Offshore Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico on the Marlin Babe (July 2003):

These images were taken on July 29, 2003. My father and brother-in-law were in town for a few days and we once again took a day-trip into the Gulf of Mexico for some fishing. We met before dawn at Woody's Marina in Port Aransas and quickly boarded the Marlin Babe with her Skipper Captain Ron Pearson and his deck-hand, Mike. A short, 20-minute high-speed transit put us in the "parking lot", about 10 miles offshore. This is where giant tankers and cargo ships await their turn at transiting the shipping channel for the Port of Corpus Christi. Shrimp season had just started a couple of weeks before and the shrimpers were scouring the warm Gulf Waters for the succulent bounty. The early morning light was augmented by just enough cloud cover to bring out brilliant red and orange hues.

We hung around behind a lone shrimper and were joined by a dozen dolphins lazily feeding among of the escaping sea life from the shrimper's deep nets. There were other large hunters doing the same thing under the gently rolling seas, and we soon caught a medium sized kingfish. This was quickly followed by a nice 60-pound black tip shark. I had the pleasure of bringing that beast aboard. It was a good fight for about 15 minutes. We caught one more kingfish here and then took off for a drilling rig further offshore.

Over the next couple of hours, we limited out on kingfish (ten in the cooler, plus the shark). We didn't have bait in the water for longer than 15 minutes, at any time, before getting a hit on one of the three lines. Several times, we got hit with multiple fish, on multiple lines. That is always exciting. Captain Ron and crew made the day with his outstanding guidesmanship. There were many other boats out that morning that weren't having near the fortune we had. We were back at Woody's shortly after noon. Here, out catch was mounted for the obligatory photo session and we turned over the catch to the skipper for his use.

Very fun day !!