AJ Wozniak has fished the Hopedale-Shell Beach area for some 15 years or so, and for the last few years he’s been doing it out of a 15-foot aluminum duck boat and taking his son, Parker, along. Though only 10 years old, Parker has been fishing since he was 4 and is an avid hunter with three buck head mounts already on the wall.
The elder Wozniak likes to launch out of Hopedale Marina for the simple reason of its proximity to the rock dam.
“We run all up and down the MRGO and into Lake Borgne, and we always fish the dam on our way back in,” he said. “It’s our last stop and usually good for a few white trout and a redfish or two.”
Wozniak said he was following his usual pattern, but the action was slow. It was early morning at the end of the rising tide.
“We were in Lebouf’s Cut at the mouth of Lake Borgne when the tide slowly began to fall,” he said. “We ran back into the MRGO and went to one of my favorite deep holes.”
On a falling tide, Wozniak said he really likes to fish along the MRGO at drains, canals and cuts from the marsh.
“I use my GPS to find the drop-offs into the deep water of the MRGO and then we fish those ledges,” he said. “I like to use an in-line drop shot rig fished on the bottom with a 3/8-ounce weight and a small Kahle hook tied into the line. Sometimes we fish plastics, but that day we were using live shrimp.”
Not a redfish
Wozniak said they were at the very spot where he previously caught a 6.2-pound trout about 8 years before under the same conditions.
“Parker had said all morning that he wanted to catch a redfish,” Wozniak said. “I was busy retying a line while Parker fished. When I heard his drag screaming and he shouted, ‘I got one.’
“’That’s the redfish you wanted,’ I said, without even looking up. I just told him not to try to horse him in but take your time and tire him out because we only spool up with 10-pound monofilament.”
Wozniak assumed Parker had a red on the line. But then he heard the fish shaking its head and jumped up to see what he had.
“”That’s not a red, it’s a huge trout,’ I shouted, ‘keep your rod up, keep the tension on him while I grab the net.’
Parker did a good job reeling the fish in, and when his dad netted the huge speckled trout he knew it was a prize fish.
“On my Rapala digital scale it weighed 7.2 pounds,” the elder Wozniak said. “At the Hopedale Marina, they took a picture of it and posted it on their Facebook page and got thousands of views. I told Parker that is a fish of a lifetime. He may fish the rest of his life and not catch another one that big.”
Wozniak said they went back the following day under very similar conditions to see if they could repeat their success, but it wasn’t to be.
Wozniak said the fish is at the taxidermist.
