Ask Captain Paul

GPS waypoints: Delacroix to Point A La Hache

This area is actually where Capt. Paul’s Fishing Edge got started. The interest generated from this location allowed me to start marketing waypoints for 21 different areas, including Barataria Bay, Lake Borgne, Hopedale to Bayou Terre Boeufs, Bayou Bienvenue, Port Sulphur, Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne and many more.[…]

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So what’s a sunperch?

Louisiana’s bream fishermen have a pile of fish to choose from. Tops on the list are bluegills and redear sunfish (also called lake runners or chinquapin). And fat-bellied goggle-eyes are always in the mix somewhere. In a lot of places, you can throw in some green sunfish (slick perch) or red-spotted sunfish (stumpknockers). […]

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Game warden column: Try trapping hogs

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. […]

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Never too early for trail cams

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?” […]

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First cast

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.[…]

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How to age white-tailed deer: Part III

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.[…]

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Hair today, bugs tomorrow

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.[…]

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Tarpon are quirky creatures

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.[…]