Columns
The fish is a glutton!
The freshwater fish family Centrarchidae, commonly called the sunfish family, is arguably the most-important freshwater fish family for North American sportsmen.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Contents
Heading ’em off at the passes
In sort of a hypnotic, mesmerizing motion the tip of my float wavered left to right in a semi-circle until it slowly sunk beneath the surface of the water.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Essential bull-bream equipment
Bream big and small will often suck a bait — hook and all — deep down their throats before the float sinks.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Beating the heat during the bream bite
June temperatures often start out in the mid 70s, requiring bream anglers to use a few precautions when going out on the water for a morning of fishing.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Search deeper points for bass this month
Automobile dealer Jerry Hester of Red River Parish lives near and fishes Grand Bayou regularly.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
PFDs always best, user warns
The child was quiet now.
The woman held him close under the hot Louisiana sun. But the heat of the sun on this day was no match for the cold that gripped her heart.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Stump field slabs
Every year during March and April, fishermen hammer Lake D’Arbonne’s shallow cypress trees and banks for spawning white perch (aka crappie or sac-a-lait).[…]
Catfish
Back to basics
Whether it’s blue catfish or channel catfish, Central Louisiana’s coastal bays in the springtime are teeming with both. Toss in the occasional flathead, and what you have is the skinning pliers Ictalurus Trifecta of North America.
From the Atchafalaya River to East Cote Blanche Bay, nearly every bayou, canal or unnamed tributary that empties freshwater is a potential location to drop anchor and tightline for catfish in this region.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Back to basics
Whether it’s blue catfish or channel catfish, Central Louisiana’s coastal bays in the springtime are teeming with both. Toss in the occasional flathead, and what you have is the skinning pliers Ictalurus Trifecta of North America.
From the Atchafalaya River to East Cote Blanche Bay, nearly every bayou, canal or unnamed tributary that empties freshwater is a potential location to drop anchor and tightline for catfish in this region.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Goggle-eye chunky in Basin
I’ve always been taught catching a fish on the first cast is bad luck, so when my cork dipped beneath the surface of the water this morning (May 4) I was a little hesitant to set the hook.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Frabill Crawler Can
Fish catfish with worms long enough and chances are quite good that many will die in the wax-coated cardboard or styrofoam containers they come in.[…]
Contents
Buggin’ bluegill
The sounds are unmistakable. SSSLURP! POP! SMACK!
When bluegill rise to grab surface meals, they know they’re vulnerable to bass, ospreys, herons and other predators. Therefore, they have to be sure of a worthwhile payoff, and nature provides plenty in the way of aquatic insects and other bugs that fall to the water’s surface.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Popping out poppers and other popular patterns
My colleague and accomplished fly tier, Reb Stewart recently gave me a box of foam-bodied poppers and various insect patterns. The colors looked good, the legs and antennae, etc. all set just right.[…]
Contents
Bear Bayou Bream Basics
The anchor hadn’t settled on the bottom good before my wife made her first cast toward the trees along a stretch of Bear Bayou we regularly fish. As normal, she wasn’t playing around.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Favorite bream rig
Fishing bream doesn’t take any special equipment or bait. A small trout worm on a No. 4 Aberdeen-style hook is preferred.[…]
Contents
Pocket Perch
When I first moved to New Orleans as a (very) young man in the mid-1960s, I just knew that I was a fishing hot dog. I thought I knew all there was to know about catching bass, bream, white perch and catfish — and that’s where the fishing world ended.[…]