Features from January 2019
The water was high, but it wouldn’t be for long.
Tips to improve your bass angling skills for the new year.
Tips, tactics and blind construction pointers to successfully hunt specklebelly geese in Southwest Louisiana.
Catching South Louisiana cold-water crappie in the winter.
Spending time in the Union Parish woods has been beneficial to the Washington family’s deer hunting success.
Speckled trout stacked in deep water along Louisiana Highway 1 in spots like the Forbidden Hole and the Snake Pit are what Tommy Vidrine is after.
Columns - Janaury 2019
- Colleen and Christian Orfanello create original, unique dishes. Here they share their recipes for Bull Turtle Soup and Smoky Soft-Shell Crabs.
- Finding most sharks difficult to identify, with the risk of keeping a protected species and getting a ticket, most sportsmen simply release them.
- Fill the upcoming void in hunting seasons by hog-dogging.
- January marks the end of the 2018-1919 deer season, and in Areas 1 and 6 the rut is at its peak. It is the time for real wall-hangers to be chasing does, and the best time for a hunter to connect with one.
- Vudu’s new Weedless Shrimp is perfect for shallow water applications.
- For kayak fishermen, January and February are generally dreaded months, but pick the right days and you can enjoy a great cold-weather kayak trip.
Outdoor Updates - January 2019
- Malcolm Hilburn was about to give up after a wet morning in the Caddo Parish woods — until a giant 200-class buck showed up on the trail of a doe.
- Positioning a ground blind near the intersection of two deer trails did the truck for Cody Cupepper, who downed a massive 180-inch public lands brute on Boeuf WMA in Caldwell Parish.
- Heath Hodges recently won something akin to a big buck lottery on the afternoon of Dec. 3, when he downed a giant Magnolia State monster that green-scored more than 217 inches of bone.
- Rumors of a new typical state deer record are swirling around a majestic 17-point buck Joe McPherson shot on Dec. 9 in Avoyelles Parish.
- We researched the archives of LouisianaSportsman.com and came up with the 10 most compelling stories of the year.
Field Notes - January 2019
- The water was high, but it wouldn’t be for long.
Hot Spots - January 2019
- There are three ‘magnetic’ bridges across Lake D’Arbonne: Their forces draw both crappie — and crappie fishermen — in bunches this time of year.
- As we get closer to the prespawn period on Toledo Bend, don’t be surprised to see double-digit bass caught.
- Like most bass, the largemouths on Lake Claiborne near Homer just like to find a good spot to hang out in January while waiting for warmer weather and the spawn.
- Capt. Mike Gallo offered a couple extra free tips to help you catch more fish on these colder days of winter.
- The winter is a fantastic time to throw jerkbaits and twitchbaits in the Tchefuncte River while hunting down prespawn bass.
- Slot reds and bull reds by the box-full can be caught in January in a couple areas around Vermilion Bay.
- Marshes north of two popular lakes in the Dularge area have been giving up redfish consistently for several months, and that shouldn’t stop in January.
- There’s a network of canals due east across Lake Verret from the Shell Beach area where the bass fishing turns on in January.
- Hopedale guide finds most of his redfish away from the shoreline in January.
- Capt. Chad Dufrene of Dufrene’s Guide Service in Delacroix Island expects the redfish bite to be phenomenal this winter.
- For the past couple of winters, instead of jigging, Chas Champagne has been dragging baits behind his boat to entice bites from speckled trout.