Fishing Hotspots

Three keys for Shell Beach specks

Capt. Johnny Nunez, AKA the Fishing Magician (504-239-3159), was born and raised in Shell Beach and has spent his life pulling fish of every kind from the surrounding waters. When Nunez speaks, fishermen listen — and he told me the keys to speckled trout success this month are rocks, reefs and rigs.[…]

Field Notes

Sight-fishing support

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.[…]

Columns

First cast

When someone is interested in beginning kayak fishing, the standard advice is to demo several kayaks before deciding which one to buy. However, you still can’t truly get the feel of how a kayak performs under actual fishing conditions.[…]

Crappie/Bream

Hit the Basin now for beastly goggle-eye, bluegill

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.[…]

Crappie/Bream

The plaque in the swamp

Bass, crappie and bream fishermen who frequent the canals of Crackerhead can’t help but to have seen a solid brass plaque mounted on one of a pair of modest-sized cypress trees standing in the water off a canal bank.[…]