In the catfish world, ops are tops
August 2010
Without a doubt, the flathead catfish has more aliases than any other fish, probably beating out even the infamous choupique.
Flounder aren’t just for ladies
July 2010
On a fishing trip last spring, one of the fishermen in a boat with me commented that he sure hoped we would catch some flounder because his wife had asked him specifically to bring some home. The skipper of the boat, a charter captain, grinned broadly and said, “I hear that more times than you can imagine. Women love flounder. I think they are lady-fish.”
Red snapper are not homebodies
June 2010
It is hard to believe that the recreational season for Gulf of Mexico red snapper has shrunk to less than two months this year. That is especially hard for recreational fishermen to take when red snapper are so common that they have become easy to catch on topwater or shallow lures and baits.
It’s as clear as black and white
May 2010
In 1993, the Louisiana Legislature picked a state fish. It wasn’t the much-hyped tournament fish, the largemouth bass; it wasn’t any one of the glamorous snapper species; it wasn’t even the beloved speckled trout.
Guessing redfish age can be tricky
April 2010
How old is that redfish? Fishermen are, for the most part, intensely curious about their quarry. One of the most common questions they have, besides about what fish eat, is speculation about the age of the fish they catch, especially big fish.
Another helping of Blue Runners, please
March 2010
No, I don’t mean those wonderful Louisiana canned red beans. I am talking about the fish, Caranx Crysos, a.k.a. hardtails. Blue runners are a member of the jack family, Carangidae, which includes 28 species in North American Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters.
Don’t eat the bait!
February 2010
The herring family is a big one. Called Clupeidae by biologists, it holds 28 members in North America. Fourteen are found in Atlantic Ocean waters, including the Gulf of Mexico, five in Pacific waters, one in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, six migrate between freshwater and Atlantic ocean waters, and only two, the gizzard shad and the threadfin shad, are freshwater species. Both are common in Louisiana.
Behold the humble hardhead
January 2010
Think of what life must be like for a hardhead catfish — despised by all, loved by none. The contempt is universal. A commercial shrimper once told me that he wished he could drain the ocean, take a stick and kill all of them.
A fish so ugly it’s beautiful
December 2009
The words “I didn’t think that anything so ugly could ever win an award” really caught my attention.
Florida bass are different creatures
November 2009
Largemouth bass are the most popular freshwater recreational fish in America, in spite of the changing face of the fishery. Gone are the days of a bass fisherman being pictured as a grandfather in a rowboat with a grandson or contemplative pipe-puffing angler patiently casting a clunky wooden topwater plug with his old knuckle-buster.
Bring a mullet home for dinner
October 2009
Well, actually this tasty little fish is not really a mullet, but you would never believe it if you listened to South Louisianans. Usually, they call it a channel mullet, ground mullet or black mullet. Every once in a while, a fisherman with an air of sophistication will call it a whiting.
Wahoo are the Ferraris of the Gulf
September 2009
Sleek, fast and glamorous, wahoo are the Formula One race cars of the fish world. Scientists know them as Acanthocybium solandri. The genus name is derived from the Greek words for “thorn” and “a tunna,” so it is essentially described as a “thorny tuna.”
Blues are La.’s freshwater big-game fish
July 2009
Seldom do anglers associate “freshwater” and “big-game fish” together. But Louisiana, with the continent’s largest rivers, large and small lakes and reservoirs, vast freshwater marshes and seemingly endless miles of small rivers, bayous and streams, is home to several species of large freshwater fish.
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