While about to leave the house for a "roughing it" weekend in Grand Isle of fishing the bridge at night and bank fishing during the day as my brother and I often do, we got an unexpected invite from Bud Guidry to fish for red snappers aboard Dean Blanchard's 28 foot Sea Fox. My first trip for snapper and my brother's first offshore trip ever and it was totally awsome! We limited on big snapper, caught and released sharks, and my brother caught a nice grouper. Best fishing trip ever!
We met at the dock just after daybreak and loaded our rods and stuff on the boat, everybody took a seat and we were off. As the boat rounded the east end of Grand Isle, we could see a couple thunderstorms, but the waves were not bad and the storms never came close to getting us. Bud told Dean where to go, and he put the boat into the wind. Don't ask where we were, because all I know is that we headed in a "generally southern" direction.
About an hour later, we pulled up at a rig in a couple hundred feet of blue, clear water and started fishing. We caught a few small snapper and I caught a shark about 4 1/2 feet long. After a little of that, Bud told Dean to head to another rig, and we picked up our lines for about a 10 minute trip to our next stop (also our last stop). We immediately started cranking up 20 pound snapper and never slowed until all 8 people in the boat had their limit of 2 each. My brother fought a 5 foot shark to the boat, to be released, then he caught a nice grouper.
One of the boats fishing nearby had a large snapper break the line by the boat and it was floating away on top the water so one of the deckhands on our boat jumped in (in about 300 feet of water), retrieved it and returned it to the other boat. The entire crew on board were great and Dean Blanchard himself had us in stitches with the stories and jokes he was telling. Bud passed on a few tricks from the old days on how to catch the bigger snapper and avoid the smaller ones. There were several fish hooked that we didn't even get to see because we could not get them to come up. One guy fought a fish for aver 30 minutes and never got it up enough to see it, eventually breaking the line.
Bud Guidry knows how to find them, how to catch them, and how to have a great time doing it!
My brother had never been offshore fishing before and is calling this trip "the trip of a lifetime". I have fished offshore years ago, but never that far out, and never caught snapper before. This was a totally unexpected, totally awesome trip and my brother and I can not thank Bud Guidry or Dean Blanchard enough.

what kind of shark?

wow sounds like heck of a good time!

good stuff man

wow that had to been a blast

Dean and Bud Guidry, you are good men! Congrats on the trip budfish.

ok back up, you caught at least 2 sharks, you were fishing in 300 fow, someone just brought up, through 300' of clear blue water, a fish that was fighting for its life and was now free, and floating on the surface and someone jumped in to rescue the fish for the guy who caught it? Yeah, i cant imagine why there are shark attacks! did he just dive in or was there some debate about the possibility of a shark licking his teeth-laden lips somewhere below? that dude is nuts! I'd rather backpack fresh bloody elk meat through grizzly country in the dark before jumping into a place you just released a shark almost as big as me!

Looks like a great time. in your one picture there are clearly many oil rigs, how close is this to where the deepwater horizon was/is and is there anything left of it?

we were about 20 miles from the oil spill area. the guy jumped in with no discussion about it. a big 20 pound snapper doesn't need no discussion about what might be swimming around. the young man that jumped in for the fish was very capable of the feat and we were all really close by, 25 feet or so from the swim so........ the fish the fellow fought for over 30 minutes im sure was an 8 foot plus shark. we never got to see it but by the "pull", i could tell it was a shark. mentioned was made of bringing sharks home to eat but i ordered quick release. snappy jaws are not to play with 40 miles offsore. the only first aid kits we had on board were our minds

i did see a few 50 to 60 pound class yellowfin tuna get into a little feeding frenzy about 100 feet from the boat but we didn't try any takes, all the reels were rigged for bottom fishing. only two smallish reels rigged with flies for mangrove snappers

west delta area off grand isle, i won't disclose block number, a fishermens trade secret if you understand what i mean

blake, they called me sunday mourning to head back out but they were late. the "boys" partied a little to hard sat night and woke late, reasons i didn't call you. they were a little worn out from reeling !!!!!!!!

dean called ( i'll have to give away all my secrets) , wants to go back next weekend but snappers will be closed then so i told him we'll head to big grouper grounds. those boys want to see a 200+ pound grouper so i'll head out with them and show them what it looks like. gotta rig lines before the trip so we can hookup and back away hard from the rig. those big boys know the rig is their life line. you gotta pull them away hard from that to get them up. gonna try for big beeliners and mangrove too

glad you guys had a nice trip. exactly what i told you it would be huh?

let me know when you two come down again, i'll try to setup another trip out there for grouper, give your little brother a workout

Sounds like made some folks a very memorable experience Bud. Thanks for sharing with us land locked folks.

Drifter

That is some good eating in that fish box. Sounds like a great time.

Definitely a great time with some very good people. Not sure what kind of shark they were. Probably Atlantic sharpnose. Mike, that guy didn't hesitate to dive into the water for that fish. I don't think it was the first time he has done that either. Definitely a trip that will never be forgotten.
Bud, I don't think my brother and I could have handled the grouper trip on Sunday either. We were still feeling the snapper trip when we left to go home just before noon Sunday. Besides, after that trip, we decided to bite the bullet and get a room for the night at Moran's and there was a band playing in the bar so we went there for a few drinks and someone kept handing me shots of Jager and red bull until the bar closed and they told us we had to go. Ended up checking out 15 minutes late but they didn't seem to mind. Thanks again for that trip and please tell Dean how much we appreciate him taking us. I don't think I could ever thank you guys enough. My brother is still talking about it.

Looks like a great time for a couple of Buds (and a brother). Thanks for the share!

Mr Guidry,

That was a very fine thing for you to do.........brings back lots of memories from Gulfport so many years ago...


Many a day passes when I moved back south from the north that I wished I continued on back to Ms.....

Someday I hope soon I will make a trip down there to enjoy in what the Gulf has to offer.


BTW........where is Okiecajun, we we spose to go fishin this past May but he disappeared last winter ????

I haven't disappeared anywhere. Been fishing every weekend, just waiting for you and the two Yankee suckholes to show up.

BTW--Budfish, I bet that trip beat the heck out of snagging drum and stingrays off the beach. Good on Bud for hooking y'all up.

when can I come down ?

Fishing Alabama this weekend, the next two weekends after that are open. Pick one.

call me tommorow..........336 222 8117

Budfish...I am happy for you man!!! what a trip !!

I have dreamed of bottom fishing like that. Have heard of it but never had the chance when it was going on.

You did well and I am sure you had a great time. Just emagine landing one of those big guys !!

What did BudGuidry have you using for bait ? That was an awsome trip !!

Bud Guidry has us using cigar minnows, squid, and a couple secret baits that I'm not sure I can divulge. The man jokes about giving up all his secrets to Dean Blanchard, but I'm pretty sure it will take more than a few trips for that. Bud has been fishing like that just about his whole life and still goes 2 or 3 times a week. You don't just give away that much built up knowledge in a short time, you gotta keep tugging at it for years and hope to eventually get most of it out.

Bud, my brother and I would love to go on a grouper run with you, and hopefully Dean too. We will be headed back in a couple weeks probably. I will let you know.