Shallow ponds offer sightfishing opportunities
Buras offers redfish anglers options on both sides of the Mississippi River, but when Ty Hibbs loads up for a trip he inveriably launches on the west side.
“We get a lot of northeast and east winds this time of year, and the east side gets so much pressure,” the fishing guide said.
And those factors combine to make fishing so much easier on the west side.
“If you put (the lure) between its eyes, it’s going to eat,” Hibbs said. “I like the 90-percent success rate over there.”
Hibbs, who runs charters out of Woodland Plantation in Port Sulphur, said the water on the west side of Buras is fairly clean and reds are stacking up — making pickings easy when you push into the small ponds.
“You’ll pull into a little pond and you’ll get 20 to 30 shots at 4- to 9- or 10-pounders,” he said.
The waterbottom on that side of the river is very shallow, and it is strewn with oyster shells. So Hibbs said success requires a lot of stealth.
“We’re poling,” Hibbs said. “We hardly ever troll over that hard stuff; with the oyster shells and the noise, it just doesn’t work.”
And he and his clients are looking at every fish they catch, even though the water isn’t gin clear.
“The water is not that crystal clear that we get in November, but if you get in 8 to 10 inches of water, you don’t have to have that really clear water to see them,” Hibbs said. “We rarely blind cast.”
Another advantage to the west side is that finding fish doesn’t require running very far.
“We usually launch behind the school, and we’re not going far,” Hibbs said. “We’ve been staying in No Man’s Land.”
The kicker is that most of Hibbs’ clients are catching fish on flies — so conventional anglers could really mop up.