Columns
Cajun slams abound at PaddlePalooza XIII
Twelve years and 13 tournaments later, PaddlePalooza XIII proves kayak tournaments in South Louisiana are the real deal.[…]
Month: June 2016
Inshore Fishing
Free-line live croakers this month for big Grand Isle specks
June is typically a banner month for speckled trout on Grand Isle, but don’t plan on enjoying the island life and sleeping in if you intend on catching specks this month.[…]
Bass Fishing
Muddy-water bass fishing tactics
Summertime rains can really ruin a fishing trip, especially when your lake of choice collects water from a large drainage area.[…]
Fishing
6 ways to keep bait, fish alive longer
Whether the fish you’re trying to keep healthy are in the bait tank or in the livewell, there are several tricks that you can use to keep them alive — or at least tasty — during the summer, and they all boil down to one thing: oxygen levels.[…]
Columns
Matrix Mullet topwater lure hits the market
After almost 10 months of on-the-water experimentation — and countless hook changes, weight adjustments and buoyancy tweaks — Matrix Shad soft plastic paddletail creator Chas Champagne last week rolled out a brand new topwater lure called the Matrix Mullet that’s already developing quite a reputation for snagging big speckled trout.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
How to double up on crappie
With the exception of largemouth bass and catfish, guide Maynard Edwards of Lexington, N.C., has given up on using just one bait or lure at a time.[…]
Bass Fishing
Lure Review: LiveTarget’s sunfish
Apparently startled, certainly rattled, a small, injured bream swam to the surface, zigged and zagged in the scattered grass, jumped a little and landed sideways before continuing to move erratically until it settled back into the water to meet its fate.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Great kayak angling options in Buras
In a typical kayak, there just isn’t a whole lot of extra room for a vast array of pre-rigged rods, or multiple tackle boxes crammed with an insane variety of hooks, topwater lures, soft plastics and other items you never use but couldn’t pass up during your last visit down the fishing aisle.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Enjoy Morgan City catfish haul
As fickle as the Atchafalaya River stage has been most springs and summers in the 2000s — well, and much of the time before that — it’s a challenge for an avid Morgan City outdoorsman to predict what the best fishing might be in June.[…]
Fishing
Four cited for alleged illegal frogging last week in Rapides Parish
Agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries cited four men for alleged frogging violations just days before the season reopened on June 1.[…]
Columns
Don’t waste big bucks on small bucks
Last month, I mentioned that the average score of Mississippi bucks at the Louisiana Sportsman Show was 113 inches, while the average score of Louisiana bucks was 118.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Top 6 tips for speck-fishing under birds
Scanning the horizon for flocks of diving birds feasting on shrimp is a tried and true method for locating schools of speckled trout across Louisiana’s coast.[…]
Columns
Some bream are bad eggs
Hybridization, the result of cross-breeding between two species, is rare in nature. Humans can manipulate the mating of animals to produce hybrids, but Mother Nature doesn’t like that kind of fooling around.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Epic photo shows specks in Grand Isle surf
Professional photographer Sarah Santiny never goes too far without her trusty camera, and her Memorial Day trip to the beach on Grand Isle was no exception.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Black Bayou Lake
The fishing report on Black Bayou Lake north of Monroe was simple just two months ago: No Fishing. The 2,000 acre lake was closed due to catastrophic flooding in the entire region. But as water levels drop and fishing at the lake becomes more normal, it’s just in time for one of the lake’s premier bites — big bream.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Chunky specks loaded in popular summertime hotspots
Anglers live and die by decisions.
Sure, everyone is going to have a Plan A because maybe your buddy told you where the fish were biting the day before your trip — or maybe you read one of the 1,326 Facebook reports on people catching fish at that spot.[…]