Offshore Business

September 14, 2014 
Corpus Christi, Texas

Port Aransas 

There are perks to traveling for business. I was able schedule an offshore fishing trip with some of my new co-workers. I started a new job working for a chemical company in Texas shortly after I graduated from Auburn University. I started the chemical company in an entry-level training program with nine other chemical engineering graduates. We were split into groups to travel around to various oil refineries and petrochemical plants. I was traveling in Corpus Christi, Texas with Jeff and Christian when we got to do a little offshore team building. 

As with most fishing trips, we started for the dock before daylight. There was an 80% chance of rain and the sea conditions were expected to be 5-6 foot swells. This is usually the limit for when the chartered boats will stop the trip and stay at the dock. We took a ferry over to Aransas island where we bought our one day saltwater licenses and waited for the captain to load the boat. While we were waiting a monsoon type rainstorm started battering the dock. The wind was blowing the rain nearly horizontal. We passed around a few looks of possible regret but no one was ready to quit on the trip just yet. Thankfully, the rain subsided after about 20 minutes and we loaded the boat. After passing the break water, we knew we were in for a rough day of fishing by the size of the swells. We motored out for about 2½ hours until the brown, costal waters of South Texas turned into the deep blue that you would expect to see offshore. Even the foam on top of the breaking swells was blue. Most of the trip included dodging the 15 different sea sick passengers on the boat. Sea sickness is due to the conflicting information that your brain is receiving from the rocking of the boat and the still horizon. 

We started our day drift line fishing for king mackerel. We used light weights and baited our hooks with cigar minnows. We all fished from the same side of the boat and let out about 150 feet of line. This allowed the minnows to drift away from the boat and stay suspended in the water column. We hooked up with several bait fish and then the kings started piling in the boat. I landed a 3 foot king and then we moved spots and started bottom fishing for reef shark. I was the only person in our group to land a king but both Christian and Jeff brought reef sharks home. We finished the day with a 2 ½ hour nap on the way back to the dock. We got a couple of recipes from the deck hand on how to prepare the reef shark. He told us to fry the fillets and use salsa to make a reef shark quesadilla.

Thanks to Captain Kelly's Deep Sea Headquarters for a great fishing trip!