Deep Sea Fishing

L

LovinTheAtx

250+ Posts
I’m going deep sea fishing in early June with my bf and a bunch of our friends just in time for snapper season. I used to go deep sea fishing a lot growing up, but haven’t been in awhile, so I am in need of some help.

First, what is the best thing to take for motion sickness? I’ve heard to get a patch from your doctor, but does that work well? Also, anyone have recommendations of a good place to get a fishing license with a salt water stamp? I’m about to call Academy, but wasn’t sure if there is a better place.

Any other suggestions would be great. We are going on a 12 hour trip leaving from Port A.
 
I don't get seasick, but I hear Dramamine works great. Academy is as good a place as any to get your license. Wal mart also sells them.
 
you need a fishing license to go deep sea fishing now.
 
I believe as of September 2007 everyone needs a fishing license to fish. You have to have a salt water stamp for deep sea fishing in order to bring the fish back to shore.

Thanks for the advice so far.
hookem.gif
 
fyi - snapper tastes good but is really pretty booring fishing. If it is a must, consider a few hours of snapper fishing, then some sport fishing for dorado, wahoo, even king fish on light tackle, etc.

as for motion sickness -- don't drink beer and take a dramamine the night before and in the morning, or use the patch. Either way, I really find that those that have issues will get sick will no matter what they take.
 
Leave the dock hydrated, ginger in any form is great, crackers are good, avoid greasy food, watch the horizon, stay on deck, stay away from the diesel fumes and if you use scopes, drams or bonine, take one before bed and one an hour before you leave. Even the best can chum in the worst of situations.
 
Forget all the heresay about motion sickness solutions. NASA studies have shown that there is only one effective solution and that is Transderm Scop patches. Therefore, they're used by astronauts since motion sickness is a problem in space, too. Readily available with a prescription. Before using Scop patches my son and I would get seasick with any of the OTC solutions. Tried them all and only marginal improvement at best. Since using Scop patches I've never gotten sick and he's only gotten mildly sick once at the end of a very wild ride in a storm.
 
If I'm not mistaken, charter fishing operations have licensure that covers all the persons on board, no?
...They are priced based upon the size of boat / # of people it can fit.

For the straight skinny:

Texas Parks & Wildlife Information

(800) 792-1112 (toll-free) or (512) 389-4800 — 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Closed Saturday, Sunday and most holidays.

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Thank you all for the advice. I’m not too worried about getting sick since I’ve only gotten sea sick once while fishing, but I want to take the precautions along with the others in our group. It’s not too attractive or fun to be hanging over the side of a boat getting sick, so I appreciate the help.

I found out this morning that we will all have to get fishing licenses, but we can get a one day licenses before getting on the boat. Anyone getting on the boat must have this license with the salt water stamp to fish and bring the fish back onto shore. Again, I think this is relatively new (Sept. 2007), but this what I was told by both the company I’m using and Texas Parks and Wildlife.

We will limit our beer drinking to the night we get back now as well.
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I’ll try to post some pics of my catches when I get back in June. I’d like to get some snapper, but I do want to fish for things other than snapper as well.


hookem.gif
 
And most chartes make you barf overboard and not let you use their bathrooms. And remember to stay upwind of that person.
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I was too lazy in my post to add -- eating light and staying hydrated, as others have stated, are important too.
 
Just take the night trip to avoid the heat and dehydration.
 
I get deathly seasick, from the two deep sea fishing trips I went on as a teen. Never went back. However, now that I am into bird watching, I feel compelled to go out on a "pelagic" birdwatching trip, which is the same trip as gulf deep sea fishing, without the fish.
I researched this extensively, and the tips you got are good-don't eat Mexican food for a day beforehand, hydrate well, don't drink, get a good night's sleep.
The patch is good, but there is one thing better. The active ingredient in the patch is scopolomine. The patch releases scopolomine into your system, but it can be uneven in the amount it releases. So it is better to go to your doctor and get a prescription for scopolomine tablets. That's what I did, and I tried taking one on a weekend to see if it made me drowsy or had any other side effects.
I couldn't tell any effect, but pain killers and such don't seem to effect me the way they do some people, so you should try it out first. I didn't get seasick either, at home. But I haven't got on a boat yet-one of these days I will get up enough nerve to try it.
I think you take the pill a few hours before boarding, and it lasts 8 or 10 or 12 hours, so you might have to take a second one after the trip is half over.
There are websites that discuss seasickness, and I read several-do your own research, but I don't think you will find a better recommendation.
 
Just talked to a charter Cpt. yesterday and was told schoplomine or motioneze. The last is supposedly what "armed forces" ie navy are doing these days. Never heard of it so at this point I'm just passing along word of mouth. Maybe a navy guy can chime in about this?
 
Ah yes.... I still fondly remember vomitting for about 8 of the 12 hours we went out a few years back. Of course drank like a fish the night before, and got oh.... 4-1/2 hours sleep or less. Unfortunately didn't know that I should eat or at least nibble and pretty much dry heaved most of the afternoon. Never stopped fishing of course, but a lot of the folks were mortified and fascinated by my gagging dry heaves as I kept relling them in.

Next trip was several years later and I chartered a party boat for a group. Went to bed with clear skies and no breeze, woke up the palms were bending and the seas were 6-8. We were the only party boat that went out that day because we had already paid. One poor guy started puking less than a mile past the jetties. Never even dipped a line.

I actually got a conditioned response gag reflex the second the Diesel started up and I felt the vibration and smelled the fumes. gathered my senses and held on until late in the afternoon before puking. Wanted to puke for about 4 hours, but no way was I going to puke before the 'old man of the sea" who "never gets sick after his week on a shimp boat did. As soon as he finally tossed his cookies I looked at him and said thank God, and hurled off the edge of the boat...

have fun and good luck!
 
you can get a day/week license and stamp at the marina wherever you're going.

as for sea sickness, have you always gotten sick or you're just concerned you will? i've always been on the "mind-over-matter" with sea sickness. got really sick one time and it will never happen again.

good luck on your trip.
 
Hands down, BONINE. Recommended by a pharmacists a time back, used to use dramamine, but it always made me very drowsy.

BTW, knock on wood, I've never been sea sick.

-Derek
 
Once you are back on terra firma, you can say there were worse things, but while you are out there in the deep water, you can really and truly wish you were dead instead of feeling that badly.
 
I just got back from my fishing trip this weekend. The seas weren’t too bad, but it was a bit rough going out. Plus we had a bad current issue when we were trying to fish, so more than half the boat was pretty sick.

I, on the other hand, felt great. I ended up getting the Transderm Scop patch from my doctor. It was the best $10 I ever spent. I felt fine. The worst side effect was dry mouth, but that was easy to cure. I didn’t even feel sick once, even though I kept loosing my balance and running into things.

Our group caught our limit of Red Snapper plus some other kinds of fish. All and all, I can have a nice fish fry to show off my efforts. Plus, I had a great time with my group (the ones who didn’t get sick). I surprised myself on how much I really got into it.

So I would highly recommend getting the patch if anyone gets even remotely motion sickness.

Thanks for all the help!
 
I really didn’t get too drowsy at all with the patch. It is hard to tell exactly since I only had about 4 hours of sleep the night before, but I was pretty alert the whole time.

I put the patch on the night before, and didn’t have a hard time getting up at 4 am the next day. The only time I was sleepy was on the ride back into shore. I was pretty exhausted though from fishing and the sun, so that could have been why.

But trust me, the patch is worth it. It was so nice to close my eyes on the way back and enjoy the ride instead of feeling sick.
 
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