If Matrix Shad lure owner Chas Champagne is cruising through marsh and duck ponds sight-fishing for reds — but doesn’t actually spot any fish — he’s typically keeping a close eye out for two other reliable indicators of reds in the neighborhood.[…]
The sun was just above the horizon, peaking from behind building thunderheads, when Capt. Austin Plaisance brought his Blazer Bay off plane. Redfish scattered across the grassy flat, pushing submarine wakes.[…]
While all the speckled trout anglers bust their tails to get on their favorite spots before the sun comes up, avid fisherman Jonathan Ryan hits snooze a few times on his alarm clock and starts his trips around 8 a.m.[…]
For contestants in the CCA STAR Fly Division, June is the best tournament month to catch big trout on a fly. At first light, use large poppers. As the morning progresses, move toward submergent flies such as Seaducers, Deceivers and articulated baitfish patterns. Casting an intermediate sinking line will produce more strikes.[…]
How anyone could leave South Louisiana is unfathomable, but in July, Madisonville’s Amanda Springer will do just that. True love is calling her far north to the Buckeye State, where she’ll shiver and shake for six months of the year.[…]
The redfish action across Louisiana’s marsh is so good right now, Capt. Charlie Thomason and I thought we’d be cute.[…]
A new cork is popping up with South Louisiana’s inshore anglers, and it’s getting a reputation for both durability and a sound that seems to be a hit with speckled trout and redfish.[…]
At the recent “Fly Fishin’ For the Mission” tournament held out of Pointe-aux-Chenes, my teammate Kevin “Doc” Andry and I started the day hoping to repeat as overall champions. […]
I would rather catch speckled trout than eat a steak, fly in a helicopter or kiss my grandbaby, but this time of year, the specks move far out into the big water, where it can sometimes take live bait and other voodoo to catch them.[…]
Capt. Ty Hibbs is a sight-fishing fanatic. He takes clients every week to the fish-filled backwaters of the South Louisiana marsh, and not only has great success, but has a ball watching redfish engulf lures.[…]
A good topwater bite can offer an entertaining display of ferocity, but at some point the fish shy away from this game. Maybe it’s the intensifying sunlight/heat, fishing pressure or a combination of such factors; but whatever the case, Capt. Ross Montet knows that the fish haven’t necessarily stopped feeding. In his view, you simply need to descend into the water column — and popping corks offer the perfect transitional tool.[…]
For the uninitiated, redfish tournaments might seem the same as any other rodeo, where the heaviest fish wins. The difference is the introduction of the slot-sized fish; meaning only a certain length fish will do.[…]
Weight deductions of half, to as much as a full pound, are assessed if tournament anglers bring in a dead fish. But it’s a delicate process to keep redfish alive in 90-plus degree temperatures in the blistering heat of Louisiana summers.[…]
Agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries cited three men in Jefferson Parish on May 6 for allegedly possessing 35 redfish, according to a news release.[…]
Two decades ago, Jason Baker of Poplarville, Miss., contracted the virus that’s inflicted so many South Louisiana anglers. These otherwise normal fishermen abandon all sense of decorum and fishing tradition to climb towering platforms and scan shallow flats through polarized sunglasses, searching for line-stripping redfish.[…]
Sometimes it’s the noise, other times it’s the approach. Either way, popping cork rigs are a must-have tool for your inshore arsenal.[…]