Louisiana Sportsman

Big bass like this one have helped Tyler Stewart make a big splash his first year on the FLW tour.

Stewart’s an angler to keep an eye on

August 15, 2018 Kinny Haddox

You might say that motocross’s loss is bass fishing’s gain.

The largemouths might not like that, though. If you’ve paid attention to pro bass fishing this year, you know why.[…]

Jay Stone with Duck Commander landed this crappie by fishing some of the many flooded Coke-bottle size stumps on the Ouachita River.

Louisiana crappie fishing getting national attention

August 15, 2018 Chris Ginn

Having fished crappie tournaments all over the nation, Ronnie Capps has seen more energy for the professional side of crappie fishing the last couple of years than he has ever seen in his entire 30-year fishing career.[…]

This bluegill taken by Greg Babin may be small, but could be a big winner in a species-related contest.

Tippets

August 15, 2018 Catch Cormier

August is the last full month of “SweatFest 2018,” the festival nobody likes to celebrate. While a combination of hot water and high tides make for tough fly fishing, late summer does offer a few unique opportunities.[…]

Many clubs encourage all family members to participate.

What about rules?

August 15, 2018 Capt. Steve Himel

For a club to operate smoothly, there should be clear rules in place that reflect the wishes of the members, and above all, they must be fairly enforced for everyone. […]

Rio Grande chichlids are an invasive species that has spread throughout the southeast. They are beautiful and tasty little creatures, but they compete with native fishes and therefore, by law, cannot be returned to the water alive after being caught.

Be on the lookout for Rios

August 15, 2018 Chris Holmes

Rio Grande cichlids are an invasive species that has spread throughout the metropolitan New Orleans area. Found in fresh and brackish areas, they are becoming a more common catch by anglers fishing for bream and sunfish. Rios are more aggressive at defending their territory, and the concern is they could possibly totally displace native bream. […]

This father-and-son team both took a buck in the same morning. Many clubs are geared toward family participation.

Organizing your own hunting club

August 15, 2018 Capt. Steve Himel

If you think you have what it takes to organize your own hunting club, here’s how to get started.[…]

New gear reviews

August 15, 2018 Chris Holmes

Reel Steady Rod Stabilizer

Designed to add stability to heavy offshore fishing rods, the Reel Steady is a great addition for kayak anglers who need all the help they can get. Be it snapper or tarpon, fighting these bruisers from the seated position of a kayak makes handling heavy rods even more difficult.[…]

Charlie King doesn’t go to the Red without a push pole stowed in his boat.

Tip of the day

August 15, 2018 Jerald Horst

“A push pole is an absolute must to fish here,” Charlie King half-grimaced and half-grinned. […]

Kaleb Kellum hoists a feisty bream while his dad, James, looks on. A simple cane pole and a box of worms are all that;s necessary for a great day of catching some hard-fighting panfish.

August’s Best Bets

August 15, 2018 Chris Holmes

Saltwater

Where: Grand Isle: Caminada Pass, Barataria Pass and Elmer’s Island beach

What: Bull reds and jack crevalle in the passes, and trout on the beach[…]

King is fishing what he calls a ridge, simply the completely flooded old bank of an oxbow lake.

Four seasons of the Red

August 15, 2018 Jerald Horst

The Red River Waterway system offers a huge array of bass habitats, including stump fields, backwater lakes, the original river’s banks, rock piles, log jams, reeds (cut grass), oxbow ridges and shorelines, as well as lily pad fields that have bounced back after the floods.[…]

Movement from one pool to the next is done through locks. Although they are very large, built to accommodate barges and tugs, the lock tenders will lock through the smallest fishing boat without hesitation.

Off limits

August 15, 2018 Jerald Horst

Pools No. 5 and 4 are large complex areas because a variety of habitats and properties were flooded by the 7- to 8-foot rise in water levels that followed damming. The two pools are where Charlie King focuses his Red River guiding efforts, and also where Trent Toups does much of his personal bass fishing.[…]

Navigation buoys mark the river’s barge channel and for obvious reasons, are located outside the ends of toppled wing walls. King stressed that it is dangerous to operate a boat on plane between any buoy and the shoreline.

The big challenge on the Red

August 15, 2018 Jerald Horst

The Red River system has lots of bass —and it has big bass. Catching fish isn’t the biggest challenge that visiting anglers face. It’s navigation.[…]

Lyle Johnson serves both as president of the Louisiana Outdoor Writer’s Association and chairman of the Louisiana Fish Records Program.

Don’t cook a record fish

July 15, 2018 Jerald Horst

“Get in the books.” That’s Lyle Johnson’s message to his fellow fishermen.

As chairman of the state’s Fish Records Program, he encourages people to enter their fish, even if it isn’t a No. 1.[…]

Keeping your distance from a top and fishing it from the outside in helps you catch more crappie.

What’s a “top”?

July 15, 2018 Kinny Haddox

A top is simply a submerged brush top, the top of a bush or tree or a fallen tree with lots of submerged limbs. Tops sometimes lay where they fall, and other times current washes them onto sandbars or into river lakes.[…]

Lyle Johnson devotes a lot of time he could be fishing to maintaining the Louisiana Fish Records Program.

A ‘consumptive conservationist’

July 15, 2018 Jerald Horst

Lyle Johnson wears a lot of hats.

The Gonzales native is the long-serving president of the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association (LOWA), the state’s professional organization for outdoors writers and communicators.[…]

Grass shrimp are tiny but lethal baits. Virtually every fish species eats them. The larger shrimp is a female bearing eggs on the swimmerets beneath her tail.

How to catch your own grass shrimp

July 15, 2018 Jerald Horst

Leonard Kleinpeter stresses that a proper dip net is needed to effectively catch grass shrimp from their preferred habitat, dense beds of coontail and other aquatic plants. […]