September 14, 2014
Corpus Christi, Texas
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!
