Features from July 2018
Sunscreen, wide-brim hats, those little handheld fans that blow a cool mist on your face ... yeah, speckled trout will never benefit from such high-heat indulgences.
“There’s a good one,” he said, glancing over his right shoulder. “And there’s a good one,” he said, throwing an eye over his left shoulder. “That’s a good one, too,” he nodded at another one.
“I like fish that pull hard, ones that fight. I’m fishin’ for fun,” twanged Jeb Ard in a patented country accent. “If I want to eat fish, we go to a catfish buffet.”
The Pipeline Canal was completely impassable. And with that, Patrick Engerran immediately resorted to Plan B.
It’s prime time to target Ouachita River crappie in the tops. Here’s how one noted angler catches his share of summertime slabs hunkered down in the brush.
The siren song of schooling bass has lured many an unsuspecting angler to spend the rest of his days wondering what the heck just happened.
Nature is dynamic; and like a well-composed symphony, its performance comprises multiple complementary elements that rise and fall at the conductor’s direction.
Lean, mean biting machines, king mackerel pack a mouthful of sharp teeth that’ll make short work of monofilament or even fluorocarbon line. These fish are also notorious for snipping baits in half and missing single hook-rigs.
The hits were explosive — water and pieces of vegetation flew wildly. Or maybe it was Lyle Johnson’s violent reaction to the hits. He doesn’t like ‘em to get away, and he fusses at himself for every missed fis
The sun was just throwing amber light over the horizon when my bone-colored Badonk-a-donk disappeared in a toilet flush. And my grumbling over the 3 a.m. alarm disappeared like fog in a stiff wind.
Columns - July 2018
- The Vermilion Bay Fishing Edge consists of 205 different waypoint positions. Many locations were once land points or islands that are now submerged, in addition to other visible and key navigation spots.
- When someone is interested in beginning kayak fishing, the standard advice is to demo several kayaks before deciding which one to buy. However, you still can’t truly get the feel of how a kayak performs under actual fishing conditions.
- We’ve talked about hunting feral hogs to thin the herd. I don’t know about you, but I’m not much on summer hunting. The sweat tends to rust my rifle. So when the thermometer reaches into the 90s, I think it’s time to trap hogs. Summer is a good time for hog trapping for a few other reasons, as well.
- If you love flies made with hair, then July is your lucky month. The second weekend of this month, the annual Contraband Fly Fishing Expo in Lake Charles will feature America’s premier deer hair tier, Pat Cohen.
- Last month I wrote about the 1 ½-year-old age class, or yearling deer. The key that separates the yearling age class from the 2-year-old age class is the third premolar. Yearling deer have three temporary premolars that begin to break up and are shed when the deer is 17 to 18 months old.
- A veteran saltwater fishing guide out of Sarasota, Florida, has an artificial bait that looks so much like the real thing, it’s irresistible to speckled trout, redfish and snook in the shallow waters he fishes along the coast.
- A question I was asked by a deer hunter the first week of June stands out as July rolls around. He wanted to know in what stage bucks’ antler growth would be, but the big question was, “Would it be worth it to put cameras up?”
- Tony and Patricia Landry, residents of Donaldsonville, share recipes for Cajun Shrimp and Grits and Cupcake Oysters.
- Each year at the Archery Trade Association’s trade show, there’s usually one new product that has the most “buzz” around the show.
- For all their glitz and glamour, tarpon are very close to just being giant pogies (menhaden) that eat fish. They are really primitive beasts. On the evolutionary scale, they and their close cousins ladyfish and bonefish are just one step ahead of garfish and bowfin (choupique), but more primitive than eels, shad, sardines and pogies.
Outdoor Updates - July 2018
- Enforcement agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries arrested a 64-year-old Farmerville man on Tuesday after he allegedly confronted fishermen legally fishing in front of his property and dock on Lake D’Arbonne — and poured gasoline on them in an attempt to get them to leave.
- Even when you’re spearfishing, you still gotta go to know. On a choppy day late last month with dirty water and poor visibility when conditions weren’t actually the greatest, Dustin Pitre and Coty Cheramie, both of Galliano, headed out of Moran’s Marina in Fourchon and ventured to Grand Isle Block 41B to do some spearfishing while free diving.
- Testing of 300 white-tailed deer in East Carroll, Madison and Tensas Parishes did not detect chronic wasting disease, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
- Not too long ago, Mike Carriere was wondering if he’d ever get the chance to beat his personal best 8 ½-pound bass.
- They say it’s not how you start — but how you finish that matters. That was the case last Friday, June 1, when Tyler Bourgeois headed out of Moran’s Marina in Fourchon around 6:30 a.m. for a red snapper trip during the Catholic High School (Baton Rouge) Alumni Fishing Rodeo.
- The world’s largest kayak tournament will once again churn into Caminada Pass at Grand Isle, as the always-popular Ride the Bull preps for its ninth go round on Saturday, Aug. 25.
- Lesser fishermen likely would have thrown in the towel, and probably been cutting grass, firing up the grill or working on odd jobs around the home or camp.
Field Notes - July 2018
- Capt. Kris Robert targets tripletail around crab trap buoys. He shared three great tips to catch more fish this summer.
- Everyone has their favorite lure. Usually it’s the lure they always catch fish on (duh), or maybe it’s one gifted to them by someone well-versed in inshore fishing, like their grandfather.
- If Matrix Shad lure owner Chas Champagne is cruising through marsh and duck ponds sight-fishing for reds — but doesn’t actually spot any fish — he’s typically keeping a close eye out for two other reliable indicators of reds in the neighborhood.
- There are a lot of concepts I learned during my time in Marine Reconnaissance that I still use today. In this article, I am going to share a favorite you can use to go fishing safely.
Hot Spots - July 2018
- Veteran charter guide Bobby Gros, over at Bobby Lynn’s Marina in Leeville (985-637-0118), says the fishing is as hot as the weather this month.
- It’s July — time for fireworks on Lake D’Arbonne in Union Parish.
- It was a bad year for flooding on Finch Lake and the Ouachita River near the small community of Haile — so that means it’s a good year for big bream.
- Catch two speckled trout at a time, before the heat of the day, then add a limit of redfish — now you’ve got the scenario for a day in the life of saltwater fishing guide Brady Giroir in July.
- I can’t believe I’m already writing about midsummer bassin’ on Toledo Bend. The year is flying by, and it’s already time to talk about deep patterns that are effective in July.
- Capt. Bubby Lamy with In & Out Charters takes a lot of his speckled trout clients to areas like Isle au Pitre and Martin Island this time of year.
- Summer is in full swing, and that means rip lines and red snapper.
- July means another month for big spawning speckled trout in and around Grand Isle, and Capt. Mark Scardino with Hard Times Fishing Charters said bait selection couldn’t be any easier.
- Capt. Johnny Nunez, AKA the Fishing Magician (504-239-3159), was born and raised in Shell Beach and has spent his life pulling fish of every kind from the surrounding waters. When Nunez speaks, fishermen listen — and he told me the keys to speckled trout success this month are rocks, reefs and rigs.
- So it was a banner redfish day, one for the record books. I was aboard Capt. Mike Wittich’s boat, fishing with both he and Capt. Ron “Ahab” Broadus, on what was supposed to be a scouting trip.