Opening of Duck Season 2002
Dick Pecot Catches Record Setting Redfish!
It's only fitting a fish background be used for this page instead of the normal waterfowl background.  Although it was the opening of duck season in the western zone of Louisiana, it was the tremendous redfishing that made this weekend's headlines.

Joe Pecot and I departed New Orleans Thursday morning, November 7th, 2002 on a cool, sunny day.  The temperature was in the low to mid 60's.  The trip started off on a bit of a sour note when I got my truck stuck in the mud at Gary's house where Joe keeps his boat.  With only Joe and I making the trip on Thursday (Dick would arrive on Friday), I had to tow Joe's flatboat while Joe towed the mudboat.

With the boat fully loaded with gear, I was unable to pull it out.  Joe hooked up to the rear of the boat trailer and pulled me backwards out of the hole.  Then when we got to the launch, Joe forgot to disconnect a bungee cord holding the stearn of the boat to the trailer and signaled me too far into the water and I was unable to pull the truck out of the launch.  Joe had to pull me out again.  These are rookie mistakes we normally don't make.  We shrugged it off to lack of alcohol and headed out to the campsite.

The campsite island had changed drastically since last year.  Hurricane Lili carved a deep trench into the island where our fire was previously located.  Luckily, many of the rocks from the fireplace were still there.  Also, the table Joe and I had built several years ago was gone, completely washed away.  Joe had checked on the campsite the week after the storm.  Since we knew the table was gone, Dick had put together the lumber to build a new one.

We set up the tent and built the new table.  After completing the table project, we had our first toddie. We finished the rest of the campsite then went fishing.  We didn't catch any fish.  The water in the Gulf was too choppy.  We came back to the campsite, built a fire and went to bed.
Joe released his big red.  When they get that big, they are not very good to eat.  The fish stopped biting so we headed back to camp.  We started the fire and cooked ham and eggs for breakfast.  Dick was to arrive around noon, so we had a little time before we were pick him up at the launch.  We jumped in the mud boat and brought the pirogue to the back canal where I would hunt on Saturday.  We also brought the decoy bags and placed them in both blinds in anticipation of setting them out later in the afternoon.

At noon, Joe went to get Dick at the launch.  I took the time to build a proper fire pit with rocks left from the old fireplace.  I dug out the pit and built the new fireplace.

When Joe & Dick returned, we all knew what we needed to do - go fishing!  It would a fishing event we will not soon forget.  Click Next to hear about it.
This is our new table at the campsite.  Hurricane Lili took out our old one.
Joe shows off his beautiful 22 lb. redfish caught on the shore of the lake.
Friday was a gorgeous day.  We arose at sunrise around 6 a.m.  We realized right away it was going to be a special day.  It was a clear cool morning with a slight northeast breeze which was just enough to keep the gnats from being over-intrusive.  We fixed coffee and headed straight out to fish.  We tried the Gulf first.  I caught one nice big keeper redfish but that was it.  We went inside the marsh to fish the falling tide.  We picked up a few "rat reds" that were just over 18 inches - perfect eating size.

As we were fishing a shoreline where two canals meet, Joe kept hearing something in the lake.  Finally he realized it was redfish feeding against the bank where the lake drains into one of the canals.  He manuevered the boat there and on his first cast, hooked and landed a nice 22 lb. redfish (below).
Dick Pecot and his 38 lb. redfish.  This is a new "official" Pecot clan record for a red drum.