Fishing Bay Eloi this month is akin to visiting heaven for trout fishermen. Here are tips for success from three guides who spend a lot of time in the area.
Do you ever wonder how the lakes and bays we fish in got their names? You have to admit, we traverse some waters with interesting names like Fishing Smack Bay, White Log Lake and Dead Duck Pass, just to name a few.
Sometimes it’s pretty easy to guess how the name they bear got hung on them. Obviously, Stump Lagoon got its name from the numerous stumps lurking at and below the surface, and Oak River from the oaks that once lined it.
Bayou La Loutre means “Bayou of the Otter” in French, so at one time it must have been overrun with the furry critters, and Quatro Cabello means Four Horse Lake must have held horses along the bank at some time — or at least four of them.
Lake of Two Trees evidently once had two large distinguishing trees along the bank, and Terre Aux Boeufs being “land of the cattle, obviously had cattle along its path.
Some bodies of water are named after people, like Lake Eugene, Lawson Bay, Bob’s Lakes, Lake Robin and Lake Campo; some were named for a feature that characterized them, such as Bay Shallow, Bayou Long, Round Lake, Shell Lake, Black Bay and Crooked Bayou.
My good friend and fellow Louisiana Sportsman writer Capt. Paul Titus did an excellent article for the magazine a couple of years ago on this very subject (an article so interesting it deserves a replay).
But some of the waters bear more unusual names, and how they came by those names is lost in history.
Take Bay Eloi for instance. It is an unusual name, at least here in the U.S.A. It’s a rather uncommon personal name, it doesn’t describe any feature and its pronunciation varies widely.
We know that the French have a Saint Eloi, and the village of St. Eloi in France was the site of some very heavy fighting in World War I. The Battle of the Muddy St. Eloi Craters was the only place the Canadian forces were defeated in WWI.
I think it doubtful Bay Eloi was named after either the saint or that WWI battle.
Science fiction and movie buffs might remember the docile and gentile people called the Eloi, who were preyed upon by the cannibalistic, cave-dwelling Morlocks in the H.G. Wells classic “The Time Machine.” But I don’t think the bay was named after them, either.
Capt. Paul says Eloi in Latin and French can mean a far off place or something of importance, and perhaps that’s what it was to the early settlers in the area. That could be that’s the origin of its name.
Most interesting is that the word Eloi is used in the Holy Bible, and was spoken by the Savior Himself from the cross when he cried, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is interpreted as “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).
So Eloi is an Aramaic word for “God” or, more specifically, “My God.”
Which opens the possibility that Bay Eloi could be My God’s Bay or the Bay of God or even God’s Own Bay — any of which would mean it must have made quite an impression on the person who christened it.
Whatever its etymology, Bay Eloi should be high on your list as a prime destination for speckled trout fishing this month, as its waters virtually teem with shrimp and all the critters that eat them.
It’s a large body of water of nearly 60 square miles stretching from the outer edge of the marsh all the way to Breton Sound. Roughly speaking, Lake Athanasio is the western border, the land mass around Bayou Loutre is its northern border stretching to Point Lydia, the Long Rocks comprise its southern border and Breton Sound is to its east.
Think of it as 60 square miles of possibilities.
I tapped the expertise of a few knowledgeable captains to get their input on fishing God’s Bay.
Here’s what they had to say:
