Louisiana Sportsman

The tapered end of a wooden chopstick makes a perfect cork peg for Dave Pizzolato because it floats.

Tip of the day

August 15, 2018 Jerald Horst

Dave Pizzolato discards the plastic pegs that come with his corks and replaces them with the tapered tips of wooden chopsticks. “If the peg comes out, plastic sinks but wood floats,” he grinned.[…]

Pizzolato exclusively uses Salter’s Jiggin’ Poles. Note how close he has taken his boat to the pilings he is jigging.

Pizzolato’s Top 7 tips for Old River

August 15, 2018 Jerald Horst

1) Learn to tight-line. Using a cork doesn’t allow fishing to be done deep enough to fish the 12 to 14 feet needed on the most important fish-holding structure — piers and pilings in front of camps.[…]

Rio Grande chichlids are an invasive species that has spread throughout the southeast. They are beautiful and tasty little creatures, but they compete with native fishes and therefore, by law, cannot be returned to the water alive after being caught.

Be on the lookout for Rios

August 15, 2018 Chris Holmes

Rio Grande cichlids are an invasive species that has spread throughout the metropolitan New Orleans area. Found in fresh and brackish areas, they are becoming a more common catch by anglers fishing for bream and sunfish. Rios are more aggressive at defending their territory, and the concern is they could possibly totally displace native bream. […]

New gear reviews

August 15, 2018 Chris Holmes

Reel Steady Rod Stabilizer

Designed to add stability to heavy offshore fishing rods, the Reel Steady is a great addition for kayak anglers who need all the help they can get. Be it snapper or tarpon, fighting these bruisers from the seated position of a kayak makes handling heavy rods even more difficult.[…]

Kaleb Kellum hoists a feisty bream while his dad, James, looks on. A simple cane pole and a box of worms are all that;s necessary for a great day of catching some hard-fighting panfish.

August’s Best Bets

August 15, 2018 Chris Holmes

Saltwater

Where: Grand Isle: Caminada Pass, Barataria Pass and Elmer’s Island beach

What: Bull reds and jack crevalle in the passes, and trout on the beach[…]

Jay Stone with Duck Commander landed this crappie by fishing some of the many flooded Coke-bottle size stumps on the Ouachita River.

Louisiana crappie fishing getting national attention

August 15, 2018 Chris Ginn

Having fished crappie tournaments all over the nation, Ronnie Capps has seen more energy for the professional side of crappie fishing the last couple of years than he has ever seen in his entire 30-year fishing career.[…]

Slick tops and spiders for Ouachita crappie

August 13, 2018 Kinny Haddox

This time of the year, fishing has slowed down quite a bit, but it isn’t the fish — it’s the fishermen. You’ll find crappie fishing the Ouachita River.[…]

So what’s a sunperch?

August 4, 2018 Jerald Horst

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). […]

Jigging up Old River slabs

August 1, 2018 Jerald Horst

Determining when to fish Old River isn’t guesswork. Dave Pizzolato watches river gages, specifically the Mississippi River station at Baton Rouge.[…]

Push-poling for slabs

August 1, 2018 Chris Ginn

With the advent of today’s electronics, this national champion crappie angler says old-fashioned spider-rigging is a thing of the past.[…]

Three cited for allegedly shocking fish on the Ouachita River

July 26, 2018 From News Reports

Enforcement agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries cited three Columbia men for allegedly shocking fish on the Ouachita River in Caldwell Parish.[…]

LDWF schedules August drawdown on Henderson Lake

July 18, 2018 From News Reports

In conjunction with St. Martin Parish Government, the town of Henderson and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will be conducting a drawdown on Henderson Lake beginning in August.[…]

Huge goggle-eye are thick in the lower Atchafalaya Basin right now — and there seems to be no pressure on them.

Hit the Basin now for beastly goggle-eye, bluegill

July 16, 2018 Andy Crawford

Darren Cooper and I sat in Doiron’s Store at 6:30 a.m., waiting for an early morning thunderstorm to pass over the lower Atchafalaya Basin. It had been several years since we had gotten together to catch bream in the huge swamp — and a slowly falling Atchafalaya River gave great promise to our day.[…]

When Bobby Phillips gears up for Ouachita River crappie, you can bet these lures will be on deck.

Geared up and ready to go

July 15, 2018 Kinny Haddox

With tackle stores full of a thousand sizes, shapes, styles and colors of crappie jigs and fishing equipment, you could spend days or weeks just trying to figure out what to fish with. Or you could just let Bobby Phillips tell you his favorite go-to gear, and copy this veteran guide’s success.[…]

Bobby Phillips cruises the river system, searching for tops that might hold crappie.

The Ouachita’s long and winding path

July 15, 2018 Kinny Haddox

There are more than 90 miles of Ouachita River between the Arkansas line and the Columbia Lock and Dam in Northeast Louisiana. The river lakes, bayous and cuts off the river are too numerous to mention. But the nice thing is that good access is available up and down the river, and prime fishing isn’t far away. […]

Keeping your distance from a top and fishing it from the outside in helps you catch more crappie.

What’s a “top”?

July 15, 2018 Kinny Haddox

A top is simply a submerged brush top, the top of a bush or tree or a fallen tree with lots of submerged limbs. Tops sometimes lay where they fall, and other times current washes them onto sandbars or into river lakes.[…]