of the rig. Bump it in gear and do it again.
It had been a long day and everyone was spent so we decided to head back to the ramp. The trolling motor decided we had one more challenge to deal with. It was dead dead and wouldn't rise up and fold. Nicky pulled the mount and tied it to the deck.
2 hour drive to his place and we pulled in the drive at about 8pm, sprayed the boat and bait holds down, unpacked, and iced the fish. I rolled put about 10 an had another 1.5 hours and got to the house at 11:45. After a shower my head hit the pillow 23 hours after it left it the night before.
Such an awesome trip with awesome people, and Nicky too.
with tying terminal gear the whole day. I don’t mind though, it’s what I usually do as I love seeing everyone enjoying what I love. Thanks for helping out in what seemed like a crisis at the moment. Joe you’re welcome to fish w me anytime. But it did feel like I had 3 Dustin’s on my boat 
with this! We both know how fast 
can go sideways….. Luckily we can both enlighten folks who need it.
