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Early Summer Fly fishing

It has been a great a summer minus Covid and of course the tropical storms and or hurricanes. Early summer was awesome. Had a couple jacks around town that were acting right but not the numbers we get in later summer. So after the early morning jack bite we were switching gears to laid up gar fish which kept the action going. Made an island run in late June which was amazing. Pushing jacks, tailing pompano, big speckled trout on popper and one giant redfish in ankle deep water. All that with perfect weather made for a great two days of fishing. Early July I moved the bay boat down to Venice where we had one day when blue water pushed in and the mahi were plentiful. The next day the blue water pushed back out so we stayed close and worked some rigs with sinking lines catching a couple different species including some very large jack Crevalle!

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Flyfishing In Louisiana during Late Summer for Pre-spawn Bulls and some other great Species

With fall weather becoming more and more volatile, the consistent summer weather is looking more and more attractive to fisherman looking to catch big fish. Throughout the summer, it is relatively common to find big redfish doing redfish things when you look in the right places, of course. This is especially true just before they move out to spawn, which usually happens around the first or second week of September. When you find them, fish are usually gorging on bait and have serious bellies, making them even more powerful then usual. But like a light switch, when they decide to move out to spawn they are gone! Luckily, Louisiana is full of formidable targets that will happily eat a fly and test your gear.

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Winter to Spring 2019

Winter wore on with less then desirable conditions. We still caught some fish but mentally it was draining. I was just hoping for the sun to come out and stay out. It eventually did clear up with good light throughout most our early spring. The fish numbers in the interior marsh were very good and the temperature stayed cool almost all the way though May. Pretty good trout year too.

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Summer fly fishing options in Louisiana

This past summer started off strong with some jacks moving in relatively early and backing fish in ankle deep water(when the tide was right). But as soon as the jacks appeared they seemed to disappear and I was forced to fish in other areas. This paid off. What I found in these “other areas” were first of all more jacks, which was great, but also some very large redfish and plenty of sharks. I also did a nearshore trip on one of those perfect weather late summer days and it payed off with a plethora of species. I continued to occasionally try my typical Jack areas and although it was less action as I would of liked we had some jaction, caught some fish and I loved every second of it. Now I’m just looking forward to next summer and the endless fly fishing opportunities Louisiana has to offer. Above photo courtesy of Sam Collett @collettjsam on Instagram.

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Big Spring

This spring has been one to remember… Typically I stay in the interior marsh chasing slot fish in the 6-12 lb range. But this year the grasses grew thick early and choked up much of the interior marsh making many areas almost unfishable.  Although this is a normal process, it usually doesn’t happen until mid-summer. So this year, I started fishing the exterior marshes to escape the thick grass, and what I found was some very good fishing. Instead of the average 7 lb fish, I’ve been seeing lots of 10-11 lb fish and the occasional very big fish in the 25-30 lb range, not to mention a seemingly endless supply of tailing drum. It’s lookibg like the weather is finally stabilizing, as well, so the great fishing should hold up for the next month or two.

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Summer and Early Fall fly fishing in Louisiana

Jack fishing really turned on in August and stayed very consistent until we were hit with an early cold front around mid September.  This slowed it down big time. Luckily the interior marsh fishing really turned on at this point.  The reds were about as thick as I’ve seen them. Singles and doubles everywhere with random meatballs of 10-20 fish here and there. Solid fish size too averaging 8-12 lbs.   The best part about it is they were very willing to eat a popper.   I continually checked on the jacks here and there through early October and had some decent fishing but decided to switch gears to big redfish fishing the second week of October.  Just after Hurricane Nate rolled through there seemed to be big fish everywhere, but as quickly as they showed up they seemed to disappear. I was lucky enough to find them good offshore last week which was short lived due to the winds picking up.   Hopefully the recent cold front will inspire some fish to move in.

  

  
  
  
  

  

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Start of Summer Flyfishing

Typically with the start of summer we have the start of Jack season. I guess you could say Jack season has started but it is certainly not in full swing. It seems due to the ridiculous amount of rain we have had the past few weeks we have only had a few jacks move in.  We have boated a couple fish but still haven’t seen the numbers we would like. It does appear the rain is slowing down and the rivers are going down which should help immensely.  So in the mean time we have been doing the fall back redfish game which has been very good.   Also I have been spending some time trying to locate some good bass areas which just last week I found the motherload.   Due to rain on top the jack grounds I stayed inside the marsh and boated 32 bass on popper between 6:30am and 9:30am. Most were in the 1-1.5 lb range with a couple in the 2-3 lb range.  It was a pretty insane bite and another great summer option.


  
  

 

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Spring fly fishing New Orleans’ backyard

I am loving this spring. Overall we have had more sunny days then cloudy days and the fish are exactly where they are suppose to be.   Average fish size has varied depending on what region of the marsh you are fishing but overall I’d say we have had about a 8-9 lb average.  We have had many 10+ fish days and actually a good number of 20+ fish days(I think 4-5 days but I’m not sure and you can’t come down here expecting to catch 20+ fish on fly in 1 day).  All you can do is book your days and hope for good weather. Because as usual in Louisiana with good weather brings good fishing. It’s hard to beat a 70 degree spring day with blue bird skies and floating redfish in gin clear ponds…

P.s As per usual the topwater trout bite has been pretty good in the clouds. It’s a very nice fall back plan if you lose your vis.




  


  
  
  

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Teaming up with Yellow Dog to Bring You Louisiana Redfish School!!!

We are excited to announce that we will be teaming up with Yellow Dog to bring you the first annual Louisiana redfish school!!!

Click the link below for more info…

http://www.yellowdogflyfishing.com/blog/announcing-louisiana-redfish-school

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Jacks of July 

Although we have had constant west winds, which is our least favorite wind direction in Louisiana, the Jack fishing has been very solid.  We have had some good pushing fish on the flats and lots of schooling action in open water. We boated a total of 35 jacks on fly in 12 days of fishing.  Biggest was 32 lbs and only 4 were under 20 lbs. If you’re looking for a strong fish that loves to eat topwater flies you should definitely come down and check out our Jack fishery.  

  
  
  
  
  
  

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There’s many opportunities during the summer when you’re fly fishing in Louisiana

During the summer months we try to get an early start to beat the heat, fortunately summer is one of the best times to hunt pushing fish. Both Redfish and giant Jack Crevalle become very active at this time. Their mornings are spent cruising flats in search of bait. Although we start earlier with low light seeing a fish pushing water is actually easier with lower light. Not to mention the fish feel more comfortable and tend to swim more shallow in low light. Watching a 20+ lb redfish or Jack pushing a wake from a football field is a sight every fly angler should see. Here are summer pushing fish we have caught in the past week or so…  Also through in a nice sheepshead and triple tail we ran into as well…

  
  
  

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Winter fly fishing action

Although we have had a mild winter, we are still seeing a healthy amount of wintering redfish in the marsh.

  
  

   

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Big redfish season is here…

September is when we start getting very busy. Although the big fish have not moved into the shallows we are still able to target them in open water with the weather permitting(reasonable winds and sunlight)… This will continue usually through mid October when a good cold front pushes the bigger fish shallow. Although we have had some smaller cold fronts this October the majority of the bigger fish have not moved in yet.  This mixed with some serious winds have made fishing this month no easy task… Don’t get me wrong, we have had a couple days with great weather that we have had great fishing but over all it’s been tough.  We have had to grind it out, luckily we have a very healthy fishery and we can usually fall back inside and chase some smaller fish in protected waters.


  
  
  
  
  
  

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Fly fishing for Jack Crevalle in New Orleans’ backyard…

Starting in June schools of mullet start moving into Lake Ponchartrain. Following these schools is one of my favorite and most overlooked gamefish, Jack Crevalle aka Marsh tuna aka Jackie boy…  With the right conditions the lake clears showing its vast sand flats littered with small grass patches.  The jacks cruise up and down the shore crushing bait, pushing wakes, sometimes they just slow swim finning very much like a permit.  The season usually starts mid to late June, peaks july – mid sept then tapers off just in time for big redfish season.  My go to fly is the white popper pictured below but sometimes we do throw large baitfish patterns. I’d recommend at least a 10 wt rod.  If I’m fishing I’m throwing a 12 wt.  All jacks can fight our jacks are big and they fight. Average size is 20-30 lbs. Rarely do we see fish under 20.

 
  
  

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December Fly Fishing Highlights

Starting from the top… Cindy came down and for the 3rd year in a row, nailed some great fishing.  This time was especially good timing because we were fishing the redbone, which is a non profit tournament held to raise money for cystic fibrosis.   Well we got the big one!  34 lb 46 in red which is actually the biggest redfish ever to be caught in this tournament to date.  We were both very excited about it.  Next is Christian’s 37 lber which took the title as the heaviest fish caught on fly on my boat during 2014.  Good work Christian!  The next pictures are of some very happy redfish just being hungry in the marshes of Louisiana.

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Mid-December Fun Fishing

Had a day off, so what did I do? Went fishing, of course.
And man it was cold. Captain Ryan Frederick and I managed to put a few in the boat before heading back to the warmth of the truck. Fun day!!

– Capt. Paul Lappin

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Early October Fly Fishing Report

Although we were still dealing with some water clarity issues, we were able to make it to the cleaner outside areas on most days.  There we found large singles, schools of spawners (15-20lbers), and even the occasional Jack.  On the windy days we stayed inside chasing tailers in the shallows and even got this nice flounder on a blind retrieve.

 

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September fly fishing to Remember

Early this September was probably some of the best fishing I have had in a while.  It was by far the best September fishing I have ever experienced.  This was immediately followed by some of the worse weather which in turn made for some very difficult fishing.  Here are some fish we put in the boat this month.  This includes my first 40 lb red on the boat and the biggest gar I have ever had on the boat.  It has been a pretty inedible month so far.

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Summer Fly Fishing for Cobia

Summer is hot!  So instead of poling around in the marsh we decided to take it to the big water in hopes of finding something different… We found it! The first buoy we pulled up to had about a half dozen Cobia floating just underneath the surface.  The water only had about 3-4 ft of clarity but you could easily spot these brown bastards from about 100 yrds away.  Every rig, buoy, or piling we drove up to had at least 3 and as many as 12 floating right under it.  As soon you dropped a popper into the area they were on it.  They stayed on it until you hooked someone out of the group then they would sound.  At that point we would land the fish, move to one or two other spots, then come back and sure enough the school would be floating right on top again.  We did this all day…  I had a great time to say the least.

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The Spring Thing!

Although the big fish are still around they are few and far between.  Because of this I like to turn my attention to some other species this time of year.  When weather permits we are able to run out to the beaches.   This sometimes gives us opportunities at Jacks and big reds.  If it’s a little too windy for the beach, we fall back into the interior ponds and focus on 8-12 lb fish, large gar, and the sheeps are also still around.  Regardless we will have some targets for you.

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The Perfect Day

Although Fall is most popular, people overlook the dead of winter.  Yes, during winter we get horrible fronts that will keep you off the water for days at a time.  Yes, our average winter temperatures are less then desirable for most saltwater fly fishing anglers.  But… If you luck out and hit it right, you may have a day like this…

No wind, bluebird skies and floating redfish everywhere!!! 17 fish over 20 lbs with 2 going over 30 lbs.  The fish were not very easy to feed, but with good casters and plenty of opportunity, we certainly got it done.

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Kevin and Tejal

Although this is a late report, I had to let people know about what kind of luck you can have as long as you keep booking…  Kevin and Tejal started coming down to fish in Louisiana about 3 Years ago and although we had some semi-productive days, we still had to work hard for them.  2 Years ago, Kevin and Tejal came down here and again, it was tough weather and few fish.  But last year they nailed it! 2 perfect days and the fish were floating.  I think we caught 3-4 30 lbers and plenty of 20 lbers.  This year during early December they pretty much nailed it again!!!  Although the weather wasn’t perfect, the fish were thick and in the mood to float…

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End of Fall

Here are some good ones from November and early December… I have to say congrats to Mike Birge on not only catching a 32 on a popper but more importantly getting on the Sheepy board!!! No easy task… I also have to mention Jeff Stang”s personal best 38 lb red which is also still standing as my biggest on the boat this season.  Good work Jeff!  I would also like to welcome Mike Howard and Mark Ozong into the Dirty Thirty club…

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