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The Burst Factor

While participating in numerous fishing tournaments at Venice Marina the past couple of years, one name has consistently shown up on the rig-division leader board — BurstFactor.[…]

Bass Fishing

Post-Rita bass swarming in Mermentau

Among the many devastating effects of Hurricane Rita just two years ago was the damage it did to the Mermentau River bass population. Bass have been almost non-existent up until recently, and now that they’re showing up again, they are making up for lost time.[…]

Inshore Fishing

Reds biting above windy Grand Isle

The recent trout action around Grand Isle has slowed the past couple of days, but that hasn’t kept Capt. Jim Thibodeaux of Fish Tales Guide Service (985-696-1801) from catching fish. A quick move to the inside has had him neck deep in reds.[…]

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Sweat Equity

I thought I had it easy when I was growing up in the 1970s and ’80s. Boy, was I wrong. Young people today have it made compared to any of the generations that came before them.[…]

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Shell Game

The last time I pulled into Capt. Anthony Randazzo’s Paradise Plus lodge in Buras was about two months before Katrina’s infamous visit. The storm’s wash-through left little more than a shell of the log-frame building.[…]

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Rebounding and Recovering

Going on two years after Hurricane Katrina, fishing in the Amite and Tickfaw river basins is still in recovery mode — notwithstanding a countryside fish-restocking scheme set in motion by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries even while department personnel were heroically engaged in search-and-rescue missions in flood-stricken New Orleans.In both areas, return to pre-storm conditions has been painfully slow.[…]

Columns

Care for fuel now for a happy spring

After launching the center console for the first fishing trip of the season, one minute I was zipping toward the fishing grounds at cruising speed, and the next I was off-plane and barely able to keep the outboard at idle as it labored to turn an erratic 500 RPMs.[…]

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Trip Savers

When Mike Muhlbauer’s line came tight with an abrupt strike, we were certain it was bull red time. A couple of Florida boys with a lot of ambition but just a little time, Muhlbauer and I had determined that we’d fare best at the perennial redfish magnet — Southwest Pass.[…]