Bass Fishing
Yellow Magic
Sixty-year-old Texan Butch Ray can relate to the buzz heard for months this year around Toledo Bend and on Southwest Louisiana waters about a high-end topwater bait with a beautiful body and a seductive sound.[…]
Fishing
Columns
This perch is a hussy
Sometimes we can’t help but assign human traits to other creatures, no matter how scientifically incorrect it is. So it is with the green sunfish, Lepomis cyanellus.[…]
Columns
Winter yak fishing
Wintertime fishing in South Louisiana can be fantastic. The cold weather brings less fishing pressure and concentrates the fish in many areas that are easily accessible to kayak anglers.[…]
Contents
Make It Magnolia
It didn’t take much arm-twisting to persuade Casey Kieff (504-512-7171) to take me and a couple buddies on a quick trip to fish Magnolia Lagoon.[…]
Contents
100 Days
Meet Capt. Steve Smith.
Steve’s an odd duck.
Actually, he’s not odd. He is a pretty normal-looking 52-year-old guy, sandy haired with closely set, intelligent, bright blue eyes.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Trout Rule
As a professional guide, Steve Smith will happily take clients redfishing, but his passion is clearly for speckled trout.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Strung out on string
Steve Smith is a fanatic about the line he uses. I asked why he uses spinning reels, when so many other guides would be lost without their baitcasters. His answer was simple, but led directly to his passion about lines.[…]
Fishing
The Ardent Edge
The Ardent “Edge” series of baitcasting reels were designed to be unbelievably durable, yet light enough to be fished comfortably all day.[…]
Fishing
Mann’s Jointed 20+
Reaching depths of over 20 feet, Mann’s Jointed 20+ runs deeper than any other two piece crankbait out there, plus it has a swimming motion rivaling that of soft plastic swimbaits.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Live shrimp available much of the winter
Since Capt. Chris Pike suggested anglers take along some live shrimp with them on their wintertime fishing trips to Delacroix Island, I wondered about the availability of live shrimp for December.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Warming weather trumps tidal range in winter
Most inshore saltwater anglers pay particular attention to the tide ranges before they hook up to their boats. The greater the range, the more tidal flow it will generate.[…]
Contents
Terminal Tide Lines
One of the things that most intimidates me about fishing inshore saltwater fish as opposed to freshwater fish is how much more vast the playing field is.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Hopedale Front
Weather cycles pretty much make the fishing world go round in South Louisiana. The same cold fronts — along with the waning photoperiod — that drive speckled trout inland and the masses of white shrimp out also serve to sometimes violently flush the marsh when strong north winds make their way through the coastline.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Hybrid vs. stripers
Know the Difference: White Bass and Hybrid Striper[…]
Bass Fishing
Tidal Tactics
A half dozen great egrets and as many blue herons were scattered along the edge of a small cove, and every five minutes or so, they would take a few steps back.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Trout having Thanksgiving feast at Delacroix’s Skippy Lake
For the male of our species, few days on the calendar are more cherished than Thanksgiving with all the food, football and, yes, even the family.[…]