Inshore Fishing
Louisiana company makes a better shrimp
Every trout angler knows that shrimp imitations catch fish. The slow, horizontal fall is too much for any hungry speckled trout to resist.[…]
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Freshwater Fishing
Favorite bream rig
Fishing bream doesn’t take any special equipment or bait. A small trout worm on a No. 4 Aberdeen-style hook is preferred.[…]
Inshore Fishing
The seasons of Pontchartrain
Speckled tout fishing in Lake Pontchartrain follows a regular annual cycle with four fishing seasons.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
The scribe
Jim Looney is more than the average angler, with 12 fishing booklets to his credit. The books focus on how to catch bass, bream and sac-a-lait in the Grand Bayou-Lake Verret area, as well as the Atchafalaya Basin, and redfish and speckled trout in Pointe au Chien.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Popping out poppers and other popular patterns
My colleague and accomplished fly tier, Reb Stewart recently gave me a box of foam-bodied poppers and various insect patterns. The colors looked good, the legs and antennae, etc. all set just right.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
No fancy stuff
Modern bass fishermen are known for their endless array of fancy and expensive equipment. Fishing with Jim Looney is like a throwback to a simpler time, a time when it seemed like any angler could be reasonably confident of catching bass.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
The 14-inch minimum:
The 14-inch-minimum-size limit on all black bass — both largemouth and spotted — in the Atchafalaya Basin, Lakes Verret, Palourde, Fausse Point/Dauterive areas has been in effect since the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Best equipment
While shiners can be used to fish for post-spawning crappie, most fishermen ease through the stump fields fishing about 10 feet deep with jigs.[…]
Freshwater Fishing
Where to go
Lake D’Arbonne is located near Farmerville in north-central Louisiana, and there are several public boat ramps providing easy access to the stump fields in the Stowe Creek, Terral Island and Bear Creek areas of the lake.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Transition tactics
Capt. John Aucoin defines the spring transition period in eastern Terrebonne as the months of March and April. Through February, speckled trout will be found bunched mostly in waters north of Catfish Lake.[…]
Bass Fishing
Go white for sight-fishing
Pretty much any plastic lure will work to snatch big sows off beds, but Craig Graham has a particular affinity for a Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw.[…]
Bass Fishing
Boat block
Wind is the sight-fisherman’s enemy, but Craig Graham said there is a way to minimize the waves that break visual contact with bedding bass.[…]
Bass Fishing
Crankbait tip
On our recent trip to Bayou Teche, Foulcard and I used crankbaits almost exclusively, and switched to soft plastics around mid-morning, when conditions and terrain warranted.[…]
Bass Fishing
Optimizing your tube
For those deep jobs with a lead head inserted into your tube, you’ll enhance the bait with a few well-placed snips. First, cut a ¼- to ½-inch slit in the tube’s body along the inside edge of the hook shank.[…]
Inshore Fishing
Redfish and bass love swimbaits
With the combination of redfish and largemouth bass becoming more prevalent around Lafitte because of the Davis Pond diversion canal, it only makes sense for anglers to throw baits that target both fish at one time.[…]
Bass Fishing
Titan tubes
Fishing is a spectrum, and just as tiny baits and delicate tactics hold a solid position at one end, the opposite end sees the profound relevance of big and bold.[…]