re: What are some memories from your young vacations to Grand Isle and other Louisiana areas?

Caught a hard head while surf fishing at around 13 years old (summer of '94?). It came off the hook at my feet and I attempted to kick it back into the water. Fin went through my beach shoes, through my pinkie toe, and out the other side of my beach shoes. Had to reach down and pull it out of my foot. Limped around the rest of the trip. I still love the island and take my family as often as I can.

Getting pulled over on the way out there they said us kids didn’t have seat belts on, we were sleeping, my dads friends boat needing a beer can hub to make it, going to far out on a raft with my sister and grandma age 5&7 seeing dolphins and realizing the shore was very far away… man just the taste of salt water and the camp my dad and his friends put up, fishing at 5am and I could go on forever… one day I’ll be back

Sleeping in parents van on fourchon beach and filling up 3 ice chest of trout and redfish

We spent many a summer at ponchatoula campgrounds. They had a nice beach area with a platform in the middle of the river you could jump off. To the left the river narrowed in you could ride a canoe, to the right it widened and got deeper so you could water ski. They also had a pontoon boat that pulled inter tubes behind it for about a 30 minute ride.

-10yo me catching a shark at Queen Bess
-Filling the ice chest with reds and sheepshead at El Cid
-Finding a mess of white trout behind some rocks and catching more than we could clean
-Finding turkey necks on the beach and catching a dozen crabs on a string
-Trying to surf on a styrofoam board
-Hitting golf balls into the gulf from the beach
-Flounder gigging the surf at night

Surf fishing in the morning. Catching specks. My grandfather had a store on Grand Isle.

salt crust before dawn on the boat left in the slip overnight.
cool May mornings with dad dragging a trawl for bait or food if we caught enough
after lunch...beach with mom to scope crabs
Sundown...bridge fishing with pawpaw

if not shrimp season.
dawn in the surf- fishing
repeat above

Every summer weekend for a year or 2 till the camp got destroyed by a hurricane.

Also cast netted a bunch of shrimp off of Highway 1 on the way down to the island in the fall.

I miss the salt crust on the boat...the smells of salt air. haven't experienced that since katrina.

Friend,

I spent a summer of my youth in Grand Isle and am working on a Top 10 memories of Grand Isle as we speak! God works in mysterious ways. But here is a brief run through foreshadowing. Pirates Cove in Uncle's Viking during the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo 1998. Shrimp platters at Sarah's Diner and pizza at Starfish. Crabbing on the beach. Speckled trout limits wade fishing at the rocks. Sitting on the docks at Pirate's Cove drinking a lemon lime Slush Puppie. Cousin getting a speeding ticket in downtown Grand Isle and then talking his way out of it. Grocery shopping at the big grocery (Sureway?). Fishing off the pier in the State Park. Church services in Our Lady of the Isle. Going out in a flatboat to fish Barataria Pass one night and getting stuck in a shrimper's net. Exploring Fort Livingston with Cousin on a rained out trip. Limiting on reds in the canals along Highway 1 when the Viking had mechanical problems. Hanging out with the fish cleaners at Pirates Cove and learning how to filet fish from them. Handing out Bibles to people entering and exiting Artie's Bar. Getting struck by a stingray while crabbing and some lady on the beach offering to urinate on the wound. So many more memories!



Yours,
TulaneLSU

What's what the klan pic, man?