Features from May 2019
Stop wasting time surf fishing under hopeless conditions; follow these 10 steps to increase your chances of speckled trout fishing success.
There’s no denying the impact of mastering the angling mechanics. Here’s a roundup of bass fishing skills that can help improve your game.
Austin LeJeune landed a 12.02 lunker at Caddo Lake. He took photos and videoed the release of the big fish back into the lake to spawn as part of the BASELINE Trophy Replica program.
It was an absolutely epic day for landing lunker bass at Toledo Bend on March 20. A grand total of four 10-pound-plus bass were taken to certified scales that day.
Louisiana is facing an ongoing crisis of coastal land loss that threatens coastal communities, a rich culture and one of the most productive fisheries in the world.
The New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club expects 2019 to be another great year for their anglers and activities.
Jon Miller predicts how the high river water will affect speckled trout movement this month and best areas to find them in New Orleans East.
The long awaited opening of red snapper season is finally upon us. Here are some tips, tactics & targets for what should be an awesome season.
Anglers fight to find a solution to the water access crises in Louisiana, as more anglers out for a good time in the Sportsman’s Paradise are harassed, ticketed, prosecuted and fined.
No matter where you bass fish in Louisiana, bass follow traditional patterns in the spring. Knowing them helps you catch more fish.
Columns - May 2019
- Recipes for Crawfish Étouffée and Turtle Sauce Piquant from Barry Toups, who was appointed in 2018 to the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board.
- An often-overlooked but highly successful technique for catching trout from a kayak is trolling. This is the perfect time of the year to do it.
- Learn the true capability topwater baits possess and how their limitless upside allows you to fish them confidently.
- Swordfish (Xiphias gladius), often referred to as broadbills or broadbill swordfish, are highly sought-after by offshore anglers around the world.
- A new artificial lure on the shelves and in tackleboxes is doing more, much more, than giving lip service to the process of catching bass.
- Unfortunately, many cameras on sale are often non-camouflaged. Well no need to spend more money. The cameras can be self-painted for only pennies in cost.
Outdoor Updates - May 2019
- Five-year-old Hayden Johnson’s grandpa and dad recently brought him turkey hunting for the first time on their club in Jackson Parish and he got a fully plumed, wily tom squarely in the neck from 25 yards away.
- Briefly, greater amberjack season, scheduled to open May 1 across the Gulf of Mexico, will remain closed. The season for gray triggerfish will close at 12:01 a.m., May 11 across the gulf, and it remain closed until March 1, 2020.
- The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has scheduled a drawdown for Chicot Lake in Evangeline Parish as part of its integrated management plan for aquatic vegetation control.
- For the first time in history, high water levels in the Mississippi River have forced the opening of the Bonnet Carre’ Spillway in consecutive years. Here's how the Bonnet Carré opening is affecting our fish, crabs and oysters.
- Capt. Brian Windsor of Hackberry caught this 7 ½-pound speckled trout on a bone-colored Heddon One Knocker Spook topwater lure at West Cove on March 14.
- Implemented by the Louisiana Legislature to eliminate landowner liability while the “recreational” property is being used by the public, the Louisiana Recreational Immunity Act has done what it was intended to do.
- Patrick Banks, assistant secretary for fisheries, said trout limits for 2019 “probably” would not be affected while the results were being reevaluated by department biologists.
- The third time was the charm for Garret Perkins when he targeted a big bedding bass on March 25 in the Negreet area of Toledo Bend.
- Bryan Hargiss, of St. Louis, Missouri, landed an 11.14-pound largemouth bass on March 13 in a cove near Holly Park Marina.
- Effective this week, a white Redflex Jeep equipped with radar and cameras is on the island to monitor — and enforce — posted speed limits in Grand Isle:.
- Craig Broussard, of Fulshear, Texas, had the last laugh when he reeled in this 10.41-pound largemouth bass on April Fool’s Day.
- An unseasonably cool cold front arriving on March 30 produced two nice lunker largemouth bass at Toledo Bend.
Field Notes - May 2019
- Beaches are among the most productive of summertime destinations for speckled trout anglers, but they can also be the most intimidating.
Hot Spots - May 2019
- In the experience of Capt. Jacques "Jakamo" Laboureur, speckled trout season always starts up at the Rocks at the end of the MRGO.
- Mike Malone, president of the Elite Kayak Club, is a firm believer in Berkley Gulp’s chartreuse Swimming Mullet when he wants flounder at Big Lake.
- Donovan Stoner said he’d focus his attention on the multitude of cypress trees that cover Black Lake, and offered his Top 3 lures for Black Lake in May.
- For many anglers, sac-a-lait are seasonal fish. But for Clyde Folse, the owner of Crappie Psychic, sac-a-lait are a staple 12 months a year.
- Topwaters of every kind retrieved seductively at choice locations around Henderson Lake fuel the bass fishing passion of a Lafayette native.
- If you aren’t catching speckled trout under the birds in May at Calcasieu Lake, you’ll want to be on the lower end of the lake system around reefs.
- As the spawn works its way north to south on Toledo Bend in May, bream move up the same way to do their thing, which is key to getting on bass.