How many people here have an angling back ground in salt water fishing?

My house in Lake Charles, Louisiana is so close to Calcasieu Lake (Big Lake) I can hear the Tug Boat's engines as the travel the ship channel, its 51.78 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. I spent my summers as a teenager in the 60s working on my uncle's charter fishing/shrimp boats. Fishing the Gulf of Mexico taught me how to locate deep water structure while cashing Specks/Reds taught me how to fish skinny water and sight fishing.

I have used these saltwater lessons to improve my bass fishing and my bass fishing lessons to improve my saltwater skills.

Tommy T

Catt and I have been PM'ing about this all morning, better than having to struggle through another episode of Charlie Moore telling us to just write and challenge him,lol

I first fished for opening day, trout season, 6 yrs old.  My passion grew on it's own, catching skipjack blues on an "Al's goldfish" ($.59) down at the little estuary bridge near my parents old house.  From there, it was largemouth till jr high-high school when I bought my first jon boat.  

I couldn't watch bluefish boil from land now that I was a boat owner.  Almost got killed learning that Narragansett Bay is no place for a 12 ft jon boat,lol.  With money scarce, I upgraded to a 14 that allowed me to fish LM and still stick close to shore and fish bluefish and stripers.  The next year, we won the annual striper tourny here, in the 14 Lowe.  The name was born. (originally spelled with an "e" on "Low")  (we were the only tin boat in the game.  Avg boat was a 21 cc, lol)

Then I got very salty.  Learned alot from some "old salts", my ex G/F's grandad being one of the most respected here in the state.

Tuna was now the game.  Stripers paid for the excursion as I got my commercial licenses and permits to sell.

Now it became money.  I also would dig clams when there weren't fish to sell.

Now, I've become a driver at UPS, sold the salt rig (but bought a 15' whaler jet for here in the bay) and I'm back to expand my freshwater knowledge till I reach the level I was at on the ocean.  Same game, different field.

Another 5 yrs, who knows,lol.

Peacocks down the amazon maybe?

My dad was a fisherman and loved the water like me. As a child I lived in some pretty cool fishing locations: Naknek Alaska, Wake Island, San Diego, Hampton VA. I love to fish the salt and go many times a year. My SW partner has a nice 26' Twin Vee on the TX coast and we hit the Snaps, Ling, Kings, etc. pretty good. My son and I also wade the surf and bays around Surfside, TX for trout and reds when we are not offshore or bass fishing. I've just recently got into tuna fishing and made my first trip for yellowfin out of Port Fourchon, LA with Tomney Charters. You live in what is unquestionably the best place in the country for bass, inshore, and offshore fishing. big

Bighead: Fork, Ray Bob, & Texoma aint to shabby either

Padre Island & Laguna Madre is awesome to

My frist fishing was done off various docks,bridges,piers and rocks in and around Brooklyn. We fished for blow fish,flounderlmacks,small schooling stripers( Coney Island the fall run up the Narrows to the Hudson) and my favorites Snapper and Cocktail Blue fish. MH TACKLE and Penn spinning reels.

 I also love to go crabbing with chicken necks and traps arund the docks.

 When i moved to New Orleans the fellas quickly taught me about Red Fish and Spotted trout, in and around the bayous and on Lake Ponchatrain NOW THATS THE BEST SALT WATER FISHING FOR ME PERIOD!

Muddy you right

People talk about boiled crawfish but boiled crab aint half bad either.

Shoot I love fishng period  

When I was younger and still vacationed with the family, They would go to beach. I would hit the surf and piers all day and into the night. Caught alot of trash fish.Then when i was in college i had the chance to go on several trips for different species.Caught some good fish, I think the ones I hooked and didnt catch really got me. In college, I flyfished for trout in the mountains of north ga and NC and bass everywhere. At one point I had been almost 5 years without using a spinning rod even. Moved back down here to the lake where I grew up after college and adapted my flyfishing.

I come from an extensive family of baymen, going back at least 4 generations on my mothers side. I pretty much grew up with a rake in my hands. My grandparents and great uncle and aunt had a "shuckin' shack" that was off limits to us kids because we'd eat more than they could open .

My father was in the Coast Guard in my home town when he met my mom, and shortly afterward became a mate for several charter fishing boats. When I was born, charter fishing didn't pay enough, so Dad became a commercial fisherman, dragging for flounder, squid, whiting (aka silver hake) and other species in the winter and swordfishing off Georges and the Grand Banks in the summers. After a few years on the boats, he became partner an a fish market for many years, until he took over as general manager of the fisherman's cooperative, where he worked until he passed away.

As for myself, I started out as a "dock johnnie" pumping gas at a local marina. It was a small marina, so I'd spend most of my day goofing off fishing for whatever would bite the hook. As I grew, some of the owners would take me out on fishing trips, at first just runs in the bay for blues and stripers, but eventually I made a few 2 and 3 day trips to the various canyons for big eye tuna. When I was a bit older and learned that summer jobs don't pay bills in January, I took the commercial fishing route as well. For five years I worked a few different boats, fishing mostly for squid, but also for fluke, flounder, butterfish, whiting, herring, and even sea scallops. I wouldn't ever go back to it, unless I had no other choice, but I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything either.

Since then, I'm strictly a recreational fisherman. Since I've started fresh water fishing, it seems I spend less and less time on the ocean, or even the bay. When I'm doing either, though, I can tell you that the techniques are very similar in many ways, and when it comes right down to it, fishing is fishing. Its in my blood, my heritage, and my soul, and I thank God I'm lucky enough to have been a fisherman for my entire life.

Not me, the nearest salt water to any of the places I 've lived in was 250+ miles away.

Not me, the nearest salt water to any of the places I 've lived in was 250+ miles away.

Same here.  No saltwater experience.  The wife and I are discussing a vacation including it but that's future tense.

Panamoka_Bassin  

Once fishing is in you blood (fresh or salt) there's no getting it out  

Saltwater fish live by rules-Largemouth bass laugh at rules

Saltwater fish live by rules-Largemouth bass laugh at rules

?? I don't get that.

Panamoka- I enjoy hearing your backround, reminds me of days showing up at the co-op with my 6 stripers and chunkin with that rake to get another 1/2 a potato sack full and make my limit.  Hard work but great memories.  Salt water folk are just as close as freshwater folk, sometimes closer as lives can depend on each other out there.

That's it?

Only 6 members out of 8860 members  :-/

I thought for sure redlinerobert, alpster, roadwarrior, or avid would have some salt in their blood.

I have had many a day fishing for Stripers and Blues in the mouth of the Merrimack River. Whether it be chunking with live bait or chunk mackerel or going after then with casting gear of fly rods. My dad took me and my brother countless times to go deep sea fishing. Since we arent religious on Easter Sunday we would go to the beach and we would fish off the jetties for flounder. I have even caught a skate and reeling that in was a chore against the tide it folded up like a parachute. The best I have done was a 15lb Blue Fish on a flyrod and a 21lb Striper on chunk Mackerel. Good times and when it was all over we would hit a fried clam shack on the way home. Cant beat that.

Nope, I have always been landlocked.

But I have fished saltwater on a number of occasions, mostly bottom fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. I have caught red snapper, yellowfin tuna, tiger fish, grey sharks, Jack Cravel, bull reds (on my bass rod), amber jack (85 lb, PB), barracuda, wahoo, mackerel, dolphin, speckled trout, sheepshead, stingray and snook. Maybe something else, but no bill fish.

I like being on the ocean, especially days out, but I don't care for the heavy fishing gear.

saltwater isnt really in my blood but i do go surf fishing many times during the summer an i have been deep sea fishing with my dad once when i was lil who does it several times a year

I've swore to never saltwater fish again.  I bet I've spent $2,000 in the last 20 years and have had very minimal results.  Give me Bass or Give me Bass.

GO BIG RED

the extent of my salt water experience.

Only 6 members out of 8860 members? :-/

I've probably spent more time in saltwater than I have in freshwater.

I wasn't going to respond, but posts by Lowe Budget Hookers & Panamoka_Bassin struck a chord that only the ocean can ignite.

Below is a partial list of saltwater species I boated in New Jersey (I excluded Florida so the list could end):

Local Moniker True Name

Flounder             Winter Flounder

Fluke                  Summer Flounder

Kingfish             Northern Kingfish (King Mackerel are not true kingfish)

Porgy             Jolthead Porgy      

Seabass             Black Seabass

Blackfish             Tautog (squeteague in New England)

Whiting             Silver Hake

Ling                   Red Hake

Black Drum       Black Drum (related to Red Drum [redfish])

Boston Mackerel Name was changed to Atlantic Mackerel

Weakfish             Gray Weakfish (similar to spotted seatrout of Florida)

Bluefish             Bluefish

Striper             Striped Bass

Skipjack             Skipjack Tuna (chum)

False Albacore       Little Tunny (not a typo)

Bonito                   Atlantic Bonito

Yellowfin Tuna       Yellowfin Tuna

Bluefin Tuna       Bluefin Tuna (money fish)

Dolphin                   Common Dolphinfish

Blue Shark             Blue Shark (tube shark)

Brown Shark       Brown Shark

Hammerhead       Hammerhead Shark

Mako                   Mako Shark (never caught a tiger or white shark)

Roger

being born and raised in south florida, i truely have been blessed with both salt and fresh water fishing. i lived about 10 miles west of the beach, and my house was on a fresh water canal. when i was young (from 4years old to 15) i would fresh water fish at least 5 days a week catching bass, bream, gar turtles, small gators, and just about anything i could. my dad had an old 23 foot aquasport that he would take out about once a month to go dolphin  and king fishing. when i bought my own house at the age of 30, i refinanced 3 years later and bought my pathfinder flats boat. i was heavily into snook and tarpon fishing, and i still do go occassionally. about 3 years ago i started bass tournament fishing, and needless to say--i am hooked. i am now in a bass club and fish every second saturday of the month in my clubs tourny. i also fish between 15-20 other tournaments a year as well. unfortunately imo i think the ocean is fished out. case and point-the last time i went dolphin fishing(about a year ago) i was thick in a school of about 20, 15 pound dolphin and i proceeded to catch 5 and that was plenty for us to take home and eat. before long, 5 other boats showed up and started fight for the remaining fish, which is no big deal, because it happens all the time when you get into a good school. about 20 minutes into watching all of this go down, another school of dolphin showed up and they were small, i mean they were no more than 12" long. there were about 50 of them. these idiots in the other boats, continued catching them, and they kept EVERY one of them. that was the last time i went offshore. it saddens me still to this day.

I have spent much more time fishing in salt water than in fresh.  Crabbing at Holly Beach, Snapper fishing in Vermilion Bay, Speckled Trout fishing at Grand Isle, Amberjack fishing in the Gulf, and a hundred places in between.  It's hard to grow up in South Louisiana and NOT fish salt water.

Hey Catt,

I don't know how I missed this thread. I grew up in South Louisiana, New Orleans area and Plaquimine Parish. We daily fished the pipeline canals for speckled trout & redfish, some of the best fishing on earth IMHO. We often rented a crew boat and headed from the mouth of the Mississippi out South pass to the oil rigs for red snapper, but you never knew what you might catch out there. Always a surprise, mackeral, blue fish, black drum, sting ray or even a shark every now & then. Louisiana really was the "Sportsman's Paradise" when I was younger. Lots of salt water fishing when I lived there. I still get to go saltwater fishing here in Jersey and sometimes the fishing is awesome. I just don't have a boat big enough for the bays & ocean here. I keep depending on the kindness of my friends with big boats. I love saltwater fishing and go every time I get a chance.

Ronnie

this is a great thread. It's cool to see the backgrounds of some people on the board.

I dont get to go saltwater fishing that much anymore but when I was 6-7 years old my family would go up to Cape Cod every summer and I would always fish with my uncle out in the sea. We mostly fished for stripers, but he was a big tuna fisherman and was always in tourneys and such for them. One day he took me tuna fishing when I was 11 years old and told me I would get whatever he made off the fish I caught. I didn't catch a large enough tuna to sell but my uncle still gave me 200 bucks from a 850 pounder he caught. I am pretty sure that those tunas would sell for much more than that. My family moved back up north to upstate NY and we go down to cape cod every now and then, but not nearly as much as we used to. I kind of miss those long days at sea with my uncle now that I think about it. Thank god I live right on a lake so I can fish all day, I am truly thankful for that.