Captain Experiences Live With Mike Cacciotti

Captain Mike Marsh up into the grass and stuff and it wasn’t ready. It affects your fishing but it was quite a bit of bait today. But it was just, it is what it is. You go to have a good time. If you catch fish, that's a bonus. And just go out and enjoy yourself. I had some great customers who said, where there's some customers I've had before and they realized what it's all about. And they needed to get away just like I think every day is a Saturday now because there are so many boats out there. Everybody was, you can't really blame them this Corolla stuff, I know it's bad. And I know it's something real serious but I wear a masking icon, wear gloves. And I tell my customers, we'll stay away from each other. It's kind of hard in a 24-foot boat and you get three people. And then I said, if we’re throwing lures but that's a little easier but we were using live shrimp. Today under a popping cork, I'm gonna back-bait hooks to knit and fish and take care of my customers. Because I don't fish totally and I will fish if they need some help but for a long time I let the customers fish. They're paying me pretty good money. And I go, let them catch fish. I always tell them, fish is free. We don’t charge the fish. It’s the boat ride that costs you. That’s kind of a joke but I've been doing this for, I don't know if you’re familiar. I've been doing this for 30 years. I had a full-time job and I was a part-time guy. Now I've been doing it full-time for quite a while. And I enjoy doing it. It's just something I like doing.

Captain Experiences: Yeah. Definitely. That's awesome. So just want to thank everybody who's tuning in on Facebook with Jonathan with Captain Experiences. And I'm here, Live with Captain Mike. To start off, you haven't introduced yourself by talking about where you like to fish, what kind of trips you offer? That sort of thing.

Captain Mike I'm Captain Mike Cacciotti. I live in the deer park area. So I live pretty close to the water. You know, when you get to Trinity Bay, you get all the water complex, Galveston Complex. And I do fish in the Sabine complex also. Well I like going over Sabine in October and November. It's a lot different fishing you got Louisiana limits over there and especially doing flounder seasons. We're over here you can keep two and over there you keep ten.

Captain Experiences: Wow!

Captain Mike But they're chasing rules this year over here in Texas. You can only, I don't believe you can even keep a flounder in November and part of December but with the new rules. So we'll see how that works out. But overall I like to fish in the Galveston complex. It's close to the house and I like to throw lures and I like to use live bait. I always talk about the ABCs of fishing. A stands for Artificial. I love to throw artificial baits. I got customers, that's all we do. Well if they're not hitting on our fishing, so I go to the B. This is Bait, so that's for a B. You got the ABCs of fishing. This C stands for well if you're using artificial sand bait, C stands for Catching. So that's what we're doing. Of course, they always say well, what does D stand for? I always say Dynamite. [Captain Experiences laughs] Well anyway, that's why it works, that's ABCs for fishing. But I try to target fish that are mighty. I'm a different fishing guide. Some of these guides, they target nothing but trout redfish. But I like to target fish that never bite. It could be whatever, sand trap gulf trout, speckled trout, redfish flounders. I believe that when I take someone out there fishing, they will catch. They get the line stretched out. Now, also they fish the jetties. The jetties are red hot right now. A lot of good big trout called the jetties right. I've got a lot of customers that they want to fish to start a tournament and that's coming up. On Memorial weekend, which is a week away. So that's the time to get out after you catch a tag reds right off the first couple of weeks or a few days there. But to tag reds, they normally turn loose right there West Bay. They turn loose to Galveston. There's been a lot of them caught right there off the Texas City dike area and there's always some call to Claire Lake. So you never know you might want to invest, or you might want to buy a boat motor and trailer.

Captain Experiences: Yup. Yup.

Captain Mike This fishing tournament is just for fun. I fish to the Galveston Complex, I also fish to Claire Lake. People talk much about Claire Lake, it’s kind of slippery but we don't have a lot of runoff from rain. Claire Lake is a really good fishing lake. You get a lot of trout now the birds in Claire Lake will work in September and October and that's the fun time. That is, if you want to learn how to throw lures soft plastic that would work on the birds. That's the best thing, in fact there are two flocks of birds today where I put in and then I put in there at the causeway and I was heading out towards Campbell Bay. There's no secret. Everybody knows where Campbell Bay is in lower Texas City died kids but you just got to look for the bait, look for birds. And if there are no birds, you just have to figure out the water clarity. Now the trout likes that clear water if you can’t find clear water, green water, whether you’re going to miles to fish some rocks for sheepshead, redfish or whatever. Right now at this time of the year, a lot of times right now there are gafftops moving in. So you'll catch them in Trinity Bay, Galveston Bay, some big gafftops. And there is a classification for gaff tops here that start to turn. As a matter of fact, just for two or three years in a row we finished a half an ounce out of first place. My customers did catch a big gafftop, seven-eight pounds well. It’s just crazy, we'd be fishing for trout using live brokers and start catching these big gafftops. There's an opportunity out there doing that tournament for someone to catch something.

Captain Experiences: Definitely. That fishing tournament is gonna be a blast. We are definitely going to start suggesting on our site when people put trips - hey you got to register and make sure you register because the last thing we want is for someone to win and be registered and if not, will lose a brand-new coat.

Captain Mike Well, my dad fished when he was young and he is from New York Rockaway. Of course, he fished over there. He joined the Navy and became an aircraft carrier pilot, flying in the South Pacific in World War II and married my mom. And then of course pressed the history, but still he liked to fish. So he dragged me along and we had a great time. We just started fishing when I was about six years old and we fished all over. We did a lot of freshwaters fishing. We did a lot of saltwater fishing. I can remember back in the 50s I used to fish out a Crawley's bait camp at Trinity Bay. I was about seven or eight years old we used to go in there and rent a boat and the guy would pull us out, drop anchor and come back to get us in a couple of hours. And we would have a box for the fish and back then we didn't put fish on ice, we just put more of a stringer. And so we did a lot of good saltwater fishing. And of course there was a teak seadek in my bed, we like to feel like to just get out there and put a lawn chair out and just put a line out there and when we have a bite on half the time. But I've been fishing, I've been a captain for 30 years. I had a full time job but I was working for teens. So I guided on Fridays and Saturdays and with the church on Sundays. So it worked out pretty good for me. I had my clientele built-up and I don't advertise too much but I thought I’d just talk to you here on this show and just help some of the viewers out there if they got any questions. I don't know if they can text it to you or whatever. I'll tell you, you’re gonna go out fishing. Fish for what's biting, have a good time. Don't worry it's not what you catch.It's just out there in the fellowship, take your family, take your friends. You can always go to jetties and catch fish. But the jetties are very dangerous. You gotta watch what you're doing. You got a big ship wake. You got so bad weather, it can hit you - you can get up on those rocks before you know it. So no matter where you're fishing. Now there’s a law that says you have to wear a kill switch when you're underway. Now when you're idling up to a boat ramp, you don't have to have it but when you're all the way wide open and moving you need to put your safety switch on your wrists or somewheres if you fell overboard. I don't know if you saw Facebook the other day about Claire Lake where that guy fell overboard and his boat kept running. It was on the news yesterday.

Captain Experiences: Wow.

Captain Mike : If he had his kill switch on his wrist and he fell overboard, well he would have never died. He could have swam back to the boat, got it and went on way. So that ramp happened here Sunday. It was when I’m with my wife, we drove down Sunday to Claire Lake just to look things over. It was at that part there on NASA road wanderers, only one boat ramp now because he once closed underneath the team of bridges. It must have been 200 boat trailers. It was crazy. [Captain Experiences: Wow] I said I'm glad I took today off. I tell you what, it was something else. But, I fished my whole life. I do a lot of hunting also but do more fishing. Today, like I said, was a windy day. Look we caught fish you know sometimes I always tell my friends well I got lucky but I've been fishing for so long. And there is water that turns muddy, you've got to fish for what you can.

Captain Experiences: Definitely, I know every day is just a great time on the water but do you have a favorite trip or a specialty trip that people would book for the most part?

Captain Mike I run different trips. We can target different fish but normally in July and August I do run some shark fishing trips. Off the beach and that's kind of exciting for me because, well nothing about sharks but they keep their journaling going about these big sharks. And last year we called it right at 200 pounds of hammerhead. Just right there, about two miles off the beachfront. In short fishes, you can actually eat a shark but if you're gonna catch a shark when you get them, they can bite. So don't bring a live shark in the boat. If you want to keep them in, you have to look at the laws and regulations. You guys can keep a blacktip, a bonnethead. But you can't, some of the spinner sharks, some of the other sharks, got to be six feet long so you got to relook at what you're catching and what you’re gonna keep. Let's say you're gonna keep a sail blacktip. Well, how will you know it's blacktip? He's got black on the tip. So did he have black on all the tips? No, he doesn't. If he's got blacks on all the tips, then he's a spinner shark. He's gotta be 60, I think 65 inches long. That's a spinner. Now, if you bring a black tip-in and the dorsal fin on the bottom is white, that's a black tail. So not all of his fins are black for blacktip. A lot of people mess up. They bring a little shark in, that's illegal and you’d get caught. Unfortunately, we need more game orders for more people abiding by the laws but it’s not going to happen. But the main thing is if we shark fish, I've done it for a long time. I don't do it all the time but I've done a lot of it. Well, if you get a shark on, you get them upside the boat. I carry a nine millimeter or a 380. You're allowed to shoot a shark. So why shoot the shark right between the eyes, and that sounds kind of bad. No people are listening, you got crazy shooting out there but be careful you'll shoot a holy boat. When we shoot a shark then he’s laying there, when I take a rope and put it around his tail and I gaff. You can't gaff a shark through his skin because it's like leather, you can't put the gaff through it. So you got it when you open his mouth, you got to go through his mouth and his gills. So you hold a shark tight. When I had one of my customers, he took the rope on his tail and made it tight and then he pulled up the gaff real tight. So now you got the shark laying upside the boat but he's still not in the boat. I take a knife and I cut them right there. I get that liver and stuff out. We tell you why we do that. I'm sure people would fish after they listened to the show about that. Put, you have when you smell like ammonia. That's that smell coming from his bellies. A shark will urinate through his blood. He doesn't have a bladder. He doesn't have a bladder like a human. The only one that has that bladder if I'm not mistaken is a mico. So if you fight with this adrenaline, he's letting everything go all that molt stuff goes throughout his body so you want to get that out of there. So you want to go clean them out, then soak in the water for a few minutes and then throw on them ice. Because anything won't fit on your cooler, what you want to do is cut them halfway into all the way. That way you can fold them, just like a pocketknife and it fit right in your cooler. And these shark steaks are good. You're allowed one shark per person. But when I'm fishing with my customers, we shark fish, we only just bring one in. That's if they want to eat it. I'll fillet it out. I cut shark steaks out. They grill it, they fry it. Anything about shark meat, if you ever had any shark to eat, it's high in protein. So if you eat some of it, you get full pretty quick. But, it's a good-tasting fish. It's not like a flounder or a trout but it's edible. So shark fish is a lot of fun. I get a lot of customers say unless you scope, especially young kids get excited doing Shark Week and I get calls and I don't believe in charging a lot of money to do it because it doesn’t cost me a lot of time to do it. Just after drifting around with some, normally I'm going to shark fish, if I catch some croakers or maybe some lady fishes. What you want better. Ladyfish is good, really bloody.

Captain Mike I keep them, freeze them, and that's what I use for bait. So the bait is free and doesn't cost too much. But that’s just fighting a big shark. There's a lot of fun, I know you joined.

Captain Experiences: Yeah. That's a blast. That's great. I've heard good things about shark, never had it Personally. But if you're taking that meat aboard and feeding my house or whatever. That's fantastic. You can't be wrong. So what would you say is unique about fishing with Captain Mike? What do you offer to people that might not be able to find or experience elsewhere? Fishing alone or fishing with another guide out there?

Captain Mike You wanna process. You want to make it clean and good.is unique about. Weel, I don't talk bad about any guys, they are all great. What I do different is I don't fish. I let my customers catch the fish. I won't pick a pole up unless they need help. If I got small kids, I always say, have the kids stand in the back with me. Now make sure they got a life jacket on. I believe these life jackets in staying them safe. But I have two kids stand next to me and I help them and I show them how to cast. I teach them about fishing. I'll show them, I talked to them. Why we are fishing here. A lot of times, they get excited. They won't know what's going on.

Captain Experiences: Yeah. They’re just young kids.

Captain Mike They'll listen to you. When sometimes I get a grown-up, Oh I know what to do, 17:50 I said well I know your background. 17:53 Your background is that you don’t catch a fish. But if you're gonna play a captain four or five or $600, whatever the price is. Everybody's got different prices. Listen to him what he says because he's a professional. You paid your money for you to catch fish. Now if you go out there and you're not going to listen to me at all but guess what, you might not catch it. But the reason I don't fish at the cost of to go fishing, people have,they just put me in big expense. On vacation, they got to spend five or $600. They need to catch their own fish. If they need help I will help them. What's what about me if I don't fish. I'll step down and watch them if they need something. I'll get him a drink or whatever they need, some ice water or whatever. I'll bake their hooks, I’ll net their fish. When you go with me, we can go in a three-piece in, with 18:50 ? zone. Never get dirty. They’re never touching fish and they have a great time.

Captain Experiences: Yeah. That's awesome! Tina here is saying, fishermen are mentors. That's exactly right. You're paying that money out of pocket and you're going fishing, the number one thing that I think you're paying for is the knowledge, getting tips and tricks to go back yourself and improve. Fishermen and guides are mentors, they're coaches, they're all of those things. The most valuable asset is the knowledge that you've built up fishing these waters over the years so that's the important stuff.

Captain Mike : Now, that everybody's got this GPS it's just global. You could go beside somebody, punch a man, take off and come back the next day right where you catch a fish. They always ask me, Can I look at your GPS? Okay. I said, yeah I don’t care. I don't mean to fish 19:54 no better than tomorrow. Just think about it, if you go fishing everyday, you go to the same spot every day, you catch fish, Always say, you don't catch any. So what am I gonna do, where do they go? How do I know, should I fish deep? Are the fish, the birds or do I go over to here? If I go there. Do I fish the rocks? Where did the fish go? Well, that's why you hire a guide to help you. I tell them by bringing them back and put a hex on it. Yes punch it in. I don't care. I guarantee coz when we're fishing, we're covering a long territory. I do a lot of seminars on the water for people who just bought a boat and all you’ll do is learn to bait. I take them out in their boat, I said but I want to make sure you have a good GPS. So you can track it, remember the track and then mark where I say this is where we ought to fish.Now you gotta remember fishing is seasonable. It's just like anything else, trout fishing is getting ready to be real good at the jetties and it's hot at the jetties. They're going to start migrating in. They follow the stripes in. Right now, 21:05 there are big white stripes in. There's a bunch of small ones too but they're starting to migrate. There were birds working the day when I came up under the coast while on my left-hand side, there were two big groups of birds. But Remember, if you see birds and there's already somebody fishing for them, respect them. Don't go run up there in front of them. Don't go up there and try to box them. Most likely, there are gafftops or there are sand trout or it could be 21:30 specks. 21:33 But lay there first the little fish. Go on, find your birds or just figure something else out. A lot of times, I'll be in the East Bay and drifting on some birds,21:44 will be an officer and a boat just runs right in front of us. And I said, I don't really like to fish birds but there is a way to learn how to use lures anyway, especially these soft plastics. I use a lot of down south lures. Mike, a friend of mine, I catch a lot of trout with his lures. He's a big Redfish fished on Monday. They fish on in tournaments. As a matter of fact back in last year in June to September, I fished that redfish rodeo. And for the ladies and I didn't fish. I just put the ladies on fish and we waited on for 42 pounds of fish in two days. 22:22 ? And we had a good day.

Captain Experiences: Yeah. Awesome. Congratulations.

Captain Mike And then an old lady said, how come we're not catching fish. That's not 10:30. So what do you mean so well at 10:30. You all start catching some fish. Sure enough 10:30 to 11 o'clock we had probably 10 redfish in a boat. And they're all between 8-9 pounds. So you start calling whatever you all want, this is it but I was on those fish because I fish a lot and I knew they were there. But you know it's just like the more you go, the more times you go the better you’re going to learn the bass system. And it's not only fishing. If you got a boat, you learn how to pull the boat. Check your lights make sure you got your trailer hooked up. Make sure you get your safety chains up. There was a guy the other day who launched his boat. When he launched his boat to trailer boat with water, it came off each of a trailer hitch. [Captain Experiences: Wow] If it had his safety chains on, it won't really happen. So he had to get back on somehow and he managed it. But you got to be careful when you're launching a boat. And I got a 24-foot boat, I launched it by myself. And everybody says, do you need help? No, I don't need help coz if you start to help me out then probably it would mess up. I used the secret to launching a boat by yourself is to have a rope tied to the bow twice as long as a boat trailer. Now think about that twice as long so what you're going to do is you’re gonna tie one of a rope to your boat winch, you're gonna hook everything. Make sure your plugs-in, always check your plugs and bass Cherie?. And always make sure your boat motors start before you launch it too. Because a lot of people have dead batteries, they haven't used it in three months. But anyway check all of that before you even get to the boat ramp. But when you launch your boat with a rope that's twice as long as a boat trailer, you ease it off. It's going to drift back, out, away from the boat trailer. Then you pull up real slow that way you're not getting out the water, so you pull up real slow If you pull up too fast that most of you don’t want to get back on that trailer. Then go real slow, get out, unhook it, take it around, tie it off, get in your truck and move. But always have your boat ready to launch before you get to the launch. In other words, there's a line of cars waiting to launch. Just get out and don’t look ? and get it all ready. That way when you're ready to launch, you can launch it in five minutes and you can be out of the way. And the same thing with loading a boat up, you want to, I like to get as close to a pier as I can. So when I get it up on the trailer I'll leave it in gear if you take it out of gear sometimes a boat adrift back off the trailer. So we load the boat, keep it in gear and then step out onto the pier, walk around, hook up the boat, tie it up, walk back, get in the boat. kill the engine, huh and raise the engine up. I think people, not razor-edge and pull up and lose their lower unit dragging it on the concrete. Just a rule of thumb is pretty simple. Make sure you got all your safety gear in the boat, lifejackets are fine. He checked that fire too because it can go out on you, you can - you never know. Make sure you got your whistle horns and just have a checklist, you could you write a checklist and check it off before you launch your boat and check it off when you load your boat just check it off and then pretty soon you're familiar with you can throw a checklist away but we need what's gonna happen when you get in a hurry, it's gonna happen. If you get to be in a hurry, something's going to grab you. It always, it will happen.

Captain Experiences: You start thinking about fishing and getting them out there and getting a deer spot, being able to be out there and before you fully know it. ?

Captain Mike Can’t I still launch my boat without their help? Yeah. You don’t want time, you remember I've launched my boat with the plug out and managed to put the plugin and pump the water out but it will happen to everybody. Even the professional fishing guides, they do mess up every now and then. I'll off they're not all perfect but the rule of thumb is when you book a fishing guide, tickle his brain, talk to him, find out what makes him tick, why are you fishing here, what's going on, why are we moving, what are we looking at? That'll help because you paid them. You paid them good money. It's hard-earned money. Right now, money is hard to come by. People don't have jobs, but they want to get out. They're tired in their house. I just now started fishing again pretty hard. I stayed in the house, 30-days, crazy worn out. Last week, a couple of times I went out this week, so it's getting better.

Captain Experiences: There you go. It's good stuff. I know people are excited about the summer coming up. That's funny. I listened to the bite me saltwater fishing podcast with Scott Nolan ?. Captain Scott Nolan, and John. And they have a section they talk about called the boat ramp confessional, where they just talk about all these terrible things on that but that's hilarious.

Captain Mike If you want to win $10,000, just set a boat up for a camera. You could get a funniest video. It happens. Right now, it happens. Everyday, right now. It's pretty silly. Here's what it is,

Captain Experiences: Can you touch on your boat for everyone, what do you fish now?

Captain Mike I've got a 24-foot canner. I got a 250 Honda four-stroke. That's my third engine on that boat, normally room between 2,500 and 3,000 dollars on a motor. I sell it and buy another one. Also I just bought this one last year so you see it's almost a year old. It was a 24-foot Kenner I got a jack plate course before him until I got stainless steel properly and I got a stainless steel guard on the bottom, that protects a kill well also I put I got a ten-foot power pole, if you're gonna buy a power pole when you go fish the bays you can even get you a ten-foot one. Everybody's got an eight-foot now to come up with the 10-foot when it makes a difference. Can anchor an eight-foot of water where that guy an eight-foot can’t do it. Do I need to wade an eight-foot of water which I did today. Most of the time I anchor in 6 to 7 or 5-foot because I'm going fishing back towards some rocks or I'm fishing, I’m fishing on an ocean or something but you need to have a power pole, I was always a guest one. I said, that rope and anchor- I can still lift it up. But I'll tell you what, it sure has been nice for the last year just pushing that button up and down. It just makes it a lot easier. You know the easier you make it, the better.

Captain Experiences: Definitely. So what's it like for you when you put somebody on a big fish or on their first fish.

Captain Mike I reached for my camera video. When they catch your first fish they're all excited now always just relax and I always tell my customers when you catch a fish, do not bring them in the boat. I don't care if it's a trout, redfish whatever. Leave them in the water and I'll net it or I'll take it off. You never know especially these gafftops and hard hits you get to yanking a hard head or a gaff top out of the water and swinging them around. It's not gonna be a pretty sight when they stick somebody in the back or in the arm or on the head. Especially your mom or dad or your friend you're out there drinking beer and I don't mind if you can drink all. I got people that drink beer on the boat but I'll make sure they drink enough water for the difference.But I'm liable for them. I've got the guide insurance and I'm liable for my customers. For when they step on my boat to when they get off. I'm probably liable for them till you get home. If they drank a lot and you know I might want to tell me you all sit here for a couple of hours and drink some water unless before you go and I will tell them that. I haven't ever had any problems. I've got something that grants, bring a couple of six-packs and but during the day they drink a six-pack of beer and drink water. I said for every beer you’ve got to drink water, of course you know I don't have a restroom in a boat so let me just take that imagination having that and all the women they asked me, sir you got a restroom? I sure do. I've got a restroom on my boat. I said, I got to book it now. There's not any fishing guide that has restrooms in their boat. These big bait parkers, in some of them, they got a little restroom but they're all full of fishing gear. You could even get a mess or storage. In what I do also, a lot of guys don't do. For young women or older women whatever, I take I run them into the restroom [Captain Experiences: Oh, wow. Really?] If I'm in West Bay, I'll run them into maybe Harborwalk or I'll move. I'll bring them back somewheres or if I'm out - JD's I might even bring him into the yacht basin, turn around and go back after. I just tell them - you got six hours of fishing, if you want to spend an hour going to the restroom and I am back with that now you got four hours and I don't really look at my watch if you go out with captain any steady looking at their watch, just looking at it, I guess what personally, he ain't out there to help he's out there to make his money get in and go get some more. I don't do that, I don't look at my watch. I want to go have a good time. I want my customers to have a good time. And I tell them if you don't have a good time with me, you don't owe me. Nothing. Now if I get some people that's horses, birds or whatever and they just, I take them back to the dock. I said don't worry about it - it's a free trip. I don't need you on my boat but most 99.9% of Fishmen are great people or they want to get out and enjoy the outdoors and I try to make it as they say, it's a trip of a lifetime because all they’re going to do is go one time but I've got, like today these people booked me four times. I never met them before. The first trip, then they come back to second and then the third and fourth. We didn't have a good day. Well look, when you’re tired and worked hard as a captain here's a little extra thank you. You work hard for people to appreciate you, I've got I went out and we've got 30 trout before, working hard you've got a clean thirty trout. I don't charge clean fish either or down south they charge $2 of fish you know we don't charge to clean fish and they say thank you and they walk off. Well like today we only had a handful of fish. They said thank you. So here's a little extra for your time and cleaning the fish [yeah] coz it's a business but I'm keeping it affordable [yeah] and a lot of these fishing guides in there why don't charge enough. I don't worry about it, that's my business. I enjoy watching people have a great time

Captain Experiences: yeah, No. That's amazing. Amazing stuff. So why do you do it in and day out what uh what gets you up one morning why do you love it?

Captain Mike I got a feeling she lay on that couch. He's come to stay there. I gotta get up and move. I'm the old man, they call me Pop. I'm 71 years old and I fished with the best of. I get up at three o'clock, actually four o'clock in the morning. Get a little coffee and I'll go get the bait. I'm at the dock. An hour ahead of time waiting on the customers got the posts ready and got everything right. I want to make sure everything's ready for them and they show up. I stir drinks down whatever I got dry storage for whatever they want. I said let's go ahead we'll go have a good time. I shot, I gave them a safety talk. I said, okay this is a life of service. This is now who can run the boat. I want to make sure that somebody can drive a boat. The wide I want to do that is my boat I'm the captain let's say I had a heart attack let's say I fell hit my head and I'm unconscious how we gonna get that boat back to the marina how we gonna get back to where I picked them up at so I'll make sure somebody that goes can run a boat look at my GPS back to tracks up and take you right back where we left from. And then call a helicopter to pick me up to get me out of here but I believe you never know never know what could happen to you. There I've never I've had books in my hands and stuff and I managed to pull them out myself a different couple um I had to go to the doctor but I always tell my customers that's why you leave the fish in the water because if you went to yank that fish up and he comes off that hooks on the fly through the air [yeah] and always tell me cuz we see what you need a hat sunglasses a small windbreaker sunblock and then you enjoy and have a good time there's no sense getting sunburned out there there's no sense not having sunglasses you could have a hat to kind of keep some of the sun off, it's just easy stuff but I do it every day and I just remind people when I called him a day before the night before what we're gonna meet at I'll tell them to make sure you got a fishing license. I said you know you need a fishing license, you need a hat, sunglasses, sunscreen. I said, now the the reason I don't want you all to put the bait on the hook is you could have some tan lotion on your hands and you reach your head down at lab well you just kill 50 dollars worth of bait, [yeah] and you're paying for it

Captain Experiences: Yeah. So there's something we need to get you for that. Tina, who's checked in. Exactly does he have a bait Butler, we've got to get you a bait Butler here it's an attachment for the top of your bait bucket and basically you pull it up. I wish I had one in my apartment right.

Captain Mike I got one of my home portable coolers, a little basket that you can lift. but I've got a big live well built into my boat and I've got a big net. I know what you're talking about. one of those the bucket saver deal when you put the bait in yeah I got one of those the portable ones that I can carry yeah you just lift it up and just get your bait out and drop it down yeah but still, you got suntan lotion on your hands you can still touch something yeah in that water, I don't want that water contaminated, yes does he have a what do you like to get him one? well he's ready for something.

Captain Experiences: I'll have to meet up and I'll bring one down next time again but they're great to keep on the boat, so that if you have a big group of clients you're fishing and you're baiting a hook in the pack with the live well you can keep the bait but we're upfront and then they just pull it up the baits right there and it provides the net for a shrimp to kind of rest upon to. It keeps it more lively so yeah it's really a fantastic product people are loving them yeah Tina's saying that I shall take you on to try out so yeah there they were awesome and they were flying off the shelves at the Houston Fishing show too.

Captain Mike I usually go to the show or I used to have a booth set up for years and years. I do. I'll always have a seminar there. Alway. it's just you know my clients tell word-of-mouth 90%. I'll stay pretty busy.

Captain Experiences: Definitely well you know we really enjoy having you on the site too. It's great stuff. How do you feel about the future of fishing? How do you feel about this currently? The next note that protects its Coast, How do you feel about it?

Captain Mike I don't know why they're doing away with the flounders in November in December because I'm catching flounders now. I don't think there's a shortage of flounders but they say there is, but as far as the future they did go from ten to five trout. I think what should happen in the future is you should drop the 15-inch limp fish, go back to a 14 or 13-inch trout because we're killing a lot of young trout. Once we're catching them and grabbing them and throwing them back most of it gonna die because you don't put your hands on it, you get the slime it's kind of hard to take them off. Your hook especially people using treble hooks. No treble hooks allowed. I won’t allow treble hooks in the future. There are no treble hooks on my boat, even single hooks because I can normally take the pliers and I can comment shake the fish lose without touching them yeah but I think they should drop this the size but back down to that 14-inch trout and I think they got the five fish you catch a five-fish go catch something else, if you get you used to be, we gotta get 30 trout captain what would the definitely a 30 trout, when you get a red. What about there’s limits of red, no it's not like that yeah the future so they did drop it to five fish that's a good thing the other thing is your redfish. They need to look at the redfish population. It is booming in Galveston. You need to take and used to I can remember how, you weren’t yet born then but it was catching . Anyway, if you could keep a redfish, they must be 14 or 15 inches. You can keep five or eight. They didn’t change the throw of day 20 to 27 or 28 one over that. They need to get back down to that where you can keep five say from 17 inches. Don't do that, you don't need a tag. you don't need a tag Make it go from say 17 inches to 27 inches and you're allowed to keep one over twenty-seven without a tag. Why do you want to put a tag on it? That's just extra. That’s their tag but that's just me. I think you need to give us a reef fish back and I know to look at the flounders I think I would raise the flounders to a 15 inch versus 14 and I would keep it at five flounders. You can't fish five flounders, five trout, three Reds, that's a good trip. That's a lot of growing the average person, I got customers that got fish in the freezer from what we caught last year. I tell you if you don't want to eat your fish fresh you can always come back and catch more. I say you know I'll just make sure you give it to your neighbors and don't let them spoil. But the future of fishing I think it's going in the right direction but I think they do need to look at lower trout size and forgiveness back to more redfish and drop in the length of the redfish I think that helped and as far as your calf tops at heart here they're always going to be there you know everybody talks about croaker fishing man you just killed him a big trout well if you dropped the size limit and you get to five fish and you get your five trap with crocus there's no need to catch it anymore yeah that's the another thing yeah what it is but yeah you know it's a CCA is looking at it and sometimes I agree with sometimes I don't it's just for Sue Ellen let me tell you what's going on right now. Moses Lake the gates closed and some of these people are gonna hate me for saying this if they're listening to the gates closed those fish are trapped in Moses Lake Trout and reds no hard heads in there no gaff talk because the gates are closed there's kayaks 25 of them almost every day 20 people standing in line at the bottom of those gates catching trout and reds one after another no game board around at all even police, they are tearing that they are taking the only fish out of Moses Lake it's crazy, it’s just a shame yeah but when they open the gates and they supposed opening tomorrow or next week that water's gonna flow in there so fast, it's gonna bring in your heart heads and your gaff tops and it's gonna regenerate it but a lot of fish are being taken out of there, a lot of fish. Most of them fishing off the bank and out of kayaks, it's crazy yeah what's happening right now yeah what happened today.

Captain Experiences: That's terrible. I got a plugin for my computer, just one sec. Alright. Sorry about that. I also wanted to ask you too about, what's your opinion on the Louisiana limits because you have a unique perspective and you fish at Sabine regularly and you also fish the Texas waters?

Captain Mike Yeah I think the reason Louisiana limits are so like they are 12-inch trout and 15 trout here and if you go to Lafayette or further I think Lafayette then you can keep 25 and they’re got to be 12 inches.Their x-rays is so much different than ours. Their bayous, their x-ray is where the back lakes are. They're going to always have plenty of fish. We don't have that here in Texas.

Captain Experiences: Are you aware because a lot of people have been talking about how the Louisiana inshore fishery isn't what it used to be and a lot of people kind of point the finger at these relaxed limits.

Captain Mike I don't think so. I don’t know about that last year. I ran a few trips over there Louisiana and we averaged 60 trails today and we were catching 30 and 40 flounders a day. It was one, hard to do. They need to take the size limit raised at least to 14 inches or 15. They need to drop it from 15 to 10 trout. They needed to do that all through Louisiana because that'll make those Louisiana guides probably upset but would it make an easier day for them they come home earlier but you know yeah Louisiana waters a lot different than Galveston is because we've got East Bay well we've got grass there but we don't have the estuary we don't have the flow, we got to way up north we’ve got a big oyster by coming in but it's not to flow you need is and big trout up there and they're going to close to Road overpass where you can, everybody is talking about how it's going to be the best to fish up in East Bay and what's gonna happen it's gonna push them off that shoreline and move them out toward big Hanna's towards miss point it's going to change the migration of the trail it's gonna be a real thick East Bay maybe the oysters too because you're not gonna have the flow to clean them oysters up so the oysters are gonna be dead . There’s somebody's got to relook at it hard but it's already a done deal, and fill it up, shoot it down. It's crazy under there it's gonna do that during Ike when I help with the cleanup for Ike I ran my boat from April to September every day with the federal government well I had him in my boat and they talked about it how they were gonna close that up and I mean we picked up all kinds of stuff not my boat but we marked it with the GPS and gave numbers and they came in with barges and crimes and picked up you name it they picked it up a lot of trash in the the base we cleaned it up we helped clean up Galveston I even helped Claire Lake, Trinity Bay, I did West Bay and then I did Sabine lake. I was but I had the head man with me and they were picking up a lot. You’d be surprised what they picked up but basically because of that.

Captain Experiences: Wow that's amazing stuff. Now for our favorite question, if you had one more cast to throw in your life what would you throw and where would you be.

Captain Mike Costa Rica. I would be, I would boat, catch sailfish. Or Mazda Lon. I went to Mazda Lon last year and I got a 400-pound blue Marlin but I went to Costa Rica and we've got 22 sailfish in two days. Costa Rica and big roosterfish. Costa Rica is probably the primo in the whole area of Panama. I do a lot of traveling, fishing. It's a, I'll call it continuous education. Thank you very much. [Captain Experiences: Study abroad?] I appreciate it. I get to write some trips off because it's my business, it works. It comes to my favorite but I fished everywhere from Hawaii to Tahiti to Australia to New Zealand, Fiji. I fished all of those waters. and mainly when I finished those borders like Fiji I was fishing for the stripe. Costa Rica would be the last cast, what a pretty little sailfish. I don't want to catch another blue Marlin, 400 pounds no I don't think so. Once is enough. What we were using for bait, this is like a 10-pound trout yeah make a big fish you know this it's crazy but it's fun I enjoy doing it with my wife and I go on vacation, we go to the beach. we like the water. I like living here in Deer Park. I'm close to Fred Hartman bridge here. I put in their bay land, I go to Thompson's, I go to Trinity Bay I can go up around the monument I go up around Sabine Beach. I catch fish. Several beaches, it's a great place to fish that's in the winter month when this gets cold. You can throw those hard baits up against in pairs and stuff and catch some nice trout, not the best lure to use in the wintertime over there at the same beach, it's called Texas flash it's just like a mirror lure kind of but it's a heck of a good lure box but not I've done just a little bit of fishing not much just a little bit.

Captain Experiences: Here and there. That's awesome. Cool. Now we just have a few rapid-fire questions so whatever comes to mind first, just spit it out on. What's your favorite body of water to fish?

Captain Mike Sabine.

Captain Experiences: if you had to be doing something different, what would it be?

Captain Mike Deer hunting.

Captain Experiences: What other hobbies do you enjoy outside of fishing,

Captain Mike Traveling.

Captain Experiences: Do you have a nickname and if so how'd you get it?

Captain Mike : They call me Captain Mike. My nickname is Pops because I'm 71 years old. And all the fishing guides call me Pop. I’ve got long hair.

Captain Experiences: There you go. Do you have a favorite song or band?

Captain Mike Right now Elvis Presley. Can't help falling in love.

Captain Experiences: nice great one [Laughter] Do you have a favorite movie?

Captain Mike I am known to do it always.. I like Gone with the Wind. I'm an old man that was a good movie.

Captain Experiences: Favorite food?

Captain Mike : I'm Italian always say spaghetti but probably just a plain Hamburger [Laughter]

Captain Experiences: That's awesome. Do you have a favorite drink of choice?

Captain Mike Vodka. The Diet Sprite little lime.

Captain Experiences: Amazing! Do you have a favorite sports team?

Captain Mike My wife loves the Cowboys and I like Texas, it's an argument.

Captain Experiences: There you go. An argument as old as time I guess. Have any Cowboys fans, we charge them double. If you could have one superpower what would it be?

Captain Mike Look into the future.

Captain Experiences: Wow. that's a good one. What was your last Halloween costume?

Captain Mike Superman.

Captain Experiences Nice, that's great. What do you want for Christmas?

Captain Mike Another rod and reel.

Captain Experiences Can you name one of the Seven Dwarfs? Snoopy? Snoozy? I don’t know who they are. [Laughs] When I was six years old.

Captain Mike We'll go with Sleepy.

Captain Experiences: How many pull-ups can you do in a row?

Captain Mike I used to do about 50 but now I could probably do one and a half.

Captain Experiences Count it. What's the biggest fish you ever got?

Captain Mike That 400-pound Marlin.

Captain Experiences; That's amazing. That about that wraps it up. Would you like to give a shout-out to the Troops, the Armed Forces, first responders, nurses, doctors, everyone who’s working hard right now?

Captain Mike My wife's a registered nurse because she's retired. I know the nurses go through being married one of course but sometimes she says I'm a good thing I've married one because I had a fibula hand. I got cuts, I got hooked. It's good to have a nurse. It's good that the Armed Forces and I think that they're doing a fine job and God the doctors and I know the way from their homes and that and pretty soon this is gonna be hopefully behind us they'll find a cure for and then we'll go with life but it's a new way of living you know you don't shake hands anymore you bump bump fist or you hit elbows you don't you don't get close to people you know somebody calls you run I mean, it's a good change of life. Do we go back to normal? Personally, I don't think so. I think we just need to be more careful with our surroundings. You get in the elevator I'm not getting an elevator with 20 people I might get there with two or three but he's gotta watch it and take care and I'm a believer and a lot of people don't believe in flu shots I'm 71 years old and I'll take my flu shots my backs and my stuff and if they come out with a shot, I'm gonna take it because I want to live to be a hug? I'm never gonna die like I told my wife what do I need life insurance for? I'm not gonna die. I would live forever. I'm bulletproof. I thought I was bulletproof. I had it fit real in my left hand three years ago so I'm not bulletproof. I can get injured just like anybody else.

Captain Experiences Well I don't think anyone can catch fish like you. So, you've got that upper hand.

Captain Mike There's some great fish moves out there. There's some great fishing guides. I can tell you a bunch of them right now they can catch a lot of fish. They're good.

Captain Experiences Awesome, Captain Mike. I really appreciate that. That about wraps it up but this was more enjoyable to me. And I hope people who were watching on Facebook, learned something and enjoyed hearing from you this evening. Thanks again and we'll have to do it again soon. This was phenomenal.

Captain Mike I got a phone number if they want to write it down or whatever - 281-507-1933 my sufficient service. I've been doing it for a long time and if and I talked him to Doug Pike show also sometimes and I tell Doug, I said if anybody out there has never but they got to be honest with me never fished saltwater and want to learn it I would knock a hundred dollars off my price they'd take them out wow that sounds like a lot but I will be people to enjoy it. It's the future especially for young kids, bring your kids fishing you get them hooked on fishing not drugs, that's the best thing. But I do appreciate it, thank you for having me on. We can do it again maybe later and I'm going to write you a report here and send it to you about what happened today kind of give you some stuff about, for your website, deal? I really appreciate it and Jonathan you take care and the young lady. Let's meet up. It may be you and Farrah know what she is or whatever what you do but go out and go catch some fish and do a video or something.

Captain Experiences Definitely. Yeah, that'd be great news.

Captain Mike June is a good time to do. They catch a lot of fish in June.

Captain Experiences: Awesome. Let's make it happen. Awesome.

Captain Mike : You just got to go in the middle of the week. Get these people back to work so they start making money. So you start booking trips.

Captain Experiences Yup. let's do it.

Captain Mike Oh. You take care. I’m out here.

Captain Experiences Thanks Captain Mike. Take it easy.

Captain Mike Alright.