Great fishing in NOLA!….NOT!

In the weeks prior to this trip, I’m not sure if I was more excited about the fishing or the delicious meals we were going to have. We were booked for 4 nights which meant 4 good dinners at 4 different restaurants. It didn’t quite work out that way, more on that later….

We stepped out of Louis Armstrong Airport to feel 80 degree temps with some humidity. The boys said “Dad, I thought you said it was going to be cold?” I said nothing but I SHOULD have said “Just wait until tomorrow!”

The forecast for the next day called for high winds and a high of 62 degrees. A 20 degree drop in air temp and stiff wind will surely shut the fishing off. That’s what I was thinking to myself but I texted our Capt. and asked him what the plan is for tomorrow. He said the winds will be too high in the morning but the forecast called for decreasing wind though out the day. He said he would pick us up at our hotel at 10am. I though for sure he would cancel but who am I?, he knows this situation better than me right? Well we got to the marsh by 11:20am and it was blowing. Tough to see fish let alone cast to fish. We called it quits early (3pm) and headed back to dock. Wasted day! We should have canceled.

The next 2 days was similar. Windy and mostly cloudy which made for tough conditions. We had 2 maybe 3 good shots at fish in 3 days. It made for long days sitting in the boat even though we called it quits early for all 3 days. You know the old saying about beating a dead horse… that sums it up well for us. Another sum for us was ZERO fish for a 3 day guided fishing trip. I don’t think that has ever happened to me before. First time for everything I guess.

Looking on the bright side, we had amazing meals! Right after we checked into our hotel on our first day, we walked straight over to Felix’s. This was 3:15 in the afternoon. We ordered 2 dozen charbroiled and 1 dozen raw and an order of “crab fingers” which are basically small crab claws. We devoured all of it in a short period of time and then walked straight to Acme Oyster Co. across the street. There was a line forming there at 3:45 in the afternoon!! Crazy.

We were seated at the very back of a FULL restaurant. As soon as I sat down a gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and asked “Are you Meng?” I said “No I’m Wayne” but I recognized him from his Facebook posts. It was Glenn Ueda. A well known fisherman extraordinaire from SoCal. We have some mutual friends and it was great to finally meet him face to face. Out of all the places we could have sat, we were seated at the same table as him. Out of all the places we could have eaten at, we chose Acme at that particular time. Small world.

He was in NOLA fishing with Greg Moon and had some success. His guide canceled his trip on the day we should have. We should NOT have gone out.

Now to the food….We ordered 2 dozen charbroiled, 1 dozen raw and some crab fingers. Sound familiar? We wanted to do a direct comparison. Verdict….. the boys liked the Acme charbroiled a little better because it’s loaded with cheese. I’m not a huge cheese guy so I thought Felix’s was way better. Still the best charbroil oysters I’ve had. The crab fingers at Felix’s was also much better.

After fishing the next day we were very hungry and since the Saints game had just ended, the French Quarter was packed with people and all of the restaurants had long waits. Felix’s was close and there was a shorter line so we ate there again. Two dozen charbroiled and 2 dozen raw plus a couple Po boys. Great meal.

Night 3 we had reservations at Revolution. I ate there with Melanie, Meng and Gina a few years back and it was our favorite restaurant on that trip. It is a top ten restaurant in our book. We sat down at our table and the waitress kindly asked where we are from. I said Northern California. She said “Oh my husband is from Northern California too. A town called Chico”. OMG really? We talked about that for awhile. Small world.

Back to the food. I ordered the seared scallops with seared foie gras on top. I have never had foie gras before. One bite of that and I could not believe my taste buds. It was fantastic. The boys had great meals too so of all the places we had to choose from for our 4th and final dinner in NOLA, we went back to Revolution!

I had the scallops again, Michael had fish and Matthew had the duck. ANOTHER great meal.

We had to fly out the next day but not until 4pm so we slept in a bit and headed to Daisy Dukes for breakfast. Nice place but not quite as good as Jimmy J’s.

We had to leave for the airport at 1pm so at Noon we all decided to eat at Felix’s one last time for lunch! You guessed it, 2 dozen charbroiled and 1 dozen raw! Along with 2 plates of crab fingers. We savored every last morsel knowing it will be a long while before we get food like this again. What a great finishing touch to 5 days of culinary bliss.

Yes the fishing was downright terrible for us but the food made up for it. Sitting at the airport waiting for the plane, the boys said it was a fun trip even though we didn’t catch anything. Then they commented on the meals. We all agreed it overshadowed the bad fishing.

No NOLA next year for the boys. They will be on the Varsity basketball team next year and there is practice and scrimmages through out Thanksgiving week. It will be awhile before they go back I think. For me, I have no plans on going with out the boys unless a great CE class or conference  comes up and is held there. Crossing my fingers!

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