Ask Captain Paul
Toledo Bend has new fish-holding reefs
Capt. Paul:
I have been trying to find GPS coordinates for artifical reefs that have been put in Toledo Bend. I believe there are 17 of them.[…]
Fishing
Contents
Four to Know
It was so early in the morning, I couldn’t even see the fluorescent-orange cork that my fishing partner, Eric Dumas, had threaded onto my braided line.[…]
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
Strong tide pushing trout through Pontchartrain’s passes
Capt. Greg Schlumbrecht with To Fish Charters recently suggested that a mild tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico would turn on the trout bite at Lake Pontchartrain.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Barataria reds biting while trout moving
The word coming out of the Barataria Basin, according to Captain Mike Daigle with Cast-It-Charters (504-915-9480), is that the trout are on the move.[…]
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.[…]
Contents
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.[…]
Fishing
Gummed carburetors a problem now
It has been two years since Hurricane Katrina devastated our area. It’s hard for me to believe, but I’m still getting a large amount of work that is related to the aftermath of that storm.[…]
Contents
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.[…]
Contents
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.[…]
Contents
Out of the Gulf, Part II
When many Americans think of Louisiana today, they visualize a swampy morass covered in cypress trees and Spanish moss.[…]
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.[…]
Contents
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.[…]
Contents
Green Canyon Adventure
It was just after midnight. The boat was drifting calmly more than a hundred miles offshore. Lights from the largest truss and spar oil platform in the world cast an eerie glow across the water.[…]
Fishing
Trouble-free batteries not always best
Full-maintenance marine batteries are usually less expensive and lighter than maintenance-free models with the same amount of cranking power and reserve capacity.[…]
Columns
Mississippi River a September hotspot
My No. 1 pick this month will be the Venice region because usually at this time of year, the Mississippi River’s down, the water has greened up and moving water will be at the edges of the passes.[…]