March 20-22, 2003 -- Businessman’s Holiday

Capts’. B.J.Powell, Ray Rankin, and yours truly recently hosted Mr. Daddy, Texas Trout Killer A.K.A. (Travis Petty and his father, Pappy!) to a day chasing Crappie on Steroids (Snapper) out of Port Mansfield. After departing the dock after 7:30 A.M. it didn’t take Mr. Trout Killer long to give us Capts. a lesson in crappie fishing. What better way to spend a day on the water with calm seas, good company and willing fish than to have an ARTIFICIAL TACKLE MANUFACTURER kick our rears on bait. It was obvious Travis was going to show us how it’s done. We finished the day with enough snapper for a good fish fry and lunch the next day on the water. The snapper were caught 3.5 miles offshore on a rock pile in 54 feet of water. Small weights with herring were the bait of choice. Capt. B.J. showed everyone his navigational ability to put us on right productive rock pile.

The next day found us in the bay in search of a trophy trout. The fish in the bay were not to be outdone by the offshore species. We spent the day wading the spoils north of Port Mansfield. The bait of choice was as expected Bone Trout Killers. Again Mr. Daddy Trout Killer showed his fishing ability using artifices. We caught a number of nice trout but the trophy didn’t show up. A 27" sow was caught and released. With the full moon our bite as expected was midday. The trout were taking the Trout Killer fished along the bottom. A slow retrieve was the best action to tempt the trout into biting. Our water is finally warming and I look for the Large Trout to explode any day. We did release a few trout in excess of 22". Travis and his father were able to take home some great eating trout and snapper filets.