As I returned from my trip to Guatemala, I knew when I got to Louisiana I had to go and convince Capt. Gary that we have got to come up with a way to get licensed captains to Guatemala for FREE! I enjoyed my trip so much that I felt every person that works in the charter boat industry day in and day out would surely appreciate a trip like this to Guatemala.
Here is what I did::::: I went down to do a little work on the Strike Zone. Which ended up a vacation. The temperatures there were so much different from the winter snow and ice storm that we are expecting to get in Louisiana over the next few days. I arrived to ninety degree weather and all the sunshine that you could ever want. Needless to say I am sun burned and having to suffer through it now.
I worked on the boat the afternoon I arrived and that evening sat around with my new friends and had a few gallo's (cold beers) and just hung with the crews of the boats. And then on Thursday, I just had to go on a sea trial! Well my idea of sea trial is different than most, I ended up with dolphin jumping on the left long and two rooster fish being released. we were only 30 yards from the beach. We fished for about a hour and then headed in for a bite to eat and to get the boat ready for the tournament that was the next day. Then I had the opportunity to fish with the crew and anglers that were fishing the National Tournament. The group of anglers and the crew of the Strike Zone have previously won the first leg of the tournament the weekend before. We stayed up that evening rigging baits and making sure all the tackle was ready. Friday morning we set out to see how many sailfish we could catch. I was all excited cause I have only been able to watch the wind blow and make sure the pilings didn't float away for the past few months in Louisiana. So a chance to be on a boat that get to fish in warm weather and calm seas in February I was in! Out we set to find the sails. We ran only 23 miles, we shut down at 8:30am and put the teasers out and at 8:35am we released the first one. I just knew it was going to be like popcorn popping with these sail jumping out of the water all day , but I was wrong, we went through a little lull. Which is enough time to rig more baits and get ready for another flurry. During the trip we ran across a school of tuna and boy did the small part of Louisiana Coon Ass come straight out of me in a hurry. I jumped down in the cockpit and began to chum these fish and all anglers had yellow fins on and a box full soon proceeded. After having our fill of catching, we got back to the sails. Capt. Hercules decided to make a little run to the north about five miles to get into some more action. The move was a good call, we only had three releases prior to the move. We fished until lines out at three o'clock and finished the day with 12 sailfish being released on the first day of the tournament and it was considered a very,very slow day. Later that evening we ate tuna and hung out on the dock and talked about the day. We found out that we were in second for the tournament and that we were only two fish out of first. On Saturday as the anglers were arriving to the boat I was taking my bags off the boat and getting ready to return to Guatemala City and head back home. I had to sit on the dock and watch as my boat left the dock without me on it, and knowing what we just did yesterday I was heart broken that I couldn't go too. Once back in the states, I found out that the Strike Zone had taken over the first place position and had won the tournament two weekends in a row. Congrats goes out to the crew of the Strike Zone and Capt. Hercules. We still have two more weekends in the tournament, but I know Capt. Hercules will be on top.
I have been holding on to this report and convincing Capt Gary to send licensed captains on a vacation for free before posting and I want to be the first to invite all charter fishing captains all over the states to come on a vacation!
Call Capt. Kevin Aderhold (504) 382-2108 or Capt. Gary Bonanno (225) 279-3800
WWW.strikezonecharters.net
Celebrating over 21 years in the charter business.
