Columns

Time to go sling some lead!

I readily admit to being a rifle nut. Handguns are great and a career in law enforcement provides one with a great deal of training and experience with them. But rifles are my favorite and as a hunter and shooting enthusiast, I have always found them more interesting and useful.[…]

Columns

More jawbone talk

In recent installments of Happy Trails we have kicked around various aspects of both the science and art of aging whitetails on and off “the hoof.” Most deer hunters want to become as proficient as possible at estimating deer age BEFORE pulling the trigger, but it is equally important to either confirm or revise your eyeball estimate after the kill.[…]

Freshwater Fishing

10 tips for finding and catching more bream

Bream are by the far the most plentiful fish and easiest to catch. You don’t even need a boat in many lakes and ponds. Almost every area body of water has bream in it and we have all kinds — bluegills. chinquapins, sunfish, goggle-eyes and all kinds of hybirds.[…]

Fishing

Tippets

June is the best month for CCA members looking to place an entry in the STAR tournament Fly Rod Division. As summer wears on and water temperatures rise, bigger specks become more selective and more difficult to catch on flies.[…]

Inshore Fishing

Cork fishing tips

Fishing with popping corks, like any other technique, is an art. Steve Kissee offered some tips for effective use of popping corks. Some are specific to his Versamaxx corks; others apply to the use of any brand of cork.[…]

Inshore Fishing

Why Shell Beach?

Lower St. Bernard Parish, whether one launches out of Shell Beach, Hopedale, Yscloskey, or Delacroix, has long been a sportfishing playground for New Orleanians. Fishermen can launch at any of the four sites to access the rocks at the end of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.[…]

Inshore Fishing

A little fishing geography

The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a dredged channel completed in 1965, never lived up to its predicted potential to largely replace the river proper as a deepwater approach to the Port of New Orleans.[…]

Inshore Fishing

Make a drop shot rig

Drop shot rigs came to the United States by way of Japanese anglers who settled on the West Coast. They employed the technique with great success in the clear, deep bass reservoirs of California and was other anglers caught on to the tactic, it spread faster than a Western wildfire, pun intended.[…]