Although Capt. Jason Shilling believes November is his last best opportunity to catch lots of redfish before the wintertime slowdown, he has fished long enough to know that some Louisiana Novembers aren’t that much different than Louisiana Septembers.
“I’ve always heard of Indian Summer when I bowhunt up north,” he said. “That’s a stretch of unusually warm weather during fall.
“Well, we’ve all experienced fishing out of Lafitte in shorts around Christmas, so the likelihood of us having an Indian Summer is pretty good just about any year.”
Indian Summers are great for the redfishing around Lafitte because that means we haven’t had as many fronts blowing through, which in turn means more water and more bait in places like Little Lake, Lake Salvador and The Pen.
“If the water and bait stay in longer, that means the redfish stay in longer, too,” Shilling said. “The only difference may be that you’ll get more of a mixed bag of sizes.
“Rather than a bunch of 27- and 28-inch fish, you’ll catch a lot more of those 18-inchers. That’s a good thing, though, because that’s the best size for the grill.”