Sure, the heat is suffocating. You can barely stand to be outside, and you spend your sleeping hours dreaming of crisp leaves, pumpkin cake and October cool fronts.[…]
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.[…]
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. […]
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.[…]
There are more varieties of soft-plastic paddletail lures on the market than boats, outboards and trolling motors put together. Each manufacturer constantly develops new colors and styles in hopes of catching anglers’ attention as they side-step down the aisles of their local tackle shops. But do these lures actually catch fish?[…]
For me, the peak of summer comes near the end of its second month, during the annual Faux Pas Lodge Invitational Fishing Rodeo, headquartered at Venice, near the mouth of the Mississippi River. It’s an event that attracts some of the best anglers in the region, who compete to catch the largest speckled trout, tuna, wahoo and more, but I’ve never actually entered the rodeo.[…]
This time of year, falling river levels serve as Mother Nature’s Kirby to suck bass out of their hiding places way back in Louisiana’s legendary swamps. The fishing is often downright epic.[…]
Catching trophy-sized speckled trout on topwater lures is no less exhilarating than hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to win game seven of the World Series. There’s just something about hearing the staccato rhythm of a clacking plug being interrupted by a cupped slap and frothy explosion. It turns the knees to jelly.[…]
Enforcement agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries cited a 65-year-old St. Bernard man for alleged commercial crabbing violations on Monday.[…]
Capt. Johnny Nunez, AKA the Fishing Magician (504-239-3159), was born and raised in Shell Beach and has spent his life pulling fish of every kind from the surrounding waters. When Nunez speaks, fishermen listen — and he told me the keys to speckled trout success this month are rocks, reefs and rigs.[…]
Daily west winds mean the outer bays are rough and muddy and the interior marshes are lower than the average politician’s ethical standards. So South Louisiana anglers could do a whole lot worse right now than finding stretches of protected rocks and catching whatever will bite.[…]
Westerly winds have been as much a part of the South Louisiana fishing scene this summer as humidity so thick you can almost drink the air while you breathe it. Winds from that direction empty the marshes in a lot of areas, and can make usual hotspots drier than fine red wine.[…]
• Look for places that bass go to eat. That’s where they congregate. Focus on sloughs and points without ruling out bank fishing.[…]
Topwater frogs and Texas-rigged craws are “in season” on Blind River for Lyle Johnson from March to November. But he is quick to admit that the Texas craw is his mainstay lure. The clear water coming out of the sloughs draining into the river is what prompted his heavy use of the frog the day we fished.[…]
“Get in the books.” That’s Lyle Johnson’s message to his fellow fishermen.
As chairman of the state’s Fish Records Program, he encourages people to enter their fish, even if it isn’t a No. 1.[…]
Lyle Johnson wears a lot of hats.
The Gonzales native is the long-serving president of the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association (LOWA), the state’s professional organization for outdoors writers and communicators.[…]