Out with a tourney angler to see what’s in the ponds.
Two decades ago, Jason Baker of Poplarville, Miss., contracted the virus that’s inflicted so many South Louisiana anglers. These otherwise normal fishermen abandon all sense of decorum and fishing tradition to climb towering platforms and scan shallow flats through polarized sunglasses, searching for line-stripping redfish.
The practice transforms fishing into a shallow-water hunt, and Baker still can’t get enough of it. He took me along with him this week on a trip down to the salty shallows in southern Terrebonne Parish.
The day started kind of slowly, with the fish turning up their noses at absolutely everything we offered, but Baker discovered the magic lure for the day, and then the bite was on.
The fish were big and powerful, and one claimed Baker’s favorite rod.
The sport of sight-fishing for shallow-water redfish is booming in South Louisiana, with anglers coming from all over the country to fish tournaments in our marshes. Years ago, anglers stood atop their ice chests or even brought ladders aboard to give themselves a better view of the fish. Now, most have towers that they climb, guiding their boats through the marshes with remote-controlled trolling motors.
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