Apex Predator
The Florida Keys vs. Louisiana’s coast
Recently I went on a 10-day fishing excursion for my honeymoon to a place where an island is known as a key and the ocean view will take your breath away.[…]
Columns
Bass Fishing
Stanley Top Toad
A leading artificial lure manufacturer’s newest pride and joy jumped like a real frog to the forefront of bass fishing circles in and around Louisiana very quickly in early 2013.[…]
Columns
A turkey for dad
When you hear “Phfffffftt,” you know a strutting tom is close and it is time to get ready.[…]
Columns
Oxbow blues
Look at a map of eastern Louisiana, from Bastrop to New Roads, and you’ll realize the power of the mighty Mississippi. Over millennia, the great river has carved out dozens of deep waterways, most of which have become isolated from the river’s flow. […]
Ask Captain Paul
Correct coordinates needed:
Dear Capt. Paul:
I have a new camp in Cocodrie, and I’m learning the area. I was hoping to hit some of the shallower rigs for a few lemonfish and perhaps even some snapper.
Do you have the coordinates for the Mardi Gras and EnStar rigs that are supposed to be near the shoreline?[…]
Columns
Hail the new snapper king
The gray snapper — usually called the mangrove snapper — is one of 14 Gulf of Mexico members of Lutjanidae, the snapper family.[…]
Columns
Feds should get out of the way
Regional management of red snapper just won’t work. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act under which snapper management is conducted simply won’t allow for it. Nope. Won’t work. Can’t do it. Won’t do it.[…]
Columns
Gun cleaning miracle home remedy
This month, we’re supplying you with one of those tips you will wish you had discovered long ago. It’s a cleaning liquid so simple, so easily concocted, you’ll probably wonder why you never heard about it before.[…]
Columns
Wardens often on the prowl for poachers after dark
Nighttime is the realm of both the poacher and the game warden. Fifty percent or more of an enforcement agent’s time is spent working at night.[…]
Columns
Field judging a buck’s age, Part II
In the March installment of Happy Trails, we looked at the topic of “aging bucks on the hoof,” paying particular attention to the possible use of certain visual geometric clues regarding the relationship of the tips of the antler beams to the eye and/or nose when viewed from the side as a way to reliably judge a given buck’s age in the field.[…]
Columns
Safe ’yaking is no accident
Kayak fishing is fun, exciting and safe. However, like any outdoor pursuit, especially one involving water, there are some situations that can present danger.[…]
Columns
The Matrix Shad
There are sound reasons behind the growing success of one of the hottest soft plastics for saltwater and, even, freshwater fish from Biloxi, Miss., to Houma and beyond in the Sportsman’s Paradise.[…]
Columns
Are you ‘coyoted-up?’
At the recent meeting of the Southeast Deer Study Group in South Carolina, the talk among the deer researchers and biologists continued to focus on coyotes and fawn depredation, the lack of fawn recruitment in various herds and the continuing spread of CWD in this country.[…]
Columns
A starling is born
Many centuries from now, archeologists will unearth a fishing diary belonging to one Catch Cormier. They’ll study it and find an amazing discovery. Like the Shroud of Turin, it will baffle scientists.[…]
Ask Captain Paul
Data card dilemma
Dear Capt. Paul:
I have a Garmin 182c that is not reading the data card with topo map source on it. I have two friends who have the same unit, and their units are reading my data card.[…]
Columns
Has ‘Destructo’ been rehabilitated?
In the Autumn 1939, Louisiana Conservation Review (the predecessor of the Louisiana Conservationist magazine), James Nelson Gowanloch, the chief biologist of the Bureau of Scientific Research and Statistics for the Louisiana Department of Conservation, wrote an article titled “Gars, Killers of Game and Food Fish.”[…]