Christening of the Katie Belle

Other than taking the Garfish (our canoe) out for fishing trips and afternoon excursions on Bayou Nezpique, we're pretty much landlubbers.  Until last week.  My Dad bought a boat - a bay boat and we took her out to Big Lake for her maiden voyage.  Big Lake is a 40,000 acre lake, otherwise known as the Calcasieu Lake estuary and is located South of Lake Charles in Cameron Parish.  It opens up into the Gulf of Mexico and is home to some mighty fine fishing, especially speckled trout, redfish, and flounder.

Here we are launching the Katie Belle out of Hebert's Landing.  Katie Belle is Dad's nickname for my mom and the name of his new boat.  So on this afternoon with threatening rainclouds and misting weather, my Dad & Mom, my uncle John, Russ, Benjamin, and I set out for a three hour tour - a three hour tour.


Getting ready to launch

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale - a tale of a fateful trip,
That started from Hebert's Landing on my Dad's new bay boat ship,
The mate was a mighty sailor man, the skipper brave and sure,
Six passengers set sail that day with boots smelling like cow manure.


The first mate and the Skipper

The weather started getting rough,
We were soaking wet with mist,
We caught a tiny speckled trout,
And Russ gave the fish a kiss.
 

We love speckled trout

We didn't set ground on any uncharted island, but we sure had a great adventure.  The boat ran nicely and we enjoyed the afternoon.

Benjamin's hanging onto his cap so it doesn't fly away

Mom christened the vessel with some Chardonnay.


"Katie Belle" christening the Katie Belle

Benjamin holding a small speckled trout that went back into Big Lake to grow for next time.  

Grow up a little and then come back and see us!

Here is Benjamin with the net hauling in a redfish that my uncle John caught.  Benjamin is very handy with the net as we learned on a previous crabbing adventure that I posted about.  So much so that we nicknamed him Benjamin Net-an-Yahoo.  Benjamin hooked a big fish that was giving him a good fight, but it escaped as it neared the boat.  Benjamin was pretty disappointed when it popped off the line, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Benjamin performing his duty

Here is John hoisting the catch of the day - a nice redfish.  We tried to watch the seagulls and follow them, but the fish just weren't cooperating on this day.  Although we didn't catch a whole bunch of fish, we still had a good time.

Big catch of the day

When we were loading up the boat, the fishermen right in front of us offered their catch to us,  I guess they didn't feel like cleaning them.  We gladly accepted three very nice speckled trout and a flounder to go along with our redfish.  I filleted them when I got home and they sit in the freezer awaiting the frying pan.

Not so big catch of the day

We look forward to more boating excursions this summer and the opportunities to tell more fish stories about the big one that got away.