Ricky Moses knows what Scott Long is talking about. And he totally agrees.
Moses spends most of his life around fish, and he is very familiar with stream and bayou fishing. Most of his time as a biologist manager with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ District 3 Pineville Office is spent on big lakes in his area.
But he also likes to get away to small, secluded waters.
“These are very underutilized, and they give anglers a lot of opportunities,” Moses said. “You have to do some research and need to be in pretty good shape; it isn’t easy.
“You get wet and muddy, and you are going to get hung up and lose some baits, but overall it’s more fun than I can tell you. I love it.”
Moses warned that there are “gray areas” on where you can and can’t go, but you can avoid that if you focus on an area like the Kisatchie National Forest. There are dozens of public-access points and small bodies of water that you know you can fish.
For other areas, make sure you have proper permission.
“When we aren’t hunting, I love to go out on our hunting club and wade the Calcasieu Creek in late spring and summer,” Moses said. “People don’t realize that in places these creeks harbor big populations of bass, channel catfish and longear perch.”
His favorite target is Kentucky bass. You won’t find any 5-pounders, but he takes a couple of crawfish-colored crankbaits and works the deep pockets, catching a limit of fish pretty easily.
Quarter-ounce white-and-chartreuse spinnerbaits also work.
As he pointed out, a limit of 10 1-pounders makes a fine mess of fish for supper.
And all these water bodies offer super fishing for bream, especially sun perch and small longears. It’s always fun to take a box of crickets or worms and let the kids “catch the fire out of the bream.”
Moses’ best fishing tips: Fish upstream, work the current and wade up the current when you can. Fish orient upstream and nab lunch from what is washing downstream.
