Memorial Day weekend in Hackberry was already turning into one of those trips you don’t forget, even before anything big hit the deck.
Friday evening we were stuck at the dock because the boat was having mechanical issues. Not ideal, but nobody was really complaining because we were still fishing. My girlfriend, Madi Foster, 17, of West Monroe, was casting off the dock, just passing time and hoping for a bite, when it finally happened. First real fish of the whole weekend.
It turned out to be a giant jack crevalle. The fight was absolute chaos. It took off like a freight train. Line was everywhere, everything was tangled up and we were still trying to work it in. We finally got it close enough to net… and then the hook just popped out right at the boat. Gone.
Madi didn’t say much after that, but you could tell everyone was thinking the same thing. That one stung.
And that fish stuck with us the rest of the weekend.
Fast forward to Monday morning in Calcasieu Pass. The boat is finally running right, and we’re fishing shallow water with the trip basically over. Everyone’s already thinking about heading in. Maybe five minutes left before we start packing it up.
Madi makes one last cast.
And hooks up.
Right away you could feel the energy change. At first nobody knew how big it was, but once it started digging hard and making those long runs in the shallow water, everyone was getting louder by the second. Another giant jack, and this time everything went right.
Fifteen minutes of drag screaming, fish circling the boat, and everyone cheering her on the whole time. When it finally came up and slid into the boat, everybody just erupted at the same time.
It was massive. Way bigger than anything she could’ve handled alone, and the whole boat was just buzzing. We didn’t have anything long enough to get an exact measurement, but from estimates on the low end the jack crevalle was 42 inches long.
Everybody was all smiles after that one.
