Kerry Audibert definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer. Almost the only inshore charter guides who don’t have trolling motors perched on their bow deck are those who specialize in live bait, a much slower way of fishing than with artificials.
But Audibert fishes lots of artificials, and not having a trolling motor doesn’t seem to hamper him.
He plans his fishing to use whatever wind is available to drift the area he wants to fish.
And when he finds fish, he uses his own version of a spud pole. It’s simply a 10-foot length of 1 ½-inch PVC pipe filled with sprayed in foam, with a T joint glued on one end and a cap on the other. The boat’s bow rope is tied through the T.
When he wants to stop a drift, he simply pushes the straight end of the pipe into the mud bottom. When he pulls it to run to another spot, he doesn’t drag the muddy pole into the boat; instead he simply ties it off tight to the boat’s stern cleat. While the boat runs, the water cleans the pipe and it stays handy for the next stop.
Where the water is too deep to use his pole, he uses the mother of all Cajun anchors, made from a 50-pound stainless steel shaft.
“When it pulls up,” he grinned broadly, “You know it’s too windy.”
