Brown Water Banter

Captain Cole Ganey of Reel Therapy Charters joins us to talk about life on B-Block, running a 36-foot Topaz out of Biloxi, and what it takes to build a charter business from the ground up.

Cole got his captain's license as soon as he turned 18, went through sea school in Bayou La Batre, and has been in the charter game for 11 years. He started out deckhanding on mackerel and shark trips, worked his way up through the Biloxi fleet, ran the Silver Dollar for three seasons, and is now in his second summer on his own big boat.

🎣 Born and raised on the Mississippi Gulf Coast — his first saltwater fishing came as a teenage deckhand out of Zeke's Marina in Orange Beach
🚤 Runs two boats — a 36-foot Topaz with twin Cummins 450s (AC, bathroom, and a cabin for hungover bachelor parties) and a 21-foot NauticStar for inshore trips
⚓ Holds a federal red snapper permit — his favorite trip is the six-hour snapper run, but he also fishes amberjack, sheepshead, mangrove snapper, and sharks
🦈 The day a big shark got tangled in the prop behind a shrimp boat — and Cole grabbed his goggles and went over the side to free the line
⛽ Diesel at $5.50 to $6 a gallon is brutal — filling 350 gallons runs over $2,000, and he says he'd have more in the bank if he'd stopped running trips after July
🎯 Sharks and barracudas are eating anglers alive on amberjack trips — the worst he's ever seen it offshore
🐟 Strong opinions on sheepshead: self-regulates at 20 per boat and calls out cast-netters who roll up with zero respect and wipe out entire piles day after day
🎉 The B-Block dock party is becoming an annual tradition — planned for the weekend before federal snapper season opens June 1st
💩 Best charter story: a grandfather on his last fishing trip who didn't quite make it to the side of the 21-foot boat in time — five-gallon bucket cleanup and all
🔧 The Reel Therapy name is a nod to his dad, Keith Ganey, a physical therapist — and the big boat is the Reel Deal

Book a trip at biloxideepsea.com or find Reel Therapy Charters on Facebook and Instagram.

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The man who started it all — Woody Bailey — joins us alongside Joe Spraggins, Executive Director of the Mississippi DMR, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Cruisin' the Coast (October 4–11, 2026) and talk about the big Mississippi Gulf Seafood partnership fueling this year's event.

🚗 How Cruisin' the Coast was born from a group of business people and casino execs brainstorming ways to extend tourism past Labor Day — and how hot air balloons almost made the cut

📈 From 374 registered vehicles in 1996 to 10,334 last year — with pre-registration already 802 ahead of last year's pace and 42 states plus five countries signed up

💰 The 2021 economic impact study showed $36.1 million statewide — and a new study is coming this year to measure how much the event has grown since then

🎤 Jay Leno returning to Beau Rivage, first-ever appearance by Dave Kindig and KevDogg of Kindig-It Design, a celebrity autograph session at Beau Rivage on Wednesday, and a patriotic fireworks show with Bag of Donuts at Hollywood

🔥 Flame throwing event moves to IP on Tuesday night, burnout event in Pass Christian on Thursday, Pete Vicari's auction at the Coliseum, and the Block Party at Town Green

🦐 Mississippi Gulf Seafood is the presenting sponsor — Joe Spraggins and crew will be boiling fresh Gulf shrimp at Jones Park and Town Green, giving out samples that have people lining up before the pots even open

🦪 Oyster season opens early on October 1st instead of November, giving Mississippi oystermen a head start before Texas, Louisiana, and the East Coast open up

📊 The oyster comeback is real — from zero harvest in 2019 after the Bonnet Carré Spillway opening, to 8,400 sacks, then 50,000, and now 120,000+ sacks available this season with over 400,000 harvestable sacks in the Mississippi Sound

🏷️ A $9 million, five-year marketing campaign to push the new Mississippi Gulf Seafood logo — restaurants serving mostly domestic seafood earn the logo for their doors and menus, with labeling telling customers exactly what's imported vs. domestic

🥃 Cruisin' the Coast Bourbon at Pass Christian Bottle Shoppe — 100 bottles a day, with last year's winning car on the label and a bourbon barrel giveaway

🎰 Mississippi Lottery scratch-off tickets featuring Cruisin' the Coast cars — including a certain 1983 C10 with some personal history

🏆 Seven consecutive years named the best car show in the country in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards

🎣 Red snapper weekends still rolling, a fight for more allocation heading to Tampa, and the Sheepshead Showdown is set for October 24th — registration is live now

Also big thanks to our sponsors:
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⛵ The Hobie 16 International Championship is coming to the Ocean Springs Yacht Club — and Sandy and Mark join us to break down everything you need to know about this once-in-a-lifetime event hitting the Mississippi Gulf Coast September 13-25.

🌊 What exactly is a Hobie 16? A 16-foot beach catamaran that can hit 25 knots with two people aboard - one design class, strict rules on modifications, and a worldwide racing community that goes back to 1976 in Honolulu

🏆 This is the first-ever BYOB (Bring Your Own Boat) Hobie 16 international event - historically, brand new factory-supplied boats were provided at world championships, but logistics and cost changed the game

🌍 Sailors from around the world are heading to Ocean Springs - the first week features domestic competitors, the second week goes global, with 88 boats registered across both weeks

📍 Racing happens between Front Beach and Deer Island on triangular courses roughly a mile and a half square - up to 40 boats launching at once, races running about 40 to 45 minutes each

🏝️ The Horn Island Raid on September 18th sends the fleet out to Horn Island under matching custom sails - spectators can follow along in their own boats for a massive photo op and beach barbecue

🎉 Two full weeks of land-side entertainment including a jambalaya cook off, a live concert, pub crawl through downtown Ocean Springs, trivia night, and a seafood boil hosted by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources

🍽️ The week one awards dinner is at Gulf Hills Hotel with Salute catering the regatta, and closing night moves to the seafood museum with Brooms Catering handling the food

🍻 Chandeleur Brewing and Fly Llama are doing tastings, there's a tequila sampling, and a brand new cocktail menu called "Sipping the SEC" featuring signature drinks from eight college towns

🏠 The Ocean Springs Yacht Club is opening its doors to the public during the event - no cover charge, come watch, eat, shop merchandise, and mingle with sailors from around the world

⚓ The yacht club currently has a 100-125 person waiting list for membership and has invested heavily in property upgrades including expanded decks, new landscaping, and renovated bathrooms to prepare for the global spotlight

🎯 Mark's journey from 120-pound crew member in 1986 to principal race officer running international events - including three straight North American championships and sailing in the Pan American Games

👉 Get all the details at osyc.com and follow the Ocean Springs Yacht Club on Facebook for updates on this historic event

Also big thanks to our sponsors:
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Fisheries Management: From the Cod Collapse to Amberjack

🎣 From centuries of "endless" cod to modern-day fisheries collapse — how we got here and what it means for Gulf fishing today.

Trevor from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and Dr. Marcus Drymon from Mississippi State University join us to break down the history of fisheries management and why it matters to every angler on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

🐟 The rise and fall of Atlantic cod — how a "limitless" resource lost 92% of its biomass and reshaped fisheries policy forever

🔬 Why fishery independent surveys are critical, and how one bad data signal can crash an entire management system

🎯 The recreational fishing boom is creating blind spots that stock assessments weren't built to handle

🦁 Lionfish, king mackerel, and red snapper — why an invasive predator wrecks a system it didn't evolve in, and what the Mexican landings data says about our kings

📚 The FISHES course at Mississippi State — 10 chapters online at your own pace, October 1 through November 5, a free textbook Marcus wrote himself, and an offshore excursion setting long lines for sharks

Register for FISHES here — registration is open through September 24.

The parallels between the cod collapse and what's happening with amberjack and gag grouper right now are impossible to ignore.

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You Can Sleep Where Barq's Root Beer Was Invented | Biloxi, MS

Terese Nicovich and Thomas Quave join us to share the incredible true story behind one of the most iconic brands ever born on the Mississippi Gulf Coast — Barq's root beer — and the historic Biloxi building where it all started.

🥤 How a French-educated flavor chemist left New Orleans for Biloxi in the 1890s and turned an artesian water bottling operation into a root beer empire
🧱 The original bottling house on Keller Avenue — where every bottle was hand-filled and hand-capped from 1898 to 1936
🚢 Supplying shrimp boat schooners with fresh water and handmade pasta before root beer took off
🏅 The Barq family's earlier creation Orangine, an orange drink that won a gold medal at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair
🐴 A wild family story about a 10-year-old delivering root beer by wagon as far as Vancleave — and barely outrunning a hurricane on the old wooden Back Bay Bridge
📦 How Barq's pioneered the 12-ounce bottle in the 1930s, using clear bottles sourced from the Fabacher brewing family in New Orleans
🏠 The five-year restoration of the original 1800s bottling house after Hurricane Zeta nearly knocked it down — preserving original wood, hand-forged hardware, and even the bricks from the original foundation
🛏️ Three suites named after the Barq granddaughters, a loft with a private balcony hot tub, and original family furniture throughout
🧈 Plans for breakfast service, small private events, monthly free tours, and even school field trips to keep Barq's history alive for the next generation
📱 The Birthplace of Barq's Bed and Breakfast is targeting opening within 60 to 90 days — follow their Facebook page and call to get penciled in for reservations

Follow The Birthplace of Barq's Bed & Breakfast here

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A location scout knocked on Savannah's door in high school and handed her a card. She thought it was sketchy and almost threw it away. Her mom made the call — and less than a week later, producers from LA were walking through their house in Biloxi scouting a Nicolas Cage movie.

Savannah and Dalton from Little Lighthouse Productions join us to talk about building a production company from the ground up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and what it actually takes to work in film without leaving the state.

In this episode:

- How a stand-in role on the set of Arsenal — with Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, and Adrian Grenier — turned a high schooler with zero camera experience into a filmmaker
- Dalton's path from computer science and boilermaking into audio work, and leaving the nine-to-five in February to go full time
- What a real film set looks like: focus pullers, boom ops, grips, gaffers, and three cameras rolling nonstop
- Savannah's work with NFL Films — selected for their women's sports film program, then nine documentary shoots across last season, Hard Knocks and 30 for 30 style
- Shooting the Peacock series Road to the Show on Jesús Made, the Biloxi Shuckers shortstop who is now the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball
- Working on HGTV's Hometown in Laurel and Love and Fairhope in Alabama
- Creating Gulf Coast Real Estate (R-E-E-L) with Travis Page — part travel show, part real estate marketing
- Why audio matters more than video, and how a $35 Hollyland mic changes everything
- Mississippi's film tax incentives, the Film Mississippi crew registry, and why more local crew means more productions coming here
- The Mississippi Film Alliance — grants, mentorship, and the upcoming film summit in Jackson at MPB
- Gear progression from DSLRs and iPhones to Sony FX 30s and FX 6s
- Do you need film school? Honest advice for breaking in on the Gulf Coast in 2026

Whether you're a local business looking for professional video, an aspiring filmmaker, or just curious what goes on behind the scenes — this one's worth the listen.

Little Lighthouse Productions
(228) 861-2495
littlelighthouseproductions.com
@littlelighthouseproductions on Instagram and Facebook

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🔥 From a 10x10 tent to a brick-and-mortar joint on Government Street — this is how Salt & Sand BBQ built a barbecue business in Ocean Springs.

Chris Horton, Shelby Horton, and Emmanuel Brown of Salt & Sand BBQ join us to break down the climb from tailgate cookouts to competition wins to a full-service pit and catering operation.

🥩 Chris met his wife at a barbecue competition in 1994, stepped away from cooking when his kids were young, and got pulled back in feeding the Ocean Springs High football team under the oak trees after Friday night games

🏆 The first competition he entered after that layoff, he and Frank Crochet took grand champion — he's since finished third out of 67 teams in ribs at the Shed Showdown, and he was headed to the Rib Rumble the weekend we recorded

♨️ He runs an Old Hickory gas-assist pit on pecan and cooks brisket hot at 300° instead of low and slow, going by probe tender instead of the clock — plus the biscuit test, why the point faces the heat, and what he does with the trimmings

🎓 Shelby and Emmanuel both hold culinary degrees and came up through the Beau Rivage, bringing espresso brownies, Dubai chocolate cheesecake, and the king cake cobbler that won Best King Cake in Ocean Springs

💒 15 weddings on the books through April, catering inquiries landing daily, and a 24 to 48 hour turnaround — the catering side may end up bigger than the restaurant

📈 Less than a year in at 2335 Government Street, they've been featured in South Mississippi Living and just picked up their beer permit, with covered outdoor seating and football season specials coming next

Don't sleep on this crew.

Salt & Sand BBQ
🌐 https://saltandsandbbqco.com
📍 2335 Government St, Ocean Springs, MS
📱 https://www.facebook.com/p/Salt_and_Sand_BBQ-100089080817955/

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Brought to you by:
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This week on Brown Water Banter, it's a double feature as two homegrown tackle companies pull up to the studio to talk shop, share their stories, and show off what they've been building from the ground up.

🔧 Trey and Sam from 2 Rednecks Fishing Tackle join us to break down how a shed in the country, a YouTube education, and a whole lot of trial and error turned into a full soft plastics and hand-tied jig operation — complete with custom CNC-cut molds, a CAD-designed jig head that took a year and a half to develop, and colors engineered around how fish actually see (pink looks like silver to trout — who knew?)

🎨 From the swamp twister to the dock runner to the unreleased color-shift "burple" bait that still doesn't have a name — the product lineup is deep and growing

🦌 Every cobia jig is hand-tied with natural deer hair, snelled with Mustad hooks, and built because store-bought versions kept breaking on legal fish — three in a row at the boat

🏪 Originally online-only at rftackle.com, they've since expanded into Nelson Outdoors, Shore Thing Outdoors, and Lonesome Pine Outfitters in Grand Bay — with more stores on the way

🐱 Sean and Justin Wedgeworth from Wedgeworth Fishing Gear hop in next with a freshwater-first approach built around limb lines, bank poles, and noodle fishing — all born from not being able to find the gear they wanted anywhere on the market

🪝 Double-rig limb lines with 300-pound mono, snelled Whisker Seeker hooks, glow-in-the-dark beads, and a five-gallon-bucket storage system that keeps everything tangle-free and ready to fish

🐊 They've pulled up everything from 34-pound flatheads to eight-foot alligators on the Tchoutacabouffa and Biloxi Rivers — and once caught a blue cat and a gator on the same double rig at the same time

🧒 The noodle setup is a family favorite — five feet of line, a circle hook, a piece of chicken breast, and kids chasing bobbing pool noodles down the river like a water Easter egg hunt

📦 Currently stocked at See the Swamp, Foul Play Outdoors, Bindale Feed, and Knights Outdoors in Alabama — with big 10- and 12-foot bank poles now in stock that you can't find anywhere else this side of the Mississippi River

💬 Both crews talk the reality of bootstrapping a tackle business — self-funded, no loans, full-time day jobs, learning margins and retail on the fly, and figuring out social media one forgotten memory card at a time

Also big thanks to our sponsors:
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Taylor and Cox Law Firm
Forever Young Men's and Women's Health
Ensured Roofing
Mike's Stickers
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Scott and Mandy from Red Radio Productions join us to talk about their journey from a living room podcast to landing a streaming deal with WLOX — and everything in between.

🎶 How a late-night walk down Government Street in Ocean Springs sparked the idea to create a platform for original music on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

🎙️ Starting the Red Radio Facebook page around 2017, filming bands in the living room during COVID — masks and all — and building from there with help from Mitchell Gruich and a set of webcams

🏠 Why their living room is invite-only (and has been nominated as one of the best live music venues on the coast)

🎪 What Red Radio After Dark actually is — a modern Vaudeville experience with live music, comedy, burlesque, crowd participation games, and a diaper gag that somehow keeps killing

🥁 How Scott's cover band  Doctor Zarr's Amazing Funk Monster takes them across the region — from Memphis to the Delta — while Mandy networks and scouts original talent in every city they hit

🎸 Artist support as the core mission — giving bands a produced EPK, introducing them to new audiences, and helping acts like Daniel House and Jupiter Pilot get that springboard

📺 The big announcement: Red Radio is building a six-episode pilot season for WLOX's revamped streaming service — airing after the 10 o'clock news on Friday nights starting September 4th, with a 20-episode season planned for next year

📱 How to watch — through the WLOX News app's live stream and on-demand section, with extended and unfiltered versions living on their YouTube channel

🎯 The long game — national syndication is the next goal, and the South is alive with original music that deserves the spotlight

🤘 Upcoming events teased including a vampire ball on October 30th, a circus-themed After Dark at the Merry Widow on August 28th featuring analog missionary, and the return of Pickers and Poets

💬 Real talk about the grind of running a two-person operation, why they chose not to go nonprofit, and the balance between artistic vision and logistical reality

Also big thanks to our sponsors:
Southern Magnolia Smiles
Taylor and Cox Law Firm
Forever Young Men's and Women's Health
Ensured Roofing

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Captain Zach Courtney from ChEnected Charters joins us to talk all things offshore fishing out of Mary Walker Marina in Gautier, Mississippi. From his freshwater roots in Brandon to chasing 200-pound yellowfin tuna in a 25-foot Sea Hunt, Zach breaks down how he built his charter business from the ground up and why he's all-in on blue water fishing out of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

🎣 How growing up bass fishing on an 18-acre lake and making trips to Ship Island as a kid eventually led to a full-blown case of "yellow fever" for yellowfin tuna

⛽ Running a 25-foot Sea Hunt with 140 gallons of fuel to Ram Powell and barely making it back — and the time his Invincible ran dry three miles south of Petti Bois with a 202-pound tuna on board

🧪 The chemical engineering degree from Ole Miss (after playing football at East Mississippi Community College) and how that background shaped the name Connected Charters

🗺️ Why Mary Walker Marina is perfectly positioned for offshore runs — from snapper on the triple rigs to tuna at Ram Powell, Horn Mountain, and even south of the Mississippi River with the Venice fleet

📡 How Hilton's satellite imaging platform is worth its weight in gold for reading chlorophyll, currents, and tracking drill ship locations before ever leaving the dock

🐟 The difference between summer and winter tuna seasons — long runs with live bait in summer versus short runs with dead bait and topwater poppers in winter, and why January 2025 was the best month of tuna fishing he's ever seen

⚔️ Swordfish stories including hand-lining a 211-pound sword after the rod exploded during the Mud Marlin Classic — and finishing second by just 25 pounds

🎯 Why small hooks and light leader are the secret to getting bit, and how blue runners are his go-to all-purpose bait even though they're smart enough to swim right back under the boat

🔥 The current mahi explosion offshore, bait balls so thick poogies were landing on the bow, and why the water has been chocolate milk from the river all the way out to 100 miles

🥩 Pro tips on preserving yellowfin — leave the skin on, freeze in large chunks, never rinse with water, and let it come to room temp before searing until it cuts like ice cream

🎵 A shoutout to Dick Jagger, whose fishing anthem "Raise One Up" name-drops ChEnected Charters with the lyric "in the sippy, you know that your boys stay connected"

Also big thanks to Southern Magnolia Smiles, Forever Young Men's and Women Health, Taylor and Cox Law Firm, and Ensured Roofing Company for the support!

🎵 From the dock to the deck — the fish rap nobody asked for but everybody needs. Listen to “Here Fishy Fishy”

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