In the truck on the way from his Houma home to Cocodrie, where he docks his offshore boat, Capt. Tommy Pellegrin explained “Wonderland,” the day’s fishing destination.
“I call it that because you always wonder what you’re going to catch,” Pellegrin said. “You never know — so many weird things: sand tilefish, coney (a grouper), knobbed porgy, blackfin snapper, yelloweye snapper (silk snapper), red porgy, marbled grouper (his customers have taken two state records and one world record of this deepwater oddball).”
Ewing Bank, its proper name, rises to 185 feet deep from water depths of more than 400 feet. It is rock, he explained, with some coral on it.
“It has a lot of sponge on it, and has gorgonians,” Pellegrin said, adding that pieces of it often come up on his hooks. A saltwater aquarium enthusiast since 1978, he knows a lot about live rock.
Fishing Ewing Bank doesn’t come easy, though.
“It’s a 70-mile run offshore, southwest of Isle Derniere,” he said.
Pellegrin’s 39-foot Gravois hull has three 300-horsepower engines hanging on its stern, helping to make the trip faster.
Although he also guides inshore for speckled trout and redfish, the 55-year-old Houma native and resident is best known for his offshore chartering.
“It was for red snapper,” he offered. “When it was difficult to catch them, I was one of the only ones catching them.
“Now I say that there are only two fish, in my mind, that bite 100 percent of the time, under any conditions — hardhead catfish and red snapper.”
It’s not hard to catch the note of frustration in his voice.
“With the red snapper the way it is, I’ve started fishing more mangroves and what I call ‘exotics,’” he said. “Fishing for exotics means that even with a two-fish limit on red snappers, we are still coming home with as many fish as with an eight-fish limit.
“Exotics are very good eating, too. Red porgy has a white, flaky meat, similar to sheepshead, but they are a lot easier to clean.”
He waxed eloquently about culinary beauty when he described yellowmouth grouper, another of his exotic species.
“You see the striations of the muscles under the skin, like a man with a six-pack — and you imagine that filet with crabmeat on it,” Pellegrin said. “That’s the cook in me coming out. I’d rather cook for a living than fish for a living. I love to cook. You name it, I’ll cook it. Both (wife) Laurie and I like to cook.”