The second Outdoor article that I wrote well over 20-years ago was about a redfishing trip in South Louisiana.
My daughter has been wanting to go fishing in Louisiana for years. A big attraction for her was to visit New Orleans and check it out.
So I’ve been saving my pennies and Katy, Kolby, Joe and their new little girl and I got to go last week. We were scheduled to land at 8 and take the 1 ½-hour drive down to Venice and fish with Native Adventures.
The first day was scheduled to loaf BUT every flight was late and they lost luggage coming and going so we didn’t get to bed until 4:30 am and had to drive 2-hours back the next day to get our luggage. That shot our off day in both feet.
If you drive South on Hwy. 23 you’ll end up at the last town of Venice. If you drive any further you’d better have a submarine because you’ll be in the ocean!
We stayed at Yellow Cotton Bayside lodging which is just a few miles North of the Venice Marina which is where we were fishing out of.
We met our guide Justin at the Marina at 6:00 on Monday morning, jumped in the boat and took off through the seemingly endless maze of marshes that feed out from the Mighty Missippi into the gulf.
For gear we dropped a 20-24” line off of a cork to a ¾ oz. jig. We were fishing with live shrimp.
We’d hook the shrimp in the back behind the head and out before the tail. That way the shrimp would have natural movement.
This is a somewhat accurate description of the redfish live style. They feed in the brackish water until they’re about 27-inches and then move off shore coming back only to spawn.
But that is not set in stone because you can still catch bulls year-round up in the brackish water. In fact, Joe caught two, one of which was a hog-37 inches.
And I’ve caught nearly all of my bulls in the shallow brackish water. Most of the areas we fished were only 2 ½-4 feet deep.
If a redfish is over 27 inches it is called a bull. At the time that we were fishing, the limit was 5-reds over 16-inches and only one could be over 27 inches. But the rules are changing to only four fish between 18-27 inches.
Back to fishing. The endless runways through the marshes are lined with tall cane, probably 5-7 feet tall. We’d cast up by the cane with being right against it being primo. The reds run right along the cane eating shrimp, mullets and crabs.
We’d cast up by the cane and twitch the cork pretty hard every 5-seconds. This of course made the shrimp move but the cork popping also excited them.
Due to having to twitch the bobber, it gradually moved out from the cane. We barely had any hit if we were more than 3-5 feet off the cane so you had to reel in frequently and re-cast to keep in good real estate.
Like I say, if your bait got more than 3-feet from the cane, no reds.
The first 1.5-2 hours were mostly dead stops but then Justin located them and I bet we limited out in not much more than 30 minutes.
It got wild. There are so many factors effecting the bite. The tide coming out can blow bait out of the cane, wind changes things etc.
In July I met the CHUM BOBBER crew at the iCAST Show in Orlando who invented a bobber in which you unscrew the top and smush bait in it. The top has holes so scent oozes out.
I wanted to test them but we didn’t get to. I’d also like to try them out on crappie here when they’re up close to the bank spawning. Should help, shouldn’t it?
The second day same set-up except we switched guides and fished with Troy Creppel. The morning started off super slow. The first spot we hit he’d had a 92-year-old lady that had smoked them a few days earlier but we couldn’t beg a bite.
We hit quite a few spots to no avail.
Then a little wind kicked up and we limited out in no time at all with Joe and Kolby really doing good. Well, it ended up being a great day. I can’t remember how many we threw back.
Maybe next article I’ll cover the sheepshead fishing but before I close, I have to touch on the Cajun food. If you wonder why I’m raving about Cajun food, then it’s because you have never tasted it.
Mexican food has stormed the food scene in America what? 30 years ago? Cajun food is 3-times better!
Blackened fish, boiled crawdads, shrimp etouffee, Cajun Seafood Boil, Gumbo, red beans and rice, shrimp creole, Boudin, Jambalaya and the list goes on and on.
Trust me, if you go fishing in Louisiana 50% of the experience is eating the Cajun food and 50% may be too low of a rating!
Tom Claycomb is a hunting enthusiast and writes a bi-monthly column for Great Basin Sun.