Big Easy Boating

The boat bounced softly on the waves as we tossed out the crab nets near Southern Scrap's collection yard by Seabrook, in the shadows of the New Orleans skyline.

I accompanied my college roommate and two friends from LSU out on Lake Pontchartrain and the nearby waterways on Sunday to culminate what was my first really big weekend here in the Big Easy, which included trips to Port of Call, F & M Patio Bar and several other bars I've already told you about. But barhopping isn't the only activity for a college intern or young professional here. I've found ways to keep myself busy.

NEW ORLEANS WATERWAYS
I got an invitation one Sunday to go fishing with my roommate Brandon and friends Kyle and Paul, so I drove out to Metairie to meet them and get everything ready. I've lived on some form of coastline for 19 of my 21 years, so the presence of water is pretty crucial to my daily existence. I have missed the Coast since I've been in New Orleans, but there's plenty of water here with the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.

Loaded with turkey necks, crab necks, rods, reels and other supplies, we dropped off the truck at Seabrook boat launch and headed out (actually, technically we headed in, toward the river down the Intercoastal Waterway. The small but durable boat wasn't much bigger than a skiff, and it bounced firmly off the wakes of other boats, but it got the job done. I'm no fan of train tracks or bridges, especially going under them by boat, but I had no choice or time to object as our suicidal captain slipped just underneath a lowered train bridge. The top of my head was literally less than two feet from a rolling train.

After surviving my brush with death, we came upon the Southern Scrap docks, maneuvering our way through small spaces between derelict casino barges and shrimp boats and laying our crab traps. It gave me my first feeling that I was indeed in a huge city, because it had as yet just seemed so small to me. But I felt like I was at the docks in some big-city crime drama as the silhouettes of New Orleans' hotels and office buildings watched silently, because it was so isolated. And it felt really great.

In keeping with the current blue crab shortage, we would be unsuccessful in our crabbing efforts. But Brandon checked some traps he had previously dropped and we had a good haul, half of which I would take home and boil myself. Blue crabs have been a mainstay in my coastal experience since my childhood in Charleston, S.C., so I have a deep appreciation for good crab cooking. As a novice, I think I did a respectable job!

We abandoned crabbing for fishing and were just as unsuccessful, though Paul brought in two HUGE flounder. I have never seen flounder so big; he caught them at the edge of a manufacturing plant further down a river outlet. Only one made it to the frying pan though, as the other snapped the line just before I could grab a net. But it was a great day of fishing. At the end of our trip, we just motored down the outlet and deep into the swamp in search of an old fort. We found it, but at what cost? The tide was low and the boat was stuck! We pushed our way out, though, and made it back alive.

I hadn't been out on the water in too long, so it was a wonderful weekend. Because I went so in-depth about this trip, I'll make this a three-part series and touch on the other fun things to do in New Orleans in my next post.