Tournament redfishing in Louisiana has grown in popularity in recent years. Here’s how you can key in on tournament-winning reds — or simply increase your chances of success every time you hit the water.
Kaplan’s Skip Floyd and his wife Tanya had traveled east by boat all the way from Bridge City, Texas, to the Lambert weir on southern Lake Calcasieu. The husband-and-wife team were fishing a Gulf Coast redfish tournament, and they made the long run to boat two slot redfish to haul back to the weigh-in.
“Tanya and I pulled up behind the weirs and began easing along while sight-fishing for redfish,” the 47-year-old Skip Floyd said. “We were fortunate to eventually see a group of birds hovering in one of the ponds, and there was a school of redfish beneath them.
Skip was throwing a pearl white, 6- inch Al Gag Whip-It Eel, while Tanya chunked a pink version of the lure.
“We both hooked up and had our two slot fish immediately,” said Floyd. “Now we were looking to cull for heavier fish.”
The pod of redfish came through again, and each angler caught another fish — but one was over the slot and had to be released.
“The fish then passed through one more time, and we cast again,” said Floyd. “We caught two more and culled to 16.87- pounds.
“I made the decision to immediately get out of there and head back to the marina 68 miles away,” he said. “We arrived there with some time to spare, fortunately.”
The Floyds’ decision to gamble and travel so far paid: Their two redfish was enough to win the tournament.
It is no secret that tournament redfishing in Louisiana is popular. The season usually runs from March until October.
For 2013, there are three scheduled major redfish tournament series in Louisiana: the Inshore Fishing Association; the Louisiana Saltwater Series; and the HT Redfish Series, which includes the H2O Shock tour.
Floyd and 29-year-old Anthony Beslin of Rayne, who will team up this year in many of the tournaments, agreed to share the strategies and tactics that help them put fish in the boat.
Scouting for slot redfish
“The very first thing we do before and during the season is to look at topo maps and Google Earth, and make some decisions,” Floyd said. “You can’t predict the weather or even decide what baits to use — but you can certainly find likely locations where redfish will probably be, depending on the tides, whether we’re fishing Venice, Delacroix, Grand Isle, Lafitte, Houma, Calcasieu Lake or other places.
“When fishing tournaments in southeastern Louisiana, you’re certainly looking at marsh ponds, whereas in Calcasieu Lake you’re focusing on rock structure.”
That is compared to what other anglers have reported.
“Then it’s a matter of looking at the results of other tournaments and fishing reports — but certainly you can’t always trust what’s reported,” Floyd said.
Beslin said he is always on the lookout for redfish groceries when he’s scouting.
“You’ve got to find the bait,” he emphasized. “Yes, I like to find the pretty water in marsh ponds, but finding bait is most important to find schooling slot redfish in the marsh.”
He said narrowing down their options requires a real investment of time.
“We’ll spend as many as five days prefishing before a tournament, and we also have to spend considerable time finding redfish within the slot,” Beslin said. “If we are successful finding the right-size fish in ponds, you can pretty much expect them to be there if the weather remains stable.
“But if the weather is not cooperating and the winds change, then we have to count on ponds that favor your fishing on that specific tournament day.”
That means they spend time locating ponds for any eventuality.
Beslin said they specifically target 27-inchers.
“When you pull up and see those (fish) with fat bellies — those are the ones you target,” he said. “That’s why you focus on the baitfish.”
Floyd said he wants to find schools of one specific baitfish above all other types of redfish forage.
“You really want to focus on finding pogies,” he said. “Pogies are the bait that puts the fat on redfish, for certain. For the same lengths, marsh redfish foraging on pogies are certainly thicker than those that are not.
“You don’t want to target redfish feeding on crabs, for example. Crabs just don’t put the weight on redfish, as compared to a pogie diet.
“When we find redfish on pogies, we’ll be smiling because those fish will be the fat, 27- inch reds.”
Poling flats boats and other shallow draft crafts is another very important aspect of their strategy — and not just for sight-fishing aloft.
“Poling is a great way not to disturb the schools of fish within a pond,” Floyd said.
Running the big motor or the trolling motor can disturb the schools of redfish — especially if there is already a lot of fishing pressure, he said.
Western Louisiana redfish locales
Floyd and Beslin said there are some areas of Calcasieu Lake and Sabine Lake that they always look at from April into summer.
“Calcasieu Lake’s east bank is where we find often redfish,” Floyd said. “Launch from Hebert’s Landing and head south along the east bank, and fish the rock structures to include all five weirs.
“But also concentrate on rock reefs and shore rocks extending from the eastern banks.”
Floyd is also fond of fishing the jetties — both the old structure and the one exiting out into the Gulf.
“There will be redfish scattered all along the jetty system,” he said. “There’ll be bulls in there, also — some really big fish. But you will also happen along the slot fish there.”
As for Sabine Lake on the Texas/Louisiana border, Beslin said anglers benefit by fishing rock structures — especially those along the jetty system and the extended rock structures along the Intracoastal Canal.
Beslin said anglers also can find drains out of the marsh available on the eastern edges of Sabine and along the Intracoastal.
Much of the interior of these marshes is privately owned, with the exception of that available at Sabine National Wildlife Refuge on the eastern banks of Sabine Lake. Portions of Sabine NWR are open to the boating public, yet a lot of the interior is closed to fishing.
Furthermore, recreational fishing by boat on Sabine NWR is only allowed from March 15 through Oct. 15 and only within specific canals.
Complete fishing regulations to be found at www.fws.gov/southeast/pubs/SWLAcomplex_Fish.pdf.
Access Sabine Lake’s east side by launching at the Deep Bayou Road landing. You can reach it by taking Gulf Beach Highway 82 to Middle Ridge Road (on the right) just past the Johnson Bayou High School; follow Middle Ridge Road and take a right on Berwick Road; follow Berwick Road to Parish Road 548 and take a left. Then follow 548 to Deep Bayou Road where a right is taken with the landing immediately following on the left.