OK, so they may not be much good to eat, but the bull reds are so thick in Riverside Bay on the west side of the Mississippi River that anglers wanting something tugging on their strings can’t help but get some action.
Oh Boy! Oberto Redfish Cup champion and Pure Fishing pro Greg Watts tried the big reds recently, and vividly recalled why he loves Louisiana so much.
Along in Watts Ranger polling skiff with us was Pure Fishing Senior Marketing Manager Eric Naig. Naig, a resident of Spirit Lake, Iowa, had never even been to Venice before, much less caught a redfish. Like Watts, Naig quickly realized why Louisiana is so special.
We began our morning by working the northern section of Riverside Bay -– each of us throwing something a little different to see what the fish wanted. Watts had a Berkley Gulp 3-inch Pogie rigged on a 3/8-ounce jighead. Naig fished a Berkley Beetle Spin Mullet, and I rigged up a 5-inch Sinking Minnow on a jighead.
Our plan was for Watts to pole Naig and me around so we could bust a few bulls that we could see. It wasn’t long until Watts just couldn’t help himself, and he threw in on a fish that Naig and I couldn’t even see, much less get to bite.
After battling and releasing the 30-inch red, Naig offered his Beetle Spin Mullet to me, and I took it. The fish were making big pushes, but they were somewhat difficult to actually spot in the water. I figured fan casting the area would be a good way to pick up a few fish.
One of my first casts with the spinner was rewarded by a 25-pound red that took considerable time to restrain. That lure produced several more fish for me, but Watts and Naig were doing just as well, if not better, than I was on the blade by targeting specific fish that they could see. The spinnerbait bite started slowing somewhat, so I put it down and picked up a Gulp Pogy.
Our boat continued to catch big reds for much of the day on a hodgepodge of Gulp, Alive and Power Bait plastics. One of the neatest lures that we fished was the Berkley Skirted Blade Dancer. This lure is one of the many chatter-style jigs on the market that swim in an uncontrolled, violent manner. I had always heard these things would be great for reds, and they didn’t disappoint.
As our day wound down, we found ourselves fishing Berkley Alive 4-inch New Penny shrimp about 18 inches under popping corks on the eastern shore of Riverside Bay. The fish ranged from 20 inches to 20 pounds, and Naig caught so many that he determined that he had found his new way to fish.
“I can’t wait to try a popping cork on the walleyes back home,” he said as we idled back into Venice Marina.
Watts and I didn’t know much about that, but we told him that any time he wanted to come back and try it on the reds, there wasn’t any better place to go than Venice.
