Columns
Blue crabs’ molting miracle
Ecdysis — it sounds like something forbidden to do.
But really, it’s just the process of crustaceans shedding their shells. […]
Creature Feature
Catfish
Channel cats stay on the move
Normally channel cats live six to 10 years, although longer life spans have been reported, typically from the northern part of their range. […]
Columns
Where have all the pompano gone?
It was January 1965 and the Louisiana Conservationist, the official voice of the Louisiana Wild Life (yes that’s the way it was spelled then — Wild Life, not Wildlife) and Fisheries Commission, led off with an article on Louisiana’s wonderful winter offshore fishery. […]
Columns
Tripletails are triple treats
Saltwater anglers get excited about catching a tripletail, a triple treat. They are easy to catch with live bait, they are hard dogged fighters, and they taste great […]
Bass Fishing
Florida bass: For better or worse
In the never-ending quest to produce more bigger fish for anglers to catch, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has been stocking Florida largemouth bass in the state since 1982. […]
Columns
Live fast; die young
If ever a motto could be used to describe a fish, this one describes the dolphin, the riotously-colored, hyperkinetic, blue-water fish that Hawaiians aptly call mahi-mahi, which translates out as “strong-strong.” […]
Columns
Croakers: blue-collar gamefish
Let’s face it; there’s nothing glamorous about croakers.
Some of the other members of its family have a lot more pizzazz — a redfish is more powerful than a locomotive; a speckled trout is faster than a speeding bullet. […]
Columns
Does it really look down?
It looks like any other fish. Well actually, it doesn’t look like them — it just sees things like them.
It just looks like it’s looking down all the time. […]
Columns
Channel catfish do it all
After the expenditure of many hundreds of millions of dollars by lure makers and tournament sponsors, there is little doubt that the largemouth bass is America’s most popular freshwater fish. […]
Columns
Louisiana marshes have clams, too
Ask the average person what the most-common mollusk is in Louisiana’s coastal marshes, and odds are strong they would answer “oysters.” Now, a lot of oysters are out there, and they are delicious. […]
Columns
Meet the cute hammerhead
Hammerhead sharks, with their grossly misshapen noggins, have always inspired a sense of ominous dread and awe in humans.
They are just scary-looking. Thus they have to be dangerous. […]
Columns
It’s a tough little world for shiners
Most freshwater fishermen don’t give a lot of thought to the little fish in their bait bucket. They’re just shiners. Or to the glittery little fish flashing in the creek, river or lake — they’re just minnows. […]
Columns
Cutlassfish are common everywhere
We don’t call them cutlassfish.
Most Louisiana sport fishermen call them ribbonfish. Commercial shrimpers dub them silver eels, and consider them a minor nuisance for their habit of getting halfway through the meshes of their trawls’ bags and dying there. […]
Columns
This kind of hind is speckled
Offshore bottom fishermen love groupers, mostly because they are so good to eat. […]
Columns
Terrapins are more than just soup
Marsh fishermen share waters with a beautiful little creature that is usually out of sight out of mind unless one pops its head up next to their boat. […]
Columns
It looks like a brain!
“Ugh; It looks like a brain, man,” my fishing partner said, peering into the swampy water and gingerly poking a gelatinous-looking blob with a boat paddle. […]