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Flat-Out Fantastic
To the east, an orange ball glowed just above the horizon through the cypress and tupelo trees in the backwater areas of the basin. […]
Freshwater Fishing
Freshwater Fishing
Atchafalaya Basin goggle-eye heat up, no live bait needed
A scouting trip for an upcoming bass tournament turned into quite a different experience Saturday (May 1) when buddy Darren Cooper and I put 60 chunky goggle-eye in the livewell – without putting up the bass gear.[…]
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Cover: May 2010-Freshwater
The month of May was made for speckled trout and bream fishermen.[…]
Columns
Bream secrets they don’t want you to know
Several recent late-night tying sessions have exposed me to the countless television infomercials that appear after midnight.[…]
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Fabulous 5
Most of the time you’ll find bream not as big as crappie and not as heavy as bass or catfish. You may have to clean quite a few, especially if you fillet them, to feed a family for a Friday night fish fry.[…]
Columns
It’s as clear as black and white
In 1993, the Louisiana Legislature picked a state fish. It wasn’t the much-hyped tournament fish, the largemouth bass; it wasn’t any one of the glamorous snapper species; it wasn’t even the beloved speckled trout.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Reach skinny-water crappie with your feet
Coastal Louisiana anglers are no strangers to wade fishing for speckled trout, but there’s a different kind of “speck” that folks are starting to realize bite just a little bit better when the water isn’t slapping the sides of their boats.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
National crappie tournament slated for Toledo Bend
A Crappie USA qualifying event, along with a free crappie kids rodeo, will be held on Toledo Bend March 27. Anglers will be weigh seven-fish limits of crappie, with money and the opportunity to advance to the Cabela’s Crappie USA Classic to be held in October in Alabama.[…]
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A Sprig of Crappie
In February 2009, for the first time in nearly 15 years, Crappie USA came back to Louisiana to hold a qualifying tournament. The area the organization selected was the Atchafalaya Basin, with Morgan City the host.[…]
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Lake Redfish
Louisiana redfishing is often thought of as the baseball equivalent of small-ball. Tippy, skinny water boats slinking though ponds and broken marsh with a push pole or trolling motor at its lowest setting.[…]
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Casting at the Capitol
By now the excitement of the latest video games has begun to leave the kids bored, with limited options to occupy their time before schools kicks off again. After all, the hot summer temperatures are in full force, forcing most to curtail their outdoor activities to the early and late portions of the day.[…]
Columns
Are paddlecraft laws meant to be broken?
Cormier’s First Law of Paddling states that choosing a paddlecraft is an exercise in compromise. Some kayak buyers are avoiding their exercise.[…]
Columns
Size limits for crappie not always good
Hotspots come and go in fisheries management. Several things drive management controversy. One is that fishermen are very passionate about their pursuit, and like with other things that arouse passions, a lot of folks adopt the position of being an expert on what they love so much.[…]
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Mr. Crappie
For most of the past decade, I’ve talked with 65-year-old Bobby Phillips on a weekly basis, picking his brain for a fishing report I put together for newspapers, magazines and radio.[…]
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Long and Short
There are as many ways to catch crappie as there are names for the tasty fish. Some prefer dipping a cork and shiner in tree tops, some use nothing but jigs in open water, and still others rig up multi-pole “spider rigs” with both jigs and shiners to fish flats and deep holes.[…]
Columns
Warm days invite anglers to Basin
At this time of year, the Atchafalaya River is fairly low, and the fishing in the Basin is better when the water’s low and cool.[…]