Television, Print, Photography...And More!
FishingW/ Capt Wild Bill
AND CONGRATULATIONS TO CAPT WILD BILL AND CREW FOR THEIR RECENT EMMY!!!
Look for the edited story in the October issue of Marsh and Bayou Magazine!!!
BELOW IS THE ENTIRE, UN-EDITED VERSION OF THE MARSH AND BAYOU MAGAZINE ARTICLE! PLEASE CHECK OUT MORE PHOTOS BELOW THE ARTICLE!
While Away Your Time Catchin Fat Trout with Capt Rykert Toledano and While Away Charters in Delacroix...and the Deadliest Catch's Capt Wild Bill makes his first visit to the Louisiana Marsh!
This is a tale of two fishing trips: one, with guest Nick Madden in May and the other in early August with legendary charter fisherman and Bering Sea crab fisherman, and just one plain cool classy gracious cat, and star of the hit Discovery Channel show "Deadliest Catch", F/V Kodiak Capt Wild Bill Wichrowski (www.captwildbill.com) and his son Zack, on their very first trip into our beautiful Louisiana marshes. Both trips took place with Capt Rykert Toledano and While Away Charters.Captain Rykert Toledano of While Away Charters in Delacroix has two day jobs: one as an incredibly good charter captain, the other as a lawyer with his own thriving practice…being a lawyer is his “other day job”.
“I was blessed”, says Capt Toledano, “to have a successful practice, and to have a great partner and other terrific attorneys who have accommodated my fishing schedule…I have always loved fishing down here (In Delacroix) and I always wanted to be a captain. But I wanted to do it right…I wanted the right lodge and custom boat tailored for this kind of fishing”. His boat is a welded aluminum boat custom made for fishing in and around Delacroix.
Boy did he ever get it right!
Chef Nick Madden and I had been trying to fish with Captain Rykert for almost two weeks, but the fishing gods just kept blowing the wind around and we had to keep re-scheduling. The Trout were there, you just couldn’t get to them because of the rough conditions. And this time of year, we are on the cusp of three to four months of prime Trout fishing while the fish spawn and eat all summer long…the fish become easy to find for the trained eye and they are voracious. The constant spawning makes them hungry to replenish the energy used up while making little baby Trout that float into the marsh and, hopefully, become big Trout. Then came a break in the weather and Rykert told us to get down there to his lodge in Delacroix! So we loaded up and headed to his lodge.
As we pulled up, the lightest of breezes wafted through the trees and the marsh that surrounds the lodge. The weather was looking excellent!
We unloaded everything into the While Away lodge, which is super comfortable…Rykert really has thought of anything and everything that an angler could want, from food to TV to a great screened in porch/deck to sleeping in the comfort of central heat and A.C.! And underneath his lodge…it’s almost like his own little bait store. He has a very large tank for live shrimp or croakers, more fish cleaning area, a fridge and freezer…and good tunes to relax to. Rykert has gotten this thing down to a science!!!
Then Rykert told us he had a little lagniappe for us…we were going out for a quick afternoon trip just to check some spots and the water conditions. On both the afternoon trip and our next day trip, we had great current and tide flowing through the marsh.
We started in Baker’s Bay fishing with popping corks with sparkle beetle jigs on. We picked up a few Trout and a couple of Flounder, but it wasn’t fast fishing, the Trout were scattered.
So we picked up and headed to a spot known as Four Corners. Good move. The water was cleaner and the current was moving well. We started catching Trout immediately! The fish just could not resist those sparkle beetles. And they were in the channel, on the edge of a drop off, and they were along the bank. Pretty much any direction we cast to, there were fat Trout ready to eat! By the time the sun started to dip in the West, we had almost our two man limit of fifty fish. Pretty good for a little afternoon lagniappe trip for a couple of hours. And definitely a good omen of things to come!
When we returned to the lodge, we heavily iced the fish to hold them to clean until after the next day’s trip. Then it was dinner time! And Rykert’s full service accommodations showed up again with a meal of grilled catfish with a crawfish cream sauce, crab balls, garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables…a meal fit for a king! And it was as incredible as it sounds, too!
After dinner we sat down in the lodge’s den and watched a little TV and had Rykert tell us a little of how he came to be a captain and a lawyer. His love for the beautiful Delacroix marshes really shines through when he is talking…and his love of catching Speckled Trout!
As we got ready for bed, we discussed the next day’s trip. The plan was to fish inside some, look for birds feeding over shrimp and head to the outside islands looking for some big mule Trout. Sounded good to me and Nick! Rykert went to his room and went to bed while Nick and I watched TV…we were WAY too excited to go to sleep! Plus Nick and I had a crab trap out and were shooting a parody video of “Deadliest Catch”…Capt “Wild Bill” Wichrowski, a featured captain on “Deadliest Catch”, is a friend of mine and will be down here to get his first marsh experience soon and I wanted to video something that would make him and the other “D.C.” captains laugh. It worked; one captain spit Dr. Pepper out of his nose while watching the spoof and laughing.
Before we knew it, it was 4am and Rykert was up and we were heading out into the marsh just as even the faintest hint of light appeared on the horizon.
Our first stop was Pointe Fienne. As it started to get light we had birds feeding on shrimp and were catching fat Trout with popping corks with sparkle beetles under one and live shrimp under the other. The water was flat calm, pretty and had good current flow. By the time the sun started to come over the horizon, we had over twenty big Trout in the box. Not a bad start to the day. We were catching fish under the birds and along the grass. Trout were everywhere! And this year, the Trout, so far, are bigger than usual. Most definitely a good thing! As the sun rose over the calm water of Pointe Fienne, it definitely became one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen.
Now we had been there about an hour when a boat showed up, then another, and then another. This was a hotspot for sure! As it got a little crowded, and with over thirty big Trout in the box, we headed for the outside to try for some big Trout with live shrimp. The wind picked up as we headed for the islands on the edge of Black Bay. We fished Lost Island, Bell Island, Stone Island…but had only a fat Flounder and Black Drum to show for our running around. The heavy winds of the past month had put the fish outside off their feed for a while, it seemed…or we just weren’t holding our mouths right! Either way, it was time to head back into the marshes.
We first went to a spot off of Oak River; an un-named place that Rykert had put the hammer down on the Trout many times before. We picked up a few more fish using both live shrimp and sparkle beetles, but the fish were scattered. We were kept company by a big nine or ten foot alligator that stayed about twenty yards away and just watched us. That big gator seemed to not even care we were there…he was just curious…and that’ll get him in trouble come September alligator season! If any hunters can find their way back to where we were, that is.
Since the fish were scattered, Rykert decided to take us back to Four Corners, our hotspot from the afternoon before. We were within shouting distance of our two man limit of Trout for me and Nick, too!
We pulled into the Four Corners spot around noon. The fish were still there. We caught them on sparkle beetles, and live shrimp, under popping corks and on just a sparkle beetle retrieved at a medium speed. The Trout were all over and around us again. But they were especially thick on the drop-off from the flat to the deep water. We were catching fish almost every cast! And they were good solid big fish, an absolutely incredible size average to these fish! Nick and I had our limits and were now catching and releasing the fish.
A little after 1pm, Rykert called it a day and we headed back to his marina to get started cleaning the fish. Which was a tall order, considering how many Trout Nick and I caught in two days of fishing with Capt Toledano. About two hours later, Rykert had the fish filleted and packaged and our trip was over…way too soon for Nick and me!!! We will be back with Capt Rykert and While Away Charters soon! Rykert covers all the bases and makes the trip incredible!
Capt Wild Bill called me on a Sunday...he was road trippin and drivin straight from Arizona to Louisiana, then to South Florida. I knew I'd have to set him up with a good relaxing 3 days to decompress from his long 29 hour drive. With Wild Bill was his son, and fellow "Deadliest Catch" cast member, Zack, and their friend, videographer and photographer, Abraham Bazua. After their Louisiana stop, they were headed to the Keys to catch a Swordfish...then turn around and head back to Arizona, host a charity event for his cancer charity "Take a Shot at Cancer" then hop a plane to Alaska and start catching Cod and getting ready for another crab season and another season on "Deadliest Catch". So after hanging up with Wild Bill, I knew who to call...Capt Rykert Toledano and While Away Charters down in Delacroix. I think he was just as excited to meet and fish with Wild Bill as I was...and that's saying a lot!
Wild Bill pulled into the While Away Charter's lodge's drive pulling a big and beautiful custom trailer for his "Take A Shot At Cancer", "Wild Bill Enterprises" and "Wild Bill Fishing" excursions and appearances. Wild Bill has all kinds of cool gear available at www.captwildbill.com! Check out his site and join Wild Bill's Fishing Team! Wild Bill has been crabbing the Bering Sea since 1979...and been a captain since 1989...33 years risking his life to catch stuff for us to eat; very tasty stuff! But its all relative, as Wild Bill said, "a hundred foot vessel in 35 foot seas or a twenty foot vessel in 10 foot seas". The biggest wave Wild Bill's seen? Around 60 feet. Imagine that coming towards you...and there's nothing you can do but take it and hope you make it. Some tough people up there on the Bering Sea...much like our own tough people down here! We talked about the BP spill. Wild Bill compared it to the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, "we had a certain amount of oil released and all these years later, you can still dig down in the rocks on the beach and find oil...it killed the Herring fishery up there; down here you just had the oil free flowing into the gulf for so long, so much more than the amount we had...its great to see the water clean down here and the fishing doing well". We talked more about where the remaining oil was, if most of it evaporated or if it rests in the water column or on the bottom somewhere. We both hoped that most of it did just evaporate.
By the time you read this, Wild Bill will be back in Alaska on the F/V Kodiak Cod fishing, then on to the King Crab, which opens in early October. The "Deadliest Catch" will start filming October 15th aboard Wild Bill's crab boat, the F/V Kodiak. New episodes will be on Discovery in April 2012...if anyone sees a black Zulu coconut in the Kodiak's wheelhouse, you now know how he came to get it!
We loaded up and drove to the French Quarter to get some good eats at Felix's and take Abraham and Zack down Bourbon St as this was their first time in NOLA! Then we headed back to Delacroix to get settled in and get ready for the next day's fishing.
Wild Bill, Zack, Rykert, Abraham and I hit it off immediatley...love of fishing will do that! And Wild Bill and company are some of the nicest guys you could ever meet, too! My new nickname, "Cornbread", was bestowed upon me by Wild Bill...and I kinda like it...he also called me Ray Ray like my family does. I think he's some sort of long lost older brother of mine.
We awoke to a strong Westerly wind...not good. Capt Rykert must have taken us to 25 places in Black Bay and Breton Sound that normally would provide limits of Trout at just one stop, but the wind had the fishing tough tough tough. We managed to get a few Trout in the boat and a few Drum and a couple of Flounder. With the wind beating us up, Capt Rykert decided to head in for some Redfish in the marsh. Good choice, we got out of the wind, found some current and pretty quickly put Capt Wild Bill on his first ever Redfish! Zack picked up a Drum...the fishing picked up out of the wind. We fished the Oak River area and also added some more Drum and even a couple of big fat freshwater Blue Catfish. We decided to break for lunch and see if the wind would lay down in the afternoon and give us a chance to get back outside and try for the Trout again.
Around 5pm we headed to a rig out in Black Bay. The wind had lain down and it was a picture perfect afternoon! We started casting live shrimp on the lee side of the rig and got into a few nice Trout. As the cork would drift with the current, along the concrete, the fish were hungry and hitting! We also picked up a big Sheepshead...Wild Bill and the guys tripped out on that human looking mouth/teeth that those fish have.
The fishing was tough all day and it's only because of Capt Rykert's expertise that we managed to get the fish we did...he is a super gracious host and consumate professional who will work his tail off to get you on the fish and teach you a thing or two in the process. He's very very good at providing a memory of a lifetime or two!
As the sun set on another wonderful day in the marsh, we headed back to the lodge to clean up and eat. We were all pretty tired, but not too tired to eat Cajun Smoked Deer Sausage Po-Boys and baked beans...topped off the day perfectly. We all swapped fishin stories after dinner over a couple of beers. Wild Bill's got some good ones from his 33 years crabbin the Bering Sea. I'm sworn to secrecy and aint repeating any of them...but trust me when I say my face hurt the next day from laughing so much!!!
We got a great night's rest...Rykert's place is built with every comfort in mind! The next morning, Wild Bill and company had to get on the road for a long haul to Florida. But before leaving, Wild Bill did something that really showed what kind of guy he is...long drive or not ahead of him, he took the time to drive by a couple of docks and visit with crabbers, shrimpers and other assorted Cajun characters. He took the time to make these guys laugh, show support for the industry and take pictures. Wild Bill is just one classy, laid back guy that is welcome anytime on my boat or at any lodge! This time next year, when we get him back out in the marsh, we are gonna put the hammer down on the Trout, let me tell you!
We were sorry to see Wild Bill and company leave, but Capt Rykert and I now had new lifelong fishing buddies, some great new fishing stories and another trip in the works for next summer. Priceless!
If you want to While Away your time in style, get treated like royalty and have a fishing trip of a lifetime, call Capt Rykert right away and book a trip! No matter how long you have been fishing or if you’re a beginner, you will definitely learn something from Capt Rykert; he loves what he does and loves to impart that knowledge with his customers…he will work hard for you! He books up pretty quick. As the winds settle and the fish start biting outside and get on their batch spawning schedule, the fishing will be red hot from now until October anytime you can get out there! Then the Trout will head back into the marsh for the winter and provide some great fishing on the inside of the marshes! To book your trip of a lifetime with While Away Charters call Capt Rykert Toledano at 985-892-8526 or 985-778-1150! Also look him up on Facebook...search "While Away Charters Delacroix"!
Everyone mark Oct 9th on your calendars and come to the Howlin Wolf in New Orleans for MARSH FEST, featuring the Lost Bayou Ramblers, Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs and Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience with guests Shamarr Allen, Marc Stone and Amanda Walker, plus an appearance by Trapper Joe and Trigger Tommy from the hit History Channel show, "Swamp People"!!! Proceeds from ticket sales and silent auction benefit Louisiana charter captains! Show your FishLove!!!
Ray Huntz is dedicated to promoting Louisiana’s incredible saltwater fisheries and the charter fishing industry and is also the host and producer of “Ray Huntz: Marsh Whisperer”, on the CW NOLA38; new episodes will start in late December. His website is www.rayhuntz.com.
SIDEBAR:
For our tackle, it was pretty simple. Light spinning tackle with ten pound test, tied to a weighted popping cork. Under the popping cork was about 2 feet of seventeen pound test leader tied to either a chartreuse green sparkle beetle or cocahoe, or, tied to a 2/0 or 3/0 hook for live shrimp.
The water temp was around 73 degrees for the May trip and near 90 degrees on the trip with Capt Wild Bill in August with a good tide and current going in and out while fishing. The water was a little stained from all the wind, but on a whole cleaner than we expected. The fish were in all kinds of places from along the grass to flats to shell reefs to drop-offs. We especially looked for big Trout around the reefs and rigs of Black Bay on the August trip. One thing that was constant was good current and finding cleaner water to find the fish.
Zack and his Dad, Capt Wild Bill, day of arrival at While Away Charters Lodge in Delacroix, LA.
Capt Wild Bill with his first Redfish...and a beautiful specimen at that!
Capt Wild Bill needs no help!
Capt Wild Bill and Ray happy with that first Redfish!
Ray and Wild Bill with a fat Black Bay Speckled Trout!
GET YOUR CAPT WILD BILL GEAR (SOME EXAMPLES, T-SHIRT AND COOZIES, SHOWN ABOVE!!!), AND GET IT NOW, AT www.captwildbill.com!!!
Wild Bill, his son Zack, Ray and Capt Rykert in the lodge talkin fishing before the guys hit the road.
Another unique and beautiful sunrise over the Delacroix marsh.
Capt Rykert, Wild Bill and Ray talking fishing in the While Away Lodge before Wild Bill and crew hit the road.
Ray and Wild Bill with another fat Speckled Trout.
Wild Bill and Ray talkin more fishing.
Ray, Wild Bill and Zack in front of Wild Bill's awesome new custom trailer that he's pulling across country.
Ray and Wild Bill after Wild Bill's arrival at the While Away Charters Lodge.
copyright . Ray Huntzicker Outdoors. All rights reserved.
