Captain Mike Gautreaux was born in south Louisiana and grew up fishing the bayous and swamps of that area. After graduating from LSU, he spent the next 25 years as fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps, retiring as a Colonel in 1996. During his time in the Marines he was able to fish throughout the world, including Australia, Okinawa, the Philippines, Europe, Hawaii and all over the US. When he retired from the Marine Corps in 1996, he took a job running the start-up tourist operation on the island of Midway in the Pacific Ocean. A significant portion of that business was the sportfishing and sport diving operation. Mike was instrumental in making Midway sportfishing the talk of the fishing world. During the time on Midway, Mike was fortunate enough to work with numerous television sports personalities, one of whom, Captain Norm Isaacs, he teamed up with when he left Midway in 2000. Mike and Norm started the Billfishing Xtreme Release League, BXRL, in 2001. The BXRL was the show-piece big-game fishing program on ESPN for the next 6 years, and during that time Mike served as its Director. Mike had gotten his Coast Guard Captains license when he left Midway and while serving as the Director of the BXRL partnered with Regular Guy Charters as the Captain of its charter boat, the Sunrise in 2003. In 2006, he bought half interest in the charter operation and is now devoting full time energy into running that business.
Mikes specialties are blue water trolling for dolphin, wahoo, sailfish, and marlin, live baiting for kingfish on the nearer shore structure, and in the spring, stalking the wily cobia. With the recent addition of state of the art Raymarine electronics, he has now added bottom fishing for grouper and snapper to his areas of expertise.
Mikes background as a professional pilot and business manager has made him a stickler for professionalism and safety and he will personally guarantee that your trip on the Sunrise will be the most enjoyable humanly possible.
