As the Tickfaw River sac-a-lait population makes a rebound, anglers are reaping the rewards
It’s one thing to see a few dead fish floating on the surface of the water after a hurricane blows through. It’s another thing to witness an entire river void of anglers in the months after. That’s what occurred after Hurricane Ida stomped Southeast Louisiana in 2021.
Dedicated anglers
The Tickfaw River is home to a bevy of anglers who target species of the freshwater variety, including bass, bream and catfish. But its most prized possession may be the loyal sac-a-lait anglers who call the river home. In the years following Ida, that loyalty was certainly tested, as anglers were forced to pack up their jig poles and head up and down Interstate 12 in search of new water.
“There was just nothing there,” said John Tyler of Hammond.
Tyler is 43 years old and has been fishing the Tickfaw River for sac-a-lait for over two decades. After numerous attempts to catch fish on the river in the days after the storm, Tyler moved 21 miles east to the Tchefuncte River, which was unaffected.
“Oh, it was like night and day,” he said. “For whatever reason, the Tchefuncte didn’t miss a beat — my screen was lit up with fish on my first trip there.”
However, Tyler wasn’t the only one who relocated.
“That Fourth Avenue launch in Covington was jam-packed,” he said. “It got out of hand for a while.”
Eventually, Tyler moved back to the Tickfaw and re-dedicated himself to fishing harder on the river and noticed the crappie population improve. Today, he said the sac-a-lait are back and he’s catching fish in his normal spots just like he did before Ida.
“This month, I’m averaging 30 fish a trip — average fish is 8-10 inches with a few 13’s sprinkled in,” he said.
Future fish
Billy Adams of Madisonville has been fishing the Tickfaw for over a decade and recalls what fishing was like before Ida.
“On an average day, I would put something like five to eight keepers in the boat,” he said. “On a good day, it would be about nine to 15 keepers. Keeper fish, for me, are over 9 inches.”
Adams fished the Tickfaw two weeks after the fish kill and said he was lucky if he spotted two fish the entire day. After a hiatus from fishing the river, Adams returned and was pleasantly surprised at what he caught.
“My last trip, I caught 40 keepers between 10-12 inches,” he said.
Adams said he’s seeing a ton of small sac-a-lait as well.
“There are a lot of little fish, and I believe the Tickfaw will be even better in about two years when all those fish have time to grow,” he said.
This month, Adams has been catching in the main river and the dead-end canals, but insists on targeting wood.
“Shallow water — anywhere from 2-4 feet,” he said. “Cast close to the cypress trees using a jig rigged 1 foot under a cork.”
Looking for the 2-pounders
Thomas Armstrong and Courtney Randall of Ponchatoula fish the Tickfaw River often but admit they weren’t in a rush to fish after the hurricane passed.
“We came down to the boat launch by the bridge and you could see all the floating fish in the river,” Armstrong said.
After two months of cleanup and repairs, the friends were finally able to make a trip, but it didn’t last very long.
“All you could smell was dead fish — the entire ride down the river — nothing but the smell of dead fish,” Randall said. “We even saw a few 3-pound bass floating by. It was bad.”
The friends gave up on the river but started fishing it this year and said it’s good to see it recovering.
“Our latest trip was our best since the storm, but it’s not quite back,” Randall said. “Before the storm we were catching 2-pound fish in here, but we haven’t seen any 2’s come out since.”
In March, the team uses tube jigs rigged 2 feet under a cork.
“Anything with black and chartreuse in it,” Armstrong said.
He also recommends throwing Beetle Spins for spawning sac-a-lait in March.
Next year’s fish
Toby Bean has been fishing the Tickfaw since 1987. Like most sac-a-lait anglers, Bean was a bass fisherman but later converted to sac-a-lait after experiencing “the thump.”
“Oh yeah — there’s just something about that thump,” he said. “After you get it, you need more.”
Bean lives 300 yards from the Boopalus boat launch in Springfield and said he knew they were in trouble after smelling dead fish a few weeks after the storm had passed.
“The smell was everywhere,” he said. “I talked to a few people in Kingspoint and they said they had dead flounder in their yard after the water receded.”
Before the storm, Bean averaged between 20-40 keeper fish.
“I keep all fish over 10 inches,” he said.
After returning to the river three months after the storm, he could only spot shad in the river.
“There was nothing,” he said. “It hurt us — it really did.”
Bean continued to fish the river and said the fish slowly came back. In 2023, he learned that the river was going to be just fine when he made a trip and caught over 60 small sac-a-lait from 4-6 inches.
“I went in the fall of 2023 and just wore them out,” he said. “I had one of the best trips ever, catching over 60 fish. Now, a lot of them were small, but those are going to be what I call next-year fish.”
Since then, the river has been producing fish steadily.
In March, Bean recommends fishing shallow.
“Once that water temperature reaches 60 degrees, those fish are moving up into the dead-end canals,” he said.
Bean uses a jig under a cork but changes the color of the jig according to the water color.
“If the water is stained, I use a black and chartreuse Bobby Garland jig,” he said. “If the water is that dark-looking swamp water — that root beer color — I like to use the Bobby Garland in Mayfly color.”
Hungry fish
Robert Gauley of Maurepas is a lifelong Tickfaw fisherman. Like most sac-a-lait anglers after the fish kill, Gauley’s first attempt at fishing the river came up empty. He decided to move east to fish Bayou Lacombe and caught 30 fish. Hoping to aid in the recovery, Gauley took the fish he caught in the bayou and relocated them to the Tickfaw. Several months later, he and his son, Laitin, fished the main river using Bobby Garland jigs in the bone white color and caught 13 keeper sac-a-lait. They were fishing in 12-14 feet of water.
“These weren’t picky fish,” Gauley noted. “They were hitting our jigs like they hadn’t eaten in days.”
On Robert’s most recent trip, he was fishing a black hair jig rigged 2 feet under a cork.
“The water was about 2 feet lower than normal and it was muddy,” he said. “I noticed the fish would flash from the deep at the jig, so I rigged it deeper at around 3.5 feet and fished further off the bank. That seemed to be the ticket.”
Gauley ended the day with 21 keeper sac-a-lait over 10 inches.
Tickfaw tournament
Ray Miller is an avid sac-a-lait angler who fishes both the Tickfaw and the Tchefuncte River. Miller recalls struggling for years after the storm.
“I fished the Tickfaw several times over the years after Ida and didn’t have any luck,” he said.
So the veteran returned solely to fishing the Tchefuncte River, that is, until this past October when he and a few friends decided to put on a sac-a-lait tournament. The two possible locations came down to the Tickfaw and the Tchefuncte, but there was hesitancy among the tournament directors to hold it at the Tickfaw, so Miller volunteered to make a scouting trip. He was fishing with his friend, Tom Boudreaux, and it quickly became clear that the Tickfaw would be a great place to hold the tournament.
“We started out checking old spots that I found some time back, and sure enough — those spots had fish,” he said. “When I realized we may be in store for a banner day, we started counting every fish we caught.”
The friends stopped counting at 120.
“It was an epic day to say the least,” Miller said. “We kept 40 nice fish. You couldn’t even put your pole down to get a drink of water. If your jig was in the water, it was getting bit.”
The decision was made and the tournament was held at the Tickfaw River.
“I am very happy to say that the Tickfaw fishery is fine and getting better every day,” Miller said. “Mother Nature has a funny way of doing that.”
While some anglers are reporting catches that rival pre-storm numbers and others maintain the fishery still has ground to cover before returning to its former glory, one thing is clear — the Tickfaw is steadily healing. With abundant juvenile sac-a-lait appearing in catches and increasing numbers of keeper-sized fish being reported, the future looks promising. As today’s smaller fish continue to grow and multiply, and the dedication of local anglers remains unwavering, the Tickfaw’s best days may still lie ahead.
