I was answering another pipe Forum thread on smoking on a cruise ship when it morphed into vacations that were very good and I remembered this one when I was in my 30s around Grand Island LA.workers night fishing off of Timbalier Island. My 2 buddies were used to expensive charter trips, I knew the area and convinced them to do a po boy trip. That afternoon we were cruising in a 24 ft open fisherman I spied a Spud barge, comeing alongside I hailed the Capt and asked him if he needed some beer, 2 six packs got us use of the engine room to sleep in until 1 am where we would scout the little rigs for red fish. It was nippy, we dumped rag boxes by the Diesel engines and listened to the hum of the engines. 1 AM came and we were off, the Capt and deckhand asked to go, climb aboard was our answer. The Capt told me of a rig that was leaning and barge after barge of shells were dumped to stop the leaning. That night the condition we encountered was a rare phorous glow, plankton that made the fish look like neon signs, the shells had made the rig alive with red fish. We fished till 4 AM, catching our limit and seeing a light show people rarely see. We put the boat on the trailer by an old bait shop and a young girl in a beat up truck was selling crabs, 10$ a dozen, my buddies tried to bargain her down to 5$ I shamed them as I knew the life of the fisherman was hard, she said they were trying to pay off the grocery bill at the little store. We bought crabs at 10$ a doz, before we left I went in the store and asked the owner about the young girl. He said she had just got married and was havering a hard time . I asked about her bill, it was a little over 200$, I gave him 300$ and told him to wipe her bill off . I made him tear it up, and give her credit for the rest. Going back to Baton Rouge I was at peace with myself as I knew how life slips you in the crack. Always wondered about the look on her face when she found out the bill was paid.
