A few hours after our arrival in Houston on Thursday, Mike Segall (our boat captain) called to inform us that we could sail 1 hour later than scheduled (at 9am) to let the water warm up and give us more time to make the 1hr drive to Freeport, Texas from the Hotel.

Collectively this 1hr of extra time to ‘sleep in’ convinced us that we could party an extra 3 hrs later on Thursday night. So … what was planned as an easy going evening of casual drinking and socializing quickly turned south when we were somehow comped a 40oz bottle of Grey Goose Vodka sometime around midnight. Needless to say the rest of Thursday evening is a little blurry from this point on.

With the hotel alarms blaring for god knows how long on Friday morning one of us managed to awake around 8:00am. Still needing to wake the others, get dressed, get the van packed (w\ beer), eat something, buy our fishing licenses, locate some aspirin and make the 1 hr drive to Freeport (without a map) … I knew even getting to the boat was going to be an adventure.

Still we managed to make it to the wharf around 10:15am. Mike was patiently waiting for us and I can only imagine what he thought of us Canadians when he saw the shape we were all in. It was a beautiful day for fishing and we would soon be sailing out into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, past the huge Oil Tankers and offshore drilling platforms with dolphins and pelicans in tow.

Once the fishing began it was fantastic. I think if we had all been feeling better we could have caught over 300 fish that day. Unfortunately not long after the boat stopped to begin fishing, the heavy swells and vodka began to take its toll on Jeff. He would be the first to chum the water with Grey Goose and Rock Star energy drink, followed by Shawn and them myself. Just when it seemed like the 3 of us were ready to murder the rest of the crew, Mike would turn the boat around and head back for Freeport. Although we had cut the trip short we all still managed to catch several fish each and over 50 total. Matt would catch the big fish for the day which would have netted him the big fish pool money … but it was an out of season fish and had to be thrown back. I however landed the biggest legal fish … this resulted in an official protest by Matt about the pool rules. The controversy continues till this day…

If you want to do some fishing in the Galveston\Freeport Texas area I cannot recommend Mike Segall enough. He is an easy going Captain and a true Texan that was very accommodating in every aspect of our trip. Thanks for a great day on the water Mike!!!Here is his website:

http://www.reelthreel.com