Crappie/Bream
Tippets
This month, redfish enthusiasts welcome the return of thick grass in coastal ponds. The grass not only attracts small crabs and baitfish, it also maintains clarity. And that means great sight-casting opportunities.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Freshwater Fishing
Guess who’s coming to dinner?
Having spent a lifetime eating my way across the watery landscape of Louisiana, I’ve eaten a lot of fish that were delectable, a few fish that were really close to inedible and quite a few fish that were good if you knew what you were doing in the kitchen — and bad if you didn’t.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Rigging crawfish the Kelley way
Mike Kelley doesn’t like to dip for “ditch crawfish” as do many fishermen who use mudbugs for bait. “They are on the small side and you can’t get them early in the season,” he explained.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Tip of the day
Leave the dainty little hemostats at home. […]
Columns
Gearing up for gobbules
Longtime readers of this column know that I often refer to sunfish as “gobbules” (pronounced gah-bools). Many might wonder how the term originated.[…]
Crappie/Bream
Score big with Henderson Lake sac-a-lait
If anglers want to catch sac-a-lait in March at Henderson Lake, they should go to the borrow pits along the East Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee.[…]
Features
Beating the drum
My eyes popped.
I was scrolling through the Louisiana Fish Records Program when I got to the category labeled “Freshwater Drum (Gaspergou),” I saw that four of the Top 10 entries were held by one man — Mike Kelley Sr. — and all were caught in False River.[…]
Catfish
Gourmet taste can be gluten-free
Stefanie Rogers lives with her husband Scotty in the rural Louisiana community of Pine — the same village where they grew up. Considering where they live, it would be easy to assume she would simply cook Southern style dishes, with little seafood other than fried catfish.[…]
Crappie/Bream
Two quick lessons
When it comes to finding crappie on trees, concentration and patience are important. But nothing can make up for experience.[…]
Crappie/Bream
Mind your minnows
If you want to stay on Rick Hill’s good side, just mind your manners. Or, to be more exact, mind your minnows.[…]
Crappie/Bream
Louisiana isn’t a level playing field
Horace Greeley was an 1860s farmer who heeded the call to “Go west, young man” because he saw the fertile farmland there as an ideal place for people to succeed.[…]
Crappie/Bream
Tippets
By now, most of the “rainbeaux trout” that were stocked in ponds across the state have been harvested. But there’s still plenty left to make for some exciting action. […]
Catfish
Three restaurants cited for allegedly selling swai fish as catfish
Enforcement agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries cited three central Louisiana restaurants for allegedly selling swai fish that was being marketed on menus as catfish.[…]
Crappie/Bream
Marsh Man Masson vid: First SLAB SLAM of the season
Across much of the nation, crappie are springtime fish, biting when dogwoods are in bloom and baseballs are popping leather mitts. In South Louisiana, however, where the fish are known as sac-a-lait, slab crappie make their spawning run when winter still refuses to release its chilly grip.[…]
Columns
New ‘worm’ order
A little over six years ago, Dave Hise took a children’s play toy and turned it into one of the most productive flies since the Woolybugger.[…]
Crappie/Bream
Sac-a-lait shine this month out of Morgan City
Like many other sac-a-lait fishermen, Bill McCarty is ready to make a well-placed cast, set the hook and pull in slab after slab when February rolls around in South Central Louisiana.[…]