River full of reds

Long runs unnecessary for limits of Venice redfish.

The wind was howling as I made the drive down Highway 23 from New Orleans to Venice. The flag at Buras had hardly a ripple in it, as the 20-knot winds tried to rip it off the pole.

Fortunately, the westerly direction meant there was the chance of finding some cover — and the Mississippi River was absolutely gorgeous.

And the redfish were thick.I spent yesterday (Oct. 1) with Artie Cosby of Top Brass Tackle and Mississippi’s Sam Davis, and it didn’t take long to confirm the reports of bulls trolling the rocks.

After breaking out of the Jump and into the main river, we hugged the western bank. The river wasn’t bad, and within a couple of casts Cosby landed the first fish of the day — a hybrid bass.

A few more casts yielded the first redfish.

But Cosby kept eying the eastern rocks along the river.

“If we can fish that wall (of rocks), I know there are some jacks over there,” he said.

I rolled my eyes and made another cast, but finally Cosby cajoled me and Davis into tying down the equipment and heading east.

We made it almost all the way across the river when it became painfully obvious that fishing that stretch of rocks would be akin to jumping in the river — we’d be soaked by white-capped waves. Water was spraying over the sides of Davis’ flats boat as we came off plane, so we simply turned around and headed back west.

And continued catching fish.

Numbers of rat reds were tight to the rocks, while bulls were hanging farther out in a bit deeper water. While the bites didn’t come on every cast, the action was steady and the number of redfish coming over the gunnel quickly grew.

Watch the attached video to learn more about what we used to catch more than 60 redfish by the end of the day.

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