Latest / 6 Ranch Podcast / Tuna, Sharks, and Swordfish with Tripletail Charters

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Tuna, Sharks, and Swordfish with Tripletail Charters · 6 Ranch Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's gotten way worse in the past five years.
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: For sure, you know there's a lot of sharks that are definitely getting more educated, with more boats fishing, you know, and you know they've a lot of big duskies in particular, you know, gotten dialed in in certain areas when these tunas get in certain areas.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: That's you know.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: You know they're going to be there and that's one thing that's really made me jump for like, like, from my like the gear that I use in the big braid and big mono, you know 200, 250 pound mono, you know leader, so that when I hook these 150 pound fish I can get them to the boat in minutes, you know, and not feed them to sharks.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: These are stories of outdoor adventure and expert advice from folks with calloused hands.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I'm James Nash and this is the Six Ranch podcast.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: This episode of the Six Ranch podcast is brought to you by DECT.
• 1:10
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• 2:24
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• 2:38
  Speaker 2: All right, so last week I was in the Florida Keys fishing with some buddies, some of whom I've fished with for over 20 years.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: We're in Marathon Key.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: We went up to the Everglades and did some snook fishing, did some red fishing, saw a freaking crocodile If y'all didn't know that, there's crocodiles in America, there are.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: There's saltwater crocodiles in the Everglades Spent a bunch of days offshore as well, and we even caught a sailfish while we were bottom fishing for snapper on super light gear Freaking, incredible.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: This thing jumped clean out of the water eight times Sailfish.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Atlantic sailfish are a really special animal because they're the fastest swimming fish in the water.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: They can swim 68 miles an hour, which is faster than a cheetah can go on land.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: And then I flew straight from there to New Orleans, had some great Cajun food and then came down to Venice, louisiana, where I am now with triple tail charters, and we did a couple days of tuna fishing.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: We did one day of intrawar fishing for red fish.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Today We've got one more day of intrawar fishing.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I have with me Cade and Blake from triple tail charters and we're going to talk stories a little bit, but I want to set the scene for what my first experience was like going out tuna fishing.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: So we meet in the harbor, in the marina, we get on this gorgeous catamaran, 38 foot aluminum boat, just an absolute battle wagon and then we start to head out, head out the end of the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico, and it's starting to get a little bit gray and dusky.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: And then, when that sun rose, seeing that sunrise over the Gulf honestly made me feel like I'd never seen a sunrise before in my life.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: That was incredibly special and there's just colors that occur there that are impossible in the mountains.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: We just can't see that.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: So we're going out there.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: We've got about an hour long run.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Things are just going along and I'm sitting on a beanbag in the stern of the boat just looking over the gunnels, occasionally at the sunrise, and then all of a sudden I hear these four engines on the back of this boat fricking, rev up to everything that we've got and that boat started flying across the surface and we made a little direction change and I can't tell what's going on in the cockpit, but I know something just happened right Like this isn't normal.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: We're running out to fish type stuff and then the engines cut back and Blake goes all right, boys, get those beanbags to the front of the boat.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: We got tuna breaking and I look out and there are fricking 200 pound yellow fin tuna jumping out of the water in a line for what felt like horizon to horizon and the surface of the water is just erupting in foam from these fish, crashing bait balls.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: And you and Kyle, your mate man, you got gear out just so fast, like the boat was barely off plane and you had the outriggers out and you're getting baits in the water.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: All your gear was lined up ready to go and I mean we started going through these huge crashing fish and I'm just standing in the bow of the boat like what in the hell is going on and then, fricking, the reel starts burning, drag, and it was on just like that.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Dude, I know that big game fishing is a different deal and a lot of people don't know.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: They think fishing is an activity where, universally, you're going to go out and you're probably going to experience success.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: But when you're looking for the biggest yellow fin that there are, it's a different deal.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Your mindset has to be different.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about what was going through your head, because you just come off five days of nothing, right, yeah?
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've had.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: It's been hit or miss and it's high risk, high reward type fishing.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So when you see an opportunity, you got to capitalize because it'll shut down quick.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: So when it's happening, it's game on and legitimately we had like half an hour of a bite and then that was it.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Yep, that was it.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Just like I was thinking.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: You know the moon and everything with the full moon.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: It's been tricky.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it can be the best ever, or be hit or miss, and when you see them like that, it's as fast as you can get them.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: So I've guided forever and I know what it's like to have a dry spell.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, the guys who'd been here before us this was their fourth year coming out still have yet to catch a fish, and that's just how it is.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: But we hit it right, Just pure luck.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: But I mean, what must have been going through your mind is like, man, here's our chance We've got to make it happen right now.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: It's a lot of pressure, you know, and realistically, from my crew.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: The pressure is in your mind right, because we're out here to have a good time.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: This is a new experience.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: It's just something that we want to be a part of, whether we boat fish or not.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Not that big of a deal, like we're not going to be sour if we don't kill fish.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: But I know that also in the mind of the guide or the captain, it's like we've got to get this done.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you did it.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: So I mean, talk to me about how you line your gear up so that you can capitalize on that opportunity like that.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I mean the way we're geared up.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Now, you know, while we're trolling it's really just all beefed up, heavy geared to where, when we do hook a fish, our odds are really good of landing it.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: So if I get two or three bites the whole day, that's usually all we need to, I guess.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Have a good day.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: But heavy gear.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: For dudes out west who are trout fishing, that might mean that they're throwing eight pound test instead of six pound test.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you mean by heavy gear?
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, I like using 130 pound braid and 130 pound top shot, 200 pound leader minimal for 100 plus pound tunas.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: And how big are these hooks?
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Like size 10, big J hooks, 10-ought, oh yeah.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the other 10.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah, because when we're fly fishing.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: If.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: I'm throwing a number 10, I'm like damn, that's a big hook today.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: This is 10 in the other direction.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, you like.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: J hooks over circle hooks.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, way more.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Yep, is there a time and a place for circle hooks, or just not a thing?
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: There is.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Like the feeding, like how these tunas feed changes by the day, honestly.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: But years ago we used to catch them all chunking and we're hiding the hooks and the meat and cutting and doing a little chelms, slick and running lines out.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: So then we would use circle hooks and that's almost every time.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Get some in the corner of the mouth.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: So that I like circle hooks, but if I'm trolling I like big J hooks, for sure, right on.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Kate.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: What's your story?
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: What do you want to know?
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: When did you start guiding?
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: I started guiding right out of high school.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: OK.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: I graduated in 2020 due to COVID.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: We got out early so I did all my captain's license stuff online, got out of school, got my license and took a little while with Coast Guard, so I did a little bit of pipeline work, grass cutting in between, and then, once that license came in, it was time to get to work.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: And then fishing sentence have you fished your whole life?
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean, we're from down here, so that's all we know.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: Fishing and hunting, yeah.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, that is this place.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: There's all kinds of oil work, but besides that, from a natural resource perspective, this place really exists because of the sport fishing.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, how did you get into tuna?
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: So I mean, I've grown up fishing my whole life as well, started with bass fishing when I was younger and jumping around fishing ponds, and then trout and reds and I kept getting bigger and meaner fish and then snapper and king mackerels.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I grew up offshore fishing for years.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I didn't know anything else existed out there, and then I finally got made friends with some guys that tuna fished when I was a little bit older, around like 17.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And I seen tunas blowing up on the surface for my first time, and that was it.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I was hooked, that's all I cared about, yeah, and then got into the sword fishing as well, and it's something that you're always learning every day, even doing it full time.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: So that's Talk to me about sword fish.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: So the sword fishing is definitely one of a kind, with the style you're fishing off the shelf where it drops off anywhere from 1,000 to 1,700 foot of water and your bait's typically 100 foot off.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: The bottom is what you fish, and so you're dropping a bait down there with a four pound lead and you're just watching the rod and it's just when you get a bite.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: It's just a little bitty tap, but that's like a vicious attack.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: That sword with that much line out.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: You got 16, 17, 1,800 foot of line out and that rod bounces like that sword just knocked the shit out of that bait.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: So as soon as you see that you got to, I like to rip it away and get them fired up.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: So he's coming up there and bashing that bait.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: They're going to come up and whack it and try to kill it, and sometimes they cut it in half.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Really, I'll find my baits where they ate half the bait and then they still come back and eat the other half with the hook in it.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Wow, tried that plenty of times Now we've got a swordfish skull in the yard right now.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of people don't, probably.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: The eye on that thing is like a tennis ball, yeah, and there's got to be close to zero light at that depth 100%.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: That's what's so amazes me is them being able to pick up light and see.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know how they do it, but they can see down that deep when it's 100% pitch black down there.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: But a lot of the bait and life that lives down there actually puts off luminescence and they kind of glow and stuff like that Interesting who really knows?
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: They don't know.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: A lot of people think they know about them, but there's so much unknown down there.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: That's what's really cool.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: And another thing that's just crazy to me about the swordfish and you said that this is kind of universal amongst the pelagic fishes Is that they can come from 15 or 1600 feet of water to the surface like a rocket.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: If you pull a grouper out of 60 feet of water he's sick.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: A swim bladder expands too much.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: His gasses expand as you ascend in a water column.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: But you said that they come up to the surface and jump from that kind of depth.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: So you'll hook them and sometimes you can barely keep up with them with as fast as they'll swim up and then they start swimming, they lift that lead.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: So then now the lead's pulling down on them so that fish is wanting to pull the direction whatever pull the opposite of what's pulling on him.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: So if you don't keep up with them quick, they'll race up real fast, which they'll still do it, even when you get tight sometimes.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: But I like to try to get tight just to keep them down, because I'd rather not even have them race up, because I know he's just going to shoot up and then try to shoot right back down, but I like to let them know that they're hooked right up the gate.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Probably the closest most people who have ever come to a sword fish is watching the perfect storm right.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: But this isn't commercial long line and this is rod and reel.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Are you using electric reels or people fighting these things?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: No, they're fighting them.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Which?
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: we fight a lot out the rod holder but we do use all conventional and it's not like one person fighting the fish.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I mean this could be depending on the size, it can go from anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 and 1 half hour battle with these fish.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: So it's definitely teamwork.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: How does the strength of a sword fish compare to the strength of these 190 plus pound tuna we've been catching?
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: So a tuna is typically pretty predictable, kind of on what it's going to do, and a sword fish can be as well.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: But early in the fight a sword fish is going to do.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: It can do some just absolutely crazy stuff With charging the boat, shooting away, shooting back under the boat, just launching out the water.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: So it's really neat.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: So is sword fish your biggest passion in fishing.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah I'd say.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I mean I couldn't pick between the two, but the big, let's say, if you had to.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Like you live in a world where I couldn't do it Like I really could.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Cade's got it gunned to your head and he's like look, you've got to pick yellow fin tuna or sword fish.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Are you going to take the bullet?
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I mean whichever one I'm doing that's the one I'm happy with.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I'm not thinking about the other one.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: So it's just like hunting and fishing when I fish all year and then I get off and then I start hunting.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: It's like I'm just chasing deer and that's on my mind and that's what I'm caught up in and I'm so dialed in and thinking about it.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: It's just there's nothing else I don't know.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Well, we absolutely hammered the redfish with you today.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: That was a good day.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, that was incredible, and I know that it's an off day compared to what you're used to, but I caught more redfish today than what I might have caught in the last 10 years or longer.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: That was phenomenal and we're going to get to that.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: But before we get to that, blake got to talk about yesterday yeah, dude, it was an Arley.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: That was a record book.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: That was a record book day.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really was.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: So to start out, we decided to leave early to try and catch that bite.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Got there at sunrise Another beautiful sunrise.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Couldn't find the fish, no.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Right, non-existent.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we got where we were the day before Everything rigged up and ready, more ready than we could ever be and get there and the water got dirtier and there's a couple of fish and some bait popping around.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: But it's just, you know, it's not right, you know, and it's like we're going to fish it.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: We caught a black fin and missed another big black fin, which is cool, but I'm wondering where these big yellows are.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: We then sat there for a while and I'm like I know they've got to be doing it somewhere, and I've seen a couple boats just reel their stuff up and take off, and these are guys, some other boats that I know they're good at what they do, and there are other captains down here.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I was like we're gone Reel them up.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: I know they just got a good report.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: So we just take off and we're running and I'm like we go like 10, 12 miles.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I'm like what are these guys doing?
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: We don't even none of us ever fish in this direction.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: But I know they're not just going for nothing.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: So I'm like hell with it, let's go find out.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: We got nothing to lose, Nothing else is happening.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: So we make the move and then, off in the distance, I see them.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I see the boats start slowing down.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: So I'm like there's got to be something.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: And we get closer and then we see fish blowing up and I'm like, holy shit, I don't know if that's the school of tuners.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I think about it every day, but do they move 20 miles overnight?
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: 22 miles?
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but it blows my mind.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: This sure could.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: So I want to paint the picture for what this looks like tactically.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: So we're seeing fish, we jump out of the water, sometimes from a quarter mile, half mile away, and we're flying over there, going 40 to 60 miles an hour, and pull up While the boat's coming off plane.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: You and Kyle are both running up to the bow and grabbing spinning rods with a popper and swim baits on a jig, and as soon as you're in range you're hucking it out there into these bait balls.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: And in these bait balls you've got thousands and thousands of small bait fish stuff that's the size of your hand and inside the middle of that is on, some of them was just a swarm of sharks, like the water would just be brown with sharks.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: And then on the outsides, in the corners, you'd see these big yellow fin and dude.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: These fish are the size of me and they're coming out of the water, turning sideways, jumping clear out of the water.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: It is a spectacle.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: And you're throwing in there, but you kept having to throw.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: You'd get one cast in and then run back and operate the boat again Get on the school, and sometimes these fish would only be up for 30 seconds, maybe less, and then you're going and trying to get us back on the schools.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: It's moving and I felt like some of these schools were moving 10, 20 miles an hour a lot of times, no doubt.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: So for two days I kept asking, hey, can I grab one of those spinning rods?
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: And I get it.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Like I've dealt with a lot of clients, I get where you're coming from.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: You've played this game before, you know that this is going to be a disaster, and I finally just caught you at a weak moment and you're like yeah, there's a third one over there, give it a shot.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: First cast.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: First cast like three seconds in.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: I go, I'm tight.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: And you said, set the hook.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: And I was like man, that seems crazy to me.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I'm already putting my full body weight of pressure on this.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: And I set the hook and that fish got pissed about it and the real seat blew up.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: So where the real next to the rod?
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: exploded and this reel shoots up to the first guide and it's right in my face and the guide like mashes over yeah.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: It's hung up on there.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Dude and you go.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: You lost him and you reached over and grabbed the reel and tried to pull on it.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: It's stuck, it wouldn't go right, yeah, and both of us were like it just wasn't computing.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because the line's still tight, because there was.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because, as it turned out, there was 186 pound fish on the end of it.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: So we finally get this reel pulled down and then line goes slack Again.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: We think he's gone, line gets tight, we're like OK, Like this needs to happen.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: So I grabbed that reel between the fingers of my left hand and held it against the rod and started trying to crank on it.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: And we're looking everywhere in the boat for anything that we could find, and you had a roll of electrical tape.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: That was it Right.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: So you're running the boat trying to keep up with this tuna that's just going bonkers and Kyle is wrapping this electrical tape around in there, but we could never get it on there that well.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: So every time you turned the reel, the top of the reel would go left and right.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: And, man, it was just twice as hard to reel on that fish and we ended up having to take turns on the reel with just about everybody on the boat and I cut the hell out of my hand trying to hold onto it and at one point I was gripping the reel to the rod with both hands while another guy was cranking on it, and it was chaos, dude we finally get this fish up to the boat.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: You grabbed the harpoon and harpooned this thing like it was a freaking blue whale Dude amazing.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: That was one of the most amazing fishing experiences of my life.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: No doubt about it.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: A lot of people are afraid of chaos and stuff like getting really Western, like they kind of want that controlled adventure.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: But something like that makes it so much more memorable, no doubt about it, the whole story, dude.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: It's just something that's burned in your memory forever.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: So then we pick up another one on trolling rod right.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: And we get that thing in.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: And it is, you said, one of the longest tuna you've ever caught.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was Like if it carried its weight for the length of the fish.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: It would have been 230, 240 if it was built right, it was a big fish.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: It was still an absolutely stunning fish, probably in that 5 and 1 half foot range, somewhere in there, close to six feet maybe.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: I didn't ever tape it, but so he ate conventional tackle which, like he said, you have just tremendously powerful gear on the boat to deal with that.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: We get him in and it's like, ok, we're having a good day.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: We've got two monsters in the box.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: And then we pulled up on another bait ball and at that point I wasn't even asking permission anymore and I grabbed another rod and first cast in that one.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I got another one.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Yep, back on Dude phenomenal.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: That was insane.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: And that fish ran crazy hard too.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: He ran a long ways.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it did Got tail wrapped.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Yep ran straight out at the surface and that's usually when you see them get tail wrapped you know they get straight away from you like that and they start turning back and diving around going different directions.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: And once they get wrapped up and you start pulling them backwards, it's pretty much game over.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I've seen them come back to life If you don't gaff them good right at first.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: But that's not a bad situation on light tackle for sure.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: When do you make the decision between harpoon and gaff?
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, when I have a fish coming in, tail wrapped, a harpoon shots really hard Because they're long ways facing straight away.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: So I know if I hit that fish with a dart he could get a second wind and kind of wake up when they're coming in backwards and so I just like to wait for a gaff shot then.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: But if I get a shot with a dart on a fish pinwheel and then lay in sideways I'm not scared to throw it yeah.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, that was phenomenal and the whole fleet, I think, had a good day yesterday.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was good.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: That was just incredible.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: I looked up the price of yellowfin right now and it's between $35 and $50 a pound Insane, which I think is worth it Because the quality of that meat it's just phenomenal.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: No doubt it's one of my favorite things to eat.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Do you get tired of it?
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: No, I mean I eat the red meat with deer and wild game that I hunt all season.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I grind a bunch of deer up and I'd say I eat 60%, 70% of that and then the rest is fish.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: So I do, I mean I love it, I eat it a bunch.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: I don't buy any meat from the grocery store so I live off the wild game and fish for sure.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: When did you feel like it was going to be a?
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: When did you feel like yesterday it was shaping up to be as good as it was?
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I mean we got that.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, once we got that first one in the boat after all the chaos, I mean I thought our day wasn't going to be bad.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Our day was made on that fish, but I still wanted.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I wanted some more.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: So once we got into that second school and they got fired up and we got those last two bites, I mean that really just was icing on the cake.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: It was phenomenal.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: So here at Triple Tail Charters, you've got the offshore game, which is swordfish, tuna fish, triple tail, and then you've got the inshore game, which Kade, that's your jam.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Right, that's it.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: You're the king of the close.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: For the most part.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: How do you find?
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: redfish.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: Well, there's a lot of factors that go into it.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: Every day is different.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: They got the river.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: The Mississippi River plays a big factor in it with how it fluctuates every day.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: How much?
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: can it fluctuate?
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Well, not much.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: It really just depends on what's happening up north.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: I mean we had a pretty drastic jump at the beginning of well in the January, so that kind of controls where we're fishing, but I mean it won't jump up much.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: I mean it may gradually jump up a couple of inches every day or so, or jump up a foot or so over two days or something like that, not nothing drastic where it'll jump from two foot to eight foot overnight.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: But typically I mean that Mississippi River, like I said, it plays a big factor Because whenever that river comes up it pushes a lot of that fresh water on top.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: It pushes, it shoves those fish to the outsides, and so, depending on that, we also got the wind.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Depending on which direction the wind is blowing depends on which area we're going to go, and then on top of that we get the tide.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: So you may have perfect area set up with perfect wind conditions, but it may only be a foot and a half deep on high tide, so you can't go fishing that area, or you got to wait till the next day or something if the tide's different, and so there's a lot of factors that go into it, on how we make a game plan for the next morning or the next evening, whichever one we go do to fish.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean there's a good bit into it that goes on Like a lot of people.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: They're like man, how do you know where you're going to go fish next?
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: All these canes look the same.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: They do, they do.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: But I mean every point's different, every canes different.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: They I mean how the bait's coming across the canes.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, like today, a lot of spots that we fish weren't happening.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: Towards the end of the day we got on this little spot.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: The wind was kind of cutting across it and I mean it wasn't hot and heavy, but we, I mean we made it happen.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: We caught fish.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: I mean the closer to the grass the better, and I mean it was a good day so I tried to fly fish today.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: Yes, you gave it hell.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: I feel like I tried pretty hard.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've tried harder and failed before, but the painful thing about fly fishing today wasn't the wind, because the wind wasn't bad.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: I could cast it and I could get the fly where I needed to.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: I could present it the way I felt like I needed to.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: I tried every retrieve that I possibly could.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: I tried three or four different flies.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Couple different colors too Couple different colors.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: But, man, I knew that the fish were there.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: I could see the fish.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: If I threw your gear with bait, I was catching the fish.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: So, man, I pulled a minnow out of your bait and I hooked it onto my minnow pattern and I threw that out there and couldn't catch him.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: I put shrimp on there.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: I soaked my fly in shrimp juice and tried to catch him.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: I tried every dirty trick that would get me kicked out of the state of Montana that I could think of and I couldn't do it.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: I could not catch a fish on the fly rod.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: I started with gear, went to fly, went back to gear, went back to the fly, went back to the gear.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: I think I probably caught 60 or 80 red fish today on shrimp under a pop and cork dead shrimp and it was an incredible experience.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: But it's also humbling.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: To be like man.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: I feel like I'm presenting this fly in all the ways that I could and I know that there's fish that are aware of it but they're not gonna try it.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Visibility is a couple inches in this water.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: Visibility is a big, big factor.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: Right now You're not gonna find any clean water, not inland right now, because, like I said, that river has pushed so much dirty water to the outside through all the cuts, through all the ponds, along all the banks and stuff.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: So I mean visibility.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: It looks, I mean it's don't get me wrong, it's pretty stained, but I mean some of the flies you could see, say three or four inches down.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: But with that being said, like right now that with that river being up, the water is really cold.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: So where we were fishing at today, that water temp was 53 degrees.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: You can feel it as soon as you hit the river.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the temperature changes, the temperature changes.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: It's just as soon as you hit the current, you can feel it.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what we mess a lot of people up.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: We're like, hey, this time of the year we're like, hey look, dress warm for the boat ride out and a boat ride in.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you gotta dress for three different seasons right now.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: I mean it's cold in the morning.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: Boat ride in.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: I mean while fishing, it's nice and warm in shorts and flip-flops, but a boat ride back on the river's cold Dude.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I didn't get it Now, seeing the other videos that you're posting and stuff, and you guys are geared up like you're fishing for crab in the Bering Sea and I was like man, what is with these dudes?
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I know it's not cold down there.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: But I try really hard.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: I try really hard whenever I'm fishing or hunting in a new area to just listen to the people that are from there and not bring my own prejudice and try and think that I know better.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: Because when I have clients, do that like you're setting yourself up for failure, like you may know more about fishing than me, you may know more about hunting than me, but you don't know more about hunting this species on this place than I do.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Nobody does.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: I'm the best at this and I'm invested in your success and I want you to be comfortable and fed and to have a good time and to achieve your version of success, whatever that is.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: And I know that quality guides and outfitters and captains all feel the same way right, so if you're out there and you're saying, hey, gear up, it's gonna be cold, I need to listen to you.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, take their work for it.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: And I'm glad that I did.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: I had three back-to-back trips on this run.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: So I started at the Western Hunting Expo so I had to be dressed up and looking nice, and then I was in the Florida Keys and now I'm here.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: So I've got to figure out how to manage all that into the luggage that I can bring on an airplane.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Otherwise I would have been wearing my Grudens bibs and looking like you guys, ready to you know do a tour.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: I thought it was some fish, but no, it's surprising.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: It's surprising to come here in so many different ways, because it's just not like any other place I've been.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of a kind, for sure.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the Hurricanes had a pretty significant impact on this area Big time.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: I'm starting to realize that just about everything that I'm seeing here is new, right.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah everything's been rebuilt.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: You said you know your family had a place down here.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right there in Burish.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah and it's gone Gone.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: The only thing left was the pylons at the house saddle.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: That was it.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: And how high was it above the ground?
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: It?
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: was.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: I think it was 17 foot, if I'm not mistaken.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: I think that's how.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: From the ground to the top of the pylons, it was 17 foot.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: That wasn't enough.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: That wasn't enough.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: There's over 30 feet of water here.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, some areas it was just over 30 foot, good grief.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Man Blake, you're invested here as a business, as a profession, Like you're building your life around this place.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Do you just feel like that's just hanging over your head that the wrong storm could come and take it all away from you at any point?
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely something I worry about, but one thing that I've learned is things that I don't have control over.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: I really don't stress about a whole lot.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Take it one day at a time, and I'll figure it out when that time comes, if it does.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Tell me about ransom.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: I love to talk about my boat.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: I think everybody that owns a boat loves it, loves to talk about it.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: I know you love your boat.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Tell me about that thing Of course.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: So I mean I started out.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: When I first started fishing, I ran a 38 foot fountain with trips, what's?
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: a fountain for folks that don't know.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, people are listening to this in Bulgaria right now.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: It's a big center console and that was one of the first ones maybe other than Contender that built kind of a big mono hole fishing hole.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: That was like a 2007 model that I started in I thought it was the best thing out there.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: I mean it was a big boat and bad ass to me.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: And then I fished that thing for like five years and Freeman built a really bad ass catamaran and I rode in one of those and I was blown away.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: What is a catamaran?
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: It's?
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't even know how to explain it really so it's got like two holes right, so the bottom of it is shaped like a W.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, would be a way to say it.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: So you've got a big tunnel in the middle and the big thing with the tunnel going through the middle is you get that airflow through there, so you get to get a lot of lift on a big heavy hole with that, and that's the biggest thing on those boats really.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: And that air underneath there is the cushion for when a boat comes down off of a wave, because that makes you have a softer landing versus like feeling like you're landing on cement.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the individual parts that come down that run parallel to each other.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: They're sharper than the profile of a monohull boat For sure, so they cut into those waves better.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: It's an incredibly smooth and stable ride it is.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: I'm very impressed by that.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: So you like the Freeman design?
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: So I like the Freeman design a lot and I liked metal boats because I like a workhorse.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: I hate.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: I love fishing and I like using a boat.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: I don't like the maintenance and the upkeep of a fiberglass and keeping a boat pretty.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I like to fish and I wanted a metal boat and so I took a huge risk.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: I had a buddy of mine that was a fabricator and could build anything, and anything he did was just absolutely incredible and top notch and he really took pride in his work and I had him and his dad.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: I trusted him with it and I wasn't even worried about it honestly, which me, being younger, helped with that as well, because there's a lot of things that could have went wrong and it could be a complete disaster.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: But he told me he could do it and I said when can you start?
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: And he said next week.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: So we ordered $7,000 in materials within a couple days of just talking about it, and just aluminum and stuff.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Just big sheets of aluminum and after that point there's no turning back.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: And then it's like watching this thing from the ground up and it doesn't really.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: It starts to hit you when it's halfway through and you're seeing it.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: It's like what's going on yeah?
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: So it was really an incredible deal.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: It's like it was neat.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: And then actually, when the boat was getting so close and you can't just go half-assed build it and then go run it and decide, oh yeah, it runs good, let's finish it out, like it would be so much work and so much money just to test it, like that.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: It's like you're all in, you've got to finish this thing and put it on and hope it floats, basically.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: And I had the guy that was powering it for me.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: He knows a lot about boats and it's a metro boats that sells Mercury's up there.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: He's powered it and wired it all up for me and I was actually it was in my off season when I was deer hunting and we kind of didn't know when the boat was going to be ready.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: And it got close and I was gone.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: He was like it's ready to go and I was like, dude, freaking, go run it.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: And one afternoon when they finished up, they went right before dark and I was so nervous I didn't even want to be there and he took it out for, like freaking, just a couple of minutes and I just wanted to know did it drive straight?
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: And the RPMs at the speed and what he told me I was.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: It was like time to celebrate, so it was a neat deal.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: How old were you at that time?
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I was.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I want to, so I'd be I think 26 when that would be.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, 26 when that was done, so ballparking it, taking a half million dollar business risk at age 26, just trusting that your buddy's going to be able to fabricate something from an idea Dude this is a high risk high reward right, no doubt you know you keep getting drawn to this type of thing, like that's who you are as a personality.
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: But I've talked about this before I talk about it, probably too much, but I think that risk tends to pay off, absolutely yeah.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Intends to pay off.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: Because without it you're not going to get that payoff.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: You might get buy, yeah, but you might not also, yep, but unless you take that risk, you're not going to see that highest level of success, that thing that people can't imagine.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: And for somebody to come down here and book a trip with you, like for me coming to do this, this is a high risk for me, this is an expensive trip.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: For sure I have to work extremely hard to come up with the money to do this, no doubt, and it takes a lot of days for me to work enough to save extra to be able to do this.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: It's a really big deal.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: And then we ended up having to shift dates a little bit and I looked at the calendar and I was like, oh my god, I'm going to be there on a full moon.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Oh what have I done?
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: What have I?
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: done.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: Because I've been just burned by the moon so many times, I know It'll get you.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: Ok, well, you know what we're going to do it and we got here and the first night we went down here to the other Marina and there's a restaurant that oversees this Marina and we see these boats pull up and we're eating dinner and of course we're all excited and a little bit nervous and we're watching everybody pull fish out of the boats and like one tuna comes out of the whole fleet.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does, and it was a monster Not looking good yeah.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: But I was like eesh could be rugged, but all right, you know, still here, so cool have a good time.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: And then, just as luck would have it, but also luck combined with preparation and the right mindset and the right attitudes, and you can't overvalue being ready yeah for sure.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: I mean that's the advantage you have and that's one thing.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Big with fishing and catching big fish is there's a lot of things that can go wrong, and that you do have control over tackle failures.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: And that's one thing that I've seen Like I want to cut that percentage out as much as I possibly can, because one bite makes my entire day Like makes a badass day or a terrible day.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: So if I have, you know I want to avoid that.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: You know what's the most scared you've ever been on the water?
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: I mean I'd say probably getting caught.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: You know, like in some some summertime squalls, you know, which is not often, but it's your calmest time of the year in the summer.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: But you get in some storms that just pop up so quick, like they're just, they build up over your head and there's lightning popping all around.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: You know and and when.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: As soon as that happens and I see that I'm looking, you know like I'm I'm finding, you know, a rig, because you know an oil rig is taller than me.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: I can get tucked up under it.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: So I know that I'm not gonna get struck.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: You know, if I do that.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of your safe, safe spot, which is a lot of in the in the Gulf, but that's.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: I'd say that you know and, and then the winds pick up and it gets cold, you're getting chills down your spine and people are obviously getting nervous.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: I'm never really scared because you know it's like I'm out there.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: So it is what it is.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: There's.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: No, you can't go anywhere.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: You know you got to figure out what you're gonna do and make the call and I'm always.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: You know if I'm gonna head in, if there's a lightning storm, I'm gonna take cover and then you know if, if I don't think it's that bad, then I'm gonna be heading, you know, heading north, and there's no going around it, there's no running away from it, like everybody says with the big boats, because it gets so rough.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: You know you can hardly go anywhere a lot of times, but you know it's one of those things, you know it's mother nature.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: Lightning is humbling.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is you can.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: You can only be brave up to a point.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Anybody.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: I was fishing for salmon at home a few years ago and it was on April 28th, and I keep that date in my mind because the fishing ended up being so good that I want to fish that date forever.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: But this, this storm started coming and I saw the sky get black out to the north and I got an alert on my phone that said lightning strike 20 miles now and I was like alright.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: And then boom, both rods go at once.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: I reel in two fish and they're big.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: It's like that was kind of fun.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: Start setting lines back out, boom, boom, as soon as I can like while they're just going out.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: I'm getting them and the limit's 30 per person and I'm just, I'm just plugging the cooler at this point, yeah, like getting fish in as fast as I possibly can.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: It's going hard.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: And then I get the alert 10 miles out.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: I was like, okay, getting serious, probably coming this way.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to miss me, I think it's going to go to the north.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: And then, five miles out, I get the alert.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Now I'm seeing it and all the other boats leave.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: I'm like it's too good, it's too good.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: So I get my Yeti cooler and I put it in the in the back of the boat and I'm kneeling on my Yeti cooler Like that's going to save me and I can reach each rod, that's funny.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: I'm still bailing fish into the boat, you know.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: And then it hit the lake and I that was the first time I'd ever seen lightning like hit the water close to me before, because usually I'm smarter.
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: And I was like good enough, and I left the rods in man and I pinned it and I skidded my boat up the ramp and ran and hid in my truck until it was over.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: But yeah, you can be brave up to a point, but when it gets real personal, yeah, nobody's brave in it.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, because it feels like it would just be stupidity.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: At that point it is you think totally that it's not dangerous.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then it's not going to get you that?
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: you're special or something, and I don't know what happens when lightning strike hits an aluminum boat, but I think it's bad.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not a good deal yeah.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: But it melts something.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: Guaranteed.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's the other scary part is there's a very good chance that you know nobody's going to get hurt.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: But if you know all your electronics get fried and all that you got to you know you still got a real serious problem.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: What about UK?
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Do you ever get scared on the water?
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean we, uh, I've been out because I do some snapper fishing and stuff and we've been out and some nasty stuff where same thing summertime squalls grew up.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: And I'm not in the 38 foot boat, I'm in a 24, 25 foot bay boat with one motor, one VHF radio and uh it's.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: It'll tighten you up a little bit, but um, that's that's for sure.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: That's for sure.
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: But uh, no, we um, I mean nothing really crazy in in shore, like uh, I mean, yeah, well, so actually, right before I had had came through, we were fishing about two days prior to it, and I mean before the storm came, I mean it had some nasty squalls and uh, we were I mean we didn't cancel because it was they were supposed to come later in the morning and uh, we were out there and I was watching the radar, I was watching the weather on the radar as we were fishing.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: We were tucked in a little canal, I mean, when was blowing 35, 40, not ideal.
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: But uh, we were out there getting it done and we uh, tucked away and just steadily just watch the weather as it came closer and closer and started hearing some lightning crack and uh, I was like, man, you know, it's just not even worth the guys.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: We got to, we got to make a run while we can.
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: And uh, so we put, we put the poles down, fired it up and we, uh, we made a run for it.
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: We were crossing the bay and it just hit us.
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: And I mean, good thing for having radar.
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: I was running Blake's Oliver right at the time and, um, good thing we have radar cause.
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: I mean the wall of rain it was so thick I mean literally had to run the radar cause I couldn't see 20 feet in front of me just a solid gray wall.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: And uh, you can ask my brother, you go look back at the track line.
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: The track line that I made that day was not ideal, but, um, we made it through.
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: We crossed over some pipeline crosses we shouldn't have crossed, but uh, we, uh, we didn't blow nothing.
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: No, we didn't blow nothing up and we made it back in safe.
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: And but other than that, I mean everything's been pretty good and but that's probably the the most sketchy time I've had out there.
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: People up north think everybody in Louisiana is a Cajun.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: But what is a Cajun?
• 49:22
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, there's Cajuns, there's Creoles, there's Cunasses.
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, what's the difference?
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: Ah, it's.
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: It's really hard to say.
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, uh, it's really the way everybody talks, the way everybody does things and the way they cook stuff.
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: But uh, who's the best at cooking?
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: Not Cunasses, I'm guessing.
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: Uh, no, I don't know.
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: I mean probably Cunasses.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: We just, we, just throw shit together.
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you can't follow a recipe, you just gotta you're looking at it, You're drinking you a beer or something while cooking and you're like man, maybe.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: I'll throw a little bit more of this in there, or don't try try adding this to it.
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: And then next thing you know that somebody tells you man, that was some good food, How'd you do that?
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: And you just have to tell them I don't, I don't really remember, but I'll try it again.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but uh, but no, I mean we, we got, we got some good food down here.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: When I've had Creole or Cajun food in other places, it's just painfully spicy.
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know I'm, I don't I.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: I also had eaten ketchup, you know I don't, don't agree with that stuff, uh, and I was asking a buddy, uh, prior to this trip, about eating Cajun food and I was like man, I feel like my face is going to be on fire down there.
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: And he said, look, when you eat actual Cajun and Creole food, it's, it's different, like there's flavors in it, it's not just, it's not just hot.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: Everything kind of combines together, man, we at Creole house and Oyster bar in in New Orleans before we came down here, because some of the best food I've ever had in my life yeah, absolutely phenomenal and just flavors that I've never, ever experienced before.
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: That is a really special thing about this area, and I think it's cool how you know how French influence ever ended up here and how different it is from, like, french Canadians or you know other pockets of French who are out in the world, like this is a really special and unique group of people and the culinary tradition that came out of that, and then your connection to land and natural resources and hunting and fishing on top of it, dude, it's something that people need to put on their list of coming to experience a little bit.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to talk conservation a little bit.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: There's something that you told me about, blake, that's bothering me deeply, and we've got all these oil rigs out there in the Gulf of Mexico and a lot of them are not being used anymore.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: How critical is that infrastructure to wildlife?
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: Is it a problem for wildlife?
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: Is it a good thing?
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's the best thing you could ever have.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's like a manmade reef.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: You know that's been there a lot of them, you know, since the 80s.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: You know, and it's like that's.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: What blows my mind is that you know, when they're not using them, they want to tear them down, you know.
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: And that's the crazy thing to me.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: It blows my mind yeah.
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: So, folks, what they're doing?
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: They've got all these oil rigs out here and there's pressure to go and set explosives on them, destroy them, instead of just leaving them there to be.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: This critical marine habitat Yep, like the marine life here is by far benefited from having that infrastructure and those artificial reefs out there, and if you take that away, you're going to be killing all these animals.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's terrible, you know.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: And then, like you said, they'll blow the rigs up, you know, cut them off from the bottom, and I mean there's plenty of videos you can find of just fish floating, you know, by the thousands, and they're ripping them up and they're just acting like no harm's done, you know, and then at the same time, cutting our limits back for certain species, you know a lot of snappers in your bottom, fish is what it's mostly really harming, but it's just, you know, it's a corrupt deal, like a lot of other things, you know, it's sure Somebody's getting paid, yep, and then you're just making money making machine.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: And well, it is frustrating.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: It's also a spectacle to see how much life is around those things For sure.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: It's truly phenomenal, and for people who haven't spent time in the ocean, you might look at them and just see this big, rusty piece of metal and think that it's a disaster.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: But if you spend any time there, you're going to realize that without that there are just thousands and thousands of large animals and millions of small ones that would no longer have home, no doubt.
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the other conservation thing that I feel very strongly compelled to talk about is sharks.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: A huge number of the fish that we're trying to reel in in the Florida Keys got bit by sharks on the way in.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: You know I heard chatter over the radios while we were fishing that you know there was potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of tuna that had gotten eaten by sharks while people were trying to catch them.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: This year, sharks are incredibly protected right now and the population has exploded.
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the number of sharks that I'm seeing in so many places feels like there's an offset and there's, you know, a bad imbalance with too many predators.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's way too many.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: You've been fishing your whole life Like how has this changed in your lifetime?
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's definitely it's gotten way worse in the past five years.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: For sure, you know there's a lot of sharks that are definitely getting more educated, with more boats fishing, you know, and you know they've a lot of big duskies in particular, you know, gotten dialed in in certain areas when these tunas get in certain areas, that's you know they're going to be there.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: And that's one thing that's really made me jump for like, like from my like the gear that I use in the big braid and big mono, you know 200, 250 pound mono, you know leader, so that when I hook these 150 pound fish I can get them to the boat in minutes, you know, and not feed them to sharks, because just you know, take away that risk of exposure For sure.
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: And every time that a shark eats a tuna, that's on a line he's learning to do that.
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: So it's just going to get worse and worse.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: So for the people that are hearing that, you know we're using reels the size of a coffee can and you know 250 pound test and all this crazy stuff to like really put power into these fish.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: It's beneficial in a couple of ways and I think you know one of the big ones is they're not getting eaten by sharks.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: We didn't have a single fish get shark bit.
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: And then another one is the quality of the meat is higher if you can get that fish in when it's green.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that fish doesn't get hot, you know it's quick and he doesn't use a bunch of energy because he's to the boat and dead, you know.
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: And if we're talking about, like, some of the best fish in the world.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been incredible that the purpose for me you've coming down here.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: You know I was really coming down here to get meat and the experience was a huge part of it, but the meat is a huge part of it too, Absolutely, I'm completely honest about that.
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: So, getting the highest quality meat possible and a good quantity of meat to be able to share with my friends and family yeah, dude, what, what a gift to be bringing this high quality yellow ventuna that's so fatty, I know it All the way back to Oregon here in a couple of days.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like, what a time to be alive that, you know, smashed between a mountain wilderness and hell's canyon, I'm going to be able to take On real and bring my friends over and make them sushi.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, from fish that I caught, you know where it came from and it's been handled properly, and you know, taken care of and not from the store.
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: Called with the real electrical tape.
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah To the rod, yeah, pissed together.
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: We just looked at that real scene.
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: You know we'd had it all taped up.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: I never really got to take a close look at it, but man, that thing just exploded, oh yeah.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: So much power.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if the drag locked up on that reel and it just, I don't know, something had to give or what happened.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: You know because that was a new reel and, honestly, that was the first fish on that reel, you know and Well, the drag worked the rest of the time, I know it.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: So I don't know it was, that was, that was wild, it was fun, you know.
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: You know I put some some heaf hole into setting that hook, but I don't feel like.
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: I was like doing it hard enough to blow stuff up, I know it.
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: You combine that with a fish that has just hit the gas pedal and then you're going to send it into him with 80 pound braid that you know has zero stretch in it, Like something's going to give.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's real deal, dude, I can't thank both of you enough for the experience that you've provided.
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: This is something that I'll remember my entire life, and the advice that I would give to anybody who wants to come down and do this trip is book a minimum of three days, a bare minimum.
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: You need a day of inshore right and that'll give you some flexibility, because if the weather's bad, you can stand close and you can go and fish for redfish and and the other inshore species that you have.
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: And then you need two days offshore if you're going to be going after tuna or swordfish, because it doesn't happen every day, no doubt.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: It's high risk, high reward type fishing.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: You know You're catching once in a lifetime fish honestly, and this is the last.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: This is the last civilization on the Mississippi River.
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: This is the end of the river End of end of the road.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very much so.
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: So if you come all the way down here, it doesn't like this is the southernmost point of the deep South.
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: You come all the way down here.
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: You need to make it worth it and then give yourself the time to to enjoy and experience it and and increase your chances of finding that fish that is going to be carved into your DNA for the rest of your life.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: Yep, yeah.
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: What other advice do you have to to people who might be interested in coming down here, like, what do they need to know?
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: I mean Come try it out, yeah, I mean it's, it's, I don't know.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: It's not that they have to know so much.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: You know, I mean we, you know really people.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: They don't have to be good fishermen, you don't.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: You know you can have experience or not have any at all, and it's and it's, it's an incredible thing the way, the way we have it set up.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know we're out here every day, so you know you show up with food and drinks and you know we can, you know, still make stuff happen.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: You know, and I mean it's obviously you're offshore, so conditions can change, you can get caught in some nasty weather.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: But I'm pretty good about calling that and letting people know what they're getting into.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: And you know I'll let people reschedule if they want, if I tell them, you know this is how it's looking and stuff like that.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: So just try to make it.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: You know, a good experience.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: I want somebody to leave with.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: You know good things to say, not like, oh, I'm never going offshore again because I brought them out in nasty conditions.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: You know, and some, some certain crews, you could bring in nasty conditions and they don't care because they've been in it and they know how it is.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: But I'm pretty good about talking to people and you know figuring out what they want to do and letting them, kind of, you know, make the call on.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm, you know with what's going on.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: We'll tell you another thing that I really appreciated is you're willing to let me get involved in every aspect of it that I was interested in.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: So you know, if you're butchering a fish that's worth $5,000 or $6,000, you don't want to screw that up, and I certainly don't either, but I really wanted to take part in that and clean one of those fish, and you were patient with me and showed me every single cut and let me do all that myself, and you really took time to just make sure that I was getting the experience that I wanted, and a lot of people don't do that, man, because it's harder, it's more work.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's easier to be like man.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: I want you, you know, go back to your hotel room and drink a beer and you know, come back in two hours and this will be done.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: But you know, for me, I want to, I want to be there, for that For sure, I want to do everything except for you know, scrub the boat.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: And that's what you got Kyle for.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: I scrubbed plenty of boats and no doubt he needs that time.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: Heck, yeah, yeah, all right.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: So if somebody wants to come down and go sword fishing, go tuna fishing, go triplet tail fishing, go red fishing.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: How do they do it?
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: How do they get a hold of you?
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: The best way would be like.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: I post a lot of my recent stuff on Instagram and my Instagram's cap and Blake captblake, and my phone number is big, you know, so people want to get a hold of me.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: And your phone number is on your Instagram.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's on there as well, so people can find it we're not going to talk about it here in front of this audience.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: So same thing.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: If you want to go intror fishing, same thing.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: Just get a hold of Blake and they'll make it happen for you.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: Guys, we're going to wrap this up.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: Again, I want to tell you thank you very much, Looking forward to another great day of fishing tomorrow Going to be windier.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: Might still try with my fly rod.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: You never know until you know.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: You never know.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: I'm certainly not going to catch them if I don't try.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: It'd be pretty satisfying if I do run into an aggressive one.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: But yeah, looking forward to that and looking forward to bringing all this meat home.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: And again, just very, very grateful for the opportunity and the experience and sharing all this.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been fun.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: That was awesome, so 10 out of 10 would recommend to a friend.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: Bye everybody.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: I just want to take a second and thank everyone who's written a review, who has sent mail, who has sent emails, who has sent messages.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: Your support is incredible, and I also love running into trade shows and events just out on the hillside when we're hunting.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: I think that that's fantastic.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: I hope you guys keep adventuring as hard and as often as you can.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: Art for the Six Ranch podcast was created by John Chattelin and was digitized by Celia Harlander.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: Original music was written and performed by Justin Hay, and the Six Ranch podcast is now produced by Six Ranch Media.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you all so much for your continued support of the show and I look forward to next week when we can bring you a brand new episode.