Inshore Fishing
Sweeping up
Making a clean sweep seems to always make things feel a little fresher.[…]
Promote
Inshore Fishing
Reef runner: Fishing the Lake Pontchartrain reefs is a guarantee
I watched what seemed to be an unending parade of barges filled with mountains of crushed concrete arrive and dump their contents onto the lake floor to create a five-acre artificial reef, all from the back porch of my home on Lake Pontchartrain’s Northshore.[…]
Bass Fishing
Slow down for more summer bass
When largemouth bass play hard to get, it’s time to pull out the clichéd yet profoundly applicable allusion of the tortoise and the hare.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Plan B
It’s a scenario every angler is familiar with. You heard the fish were biting in the outside waters at the islands and rigs just off the coast. According to all the reports, the action has been spectacular.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Second Fiddle
Capt. Marty LaCoste with Absolute Fishing Charters exited the mouth of Bayou DuLarge at Pelican Pass. Only this time, rather than pointing his bay boat toward more-familiar destinations like Coon Point and the Mardi Gras rig, he turned sharply toward the west and ran the coastline toward the often-overlooked Oyster Bayou.
LaCoste spotted some action on the surface as he neared his destination and soon realized he was looking at speckled trout jumping out of the water to eat shrimp that were doing the same.[…]
Deer Hunting
Predatory Pursuits
The bow season is under way. You’ve prepared the stand, scouted intensely and labored over the land — all in anticipation of enjoying the outdoors and taking a whitetail.[…]
Offshore Fishing
Sighting in
I used to be fascinated at how quickly my grandfather’s catfish would come to the surface of his two farm ponds as he drove across the field in their direction.[…]
Offshore Fishing
Dancing the jig
Saltwater fishing has its ups and downs, but when snapper top your target list you’ll have a ton of fun with a bait based on the notion of up-and-down.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Outer limits
This is it: You don’t have to wait any longer.
The month we long for with impatient anticipation throughout the entire year has finally arrived in all its spring glory.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Stump field slabs
Every year during March and April, fishermen hammer Lake D’Arbonne’s shallow cypress trees and banks for spawning white perch (aka crappie or sac-a-lait).[…]
Inshore Fishing
Croaker Soaker
“I fish live bait — live croakers,” the 68-year-old says with conviction, as if looking for a challenge. “Using plastic can be a good way to find the fish,” he adds, seeming for a moment to soften a bit, “but when I find them, I throw croakers to catch more.[…]
Catfish
Back to basics
Whether it’s blue catfish or channel catfish, Central Louisiana’s coastal bays in the springtime are teeming with both. Toss in the occasional flathead, and what you have is the skinning pliers Ictalurus Trifecta of North America.
From the Atchafalaya River to East Cote Blanche Bay, nearly every bayou, canal or unnamed tributary that empties freshwater is a potential location to drop anchor and tightline for catfish in this region.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Back to basics
Whether it’s blue catfish or channel catfish, Central Louisiana’s coastal bays in the springtime are teeming with both. Toss in the occasional flathead, and what you have is the skinning pliers Ictalurus Trifecta of North America.
From the Atchafalaya River to East Cote Blanche Bay, nearly every bayou, canal or unnamed tributary that empties freshwater is a potential location to drop anchor and tightline for catfish in this region.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Under Pressure
This is my son’s first year of playing kid-pitch baseball.
After looking like an all-star in the batting cages during his first practice, he stood on deck and watched the batter before him take a hardball to the lower back in his team’s first attempt to hit off of an inconsistent 9-year-old pitcher.[…]
Fishing
Small Fry
Old habits die hard. Don’t believe me? Go ask Bass Anglers Sportsman Society founder Ray Scott, who spearheaded the catch-and-release phenomenon in the 1970s how much trouble he had convincing a bunch of backwoods bubbas to release bass back into Lake Guntersville rather than “Lake Crisco.”[…]
Inshore Fishing
Davis Pond Speck Effect
While telling me about how the Davis Pond Diversion has affected speckled trout fishing around Lafitte, Capt. Theophile Bourgeois mentioned something that I don’t think he realized provided a perfect contrast of the life before and after the levee break started flowing.[…]