Features from August 2018
Finding three Bassmaster Elite Series pros working a hot bite less than a rod length from one another is a rarity, if not the prelude to a heated interaction.
With morning glories blooming across the canal, Capt. Cody Obiol was pushing away from the dock as I waited for his boss, Capt. Ryan Lambert to launch his Skeeter bay boat. Obiol was after bull reds that morning, but he knew my mission involved something much different, so his gracious salutation stoked my optimism.
Mother Nature typically cranks up the furnace on high this month, enveloping the state in a sticky, humid sauna that practically leaves anglers begging for the first cool fronts of fall.
You’ve dreamed about it — a private sanctuary loaded with trophy deer, abundant food plots, all-weather stands, improved roads, a beautiful lodge and a great group of friends and family to share it with.
The dog days of summer have arrived, and that means staying on the water for 12 hours to limit out on speckled trout is about as much fun as hitting your thumb with a hammer. Twice.
Determining when to fish Old River isn’t guesswork. Dave Pizzolato watches river gages, specifically the Mississippi River station at Baton Rouge.
With the advent of today’s electronics, this national champion crappie angler says old-fashioned spider-rigging is a thing of the past.
Louisiana’s Red River used to be a mud hole. Or at least, something close to it.
For most folks, it’s almost too hot outside to go fishing. You’ve really got to want it to go chasing largemouth bass this time of year.
Mangroves may not get all the publicity their rosy relatives receive, but you can catch 10 per day year-round. Here’s how one Buras guide fills the box.
Columns - August 2018
- It’s time to prepare for the upcoming bowhunting season, and what you do now could very well determine outcomes later this fall.
- “Tonight we do Cajun,” proclaimed the rugged man’s man with a flourish. “I’m a Coonass — but I’m really half-Italian and half-Cajun. My Momma was a Baldissaro.”
- This area is actually where Capt. Paul’s Fishing Edge got started. The interest generated from this location allowed me to start marketing waypoints for 21 different areas, including Barataria Bay, Lake Borgne, Hopedale to Bayou Terre Boeufs, Bayou Bienvenue, Port Sulphur, Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne and many more.
- Learn how to age the bucks that most hunters mount, the 4- to 6-year-old deer that are exhibiting their best antler growth.
- Several years ago, I went to see the movie “The Big Year” starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson. While it was enjoyable, I also found it somewhat educational.
- Glen Freeman of Zwolle has a new weapon in his bass fishing arsenal when he goes out to Toledo Bend. So does Zack Hughes of Quitman, Texas, who boated a 10-plus-pounder on the first day he fished with it at Lake Fork.
- Many kayak anglers dream of catching giant fish from their small plastic boats. However, going in the completely opposite direction can be even more fun. Imagine catching scores of tiny, delicious fish — using nothing more than worms and a cane pole, or lightweight spinning gear.
- Louisiana’s bream fishermen have a pile of fish to choose from. Tops on the list are bluegills and redear sunfish (also called lake runners or chinquapin). And fat-bellied goggle-eyes are always in the mix somewhere. In a lot of places, you can throw in some green sunfish (slick perch) or red-spotted sunfish (stumpknockers).
- A line from a Mark Chesnutt song goes: “It’s too hot to fish, and too hot for golf and too cold at home.” I have an amen for his estimation of the current fishing and golf conditions, and am happy to report good weather at home.
- My goodness, where has the time gone? In another month, SEC football games will be playing live on television, and the opening of archery season for deer will be less than 30 days away.
Outdoor Updates - August 2018
- Ask a Florida flats angler what his favorite fish is, and he’ll probably tell you it’s a permit – the darling of Sunshine State fishermen that looks and tastes very similar to pompano, and gives one heck of a fight when hooked.
- Another 2,000 tons of limestone and crushed concrete will be added adjacent to the existing Brad Vincent Reef in Big Lake this May, expanding the original 6-acre site by an additional 3 to 4 acres.
- A New Iberia man and his juvenile son were found guilty in 16 th Judicial District court in Iberia Parish for the 2015 killing of a Louisiana black bear near Weeks Island.
- For a little while at least, Toledo Bend guide Jason Courville figured his trip on June 28 would be about the big one that got away.
- A 30-year-old Lettsworth man who admitted shooting a Louisiana black bear because he said he thought it was a hog was ordered to pay $10,250 in civil restitution and attorney fees, according to a press release from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
- Life is made up of learning experiences, and last year Ty Trosclair got a tough one: He caught a tagged redfish, but wasn't registered for the Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana's STAR Tournament.
Field Notes - August 2018
- I vaguely saw a quick fleck of blue in the moss 2 feet below the surface of the clear marsh water. Unsure of what actually was beneath the ripples, I tossed my jighead hooked with catfish skin next to the grass pile. It laid on the mud bottom for two seconds, when a huge claw suddenly flashed out of the green growth.
- Get a good real-time reading of the wind’s impact on tidal estimates using a piling or other stationary object in the water.
- How annoying is it when you grab one rod and two others are attached to it?
- We were fishing Delacroix when a speckled trout coughed up this weird thing shown in the picture above. Read on to learn what exactly it is — and why it’s important to you as an inshore angler.
- Back in May, me and some of my closest fishing buddies targeted speckled trout to be tagged and released at the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) Long Rocks.
Hot Spots - August 2018
- Fishing is all about stacking as many odds in your favor as possible, and something you should certainly put in your favor this month is leaving the dock early. Not only do you beat the heat, but you also get a much better speckled trout bite, according to Slidell guide Capt. Matt McCabe.
- With speckled trout fishing success up and down this year in Calcasieu Lake, particularly during a summer plagued by high west winds, it’s time to point the bow of the boat to the beach from Johnson Bayou to Holly Beach.
- The hot summer weather got you down? Well, why not cool off with some bass on the rocks — Red River south style.
- Previously, on a typical August day, Delacroix anglers would head out into Black Bay and fish the same islands and structures that have produced trout for decades. Stone Island, Lonesome Island, Belle Island, the Wreck, the Black Tanks, Iron Banks and Battledore Reef were landmarks thick with trout and consistent producers, year after year.
- Unless the lower Spillway turned on in late July, at least one Morgan City bass angler will be fishing on the other side of the East Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee in August.
- No matter what kind of fishing you’re doing in the marsh, finding clean water is almost always helpful.
- Getting bites during the heat of the day in August could be a challenge for bass anglers at Toledo Bend.
- Inshore action out of Venice has been consistent this summer, and may be one of the best parts of the state if you’re looking to battle bull redfish.
- August can be a slow month for speckled trout fishing, but in the Dularge area this month, local guide Capt. Marty LaCoste expects it to be really good.
- Hot. Sizzling, searing, scorching, broiling, roasting — all describe our summer weather, and the trout don’t seem to like it any more than we do. Perhaps it’s why they pulled a disappearing act in June and have had anglers scratching their heads ever since.