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Spring Fly Fishing and Covid 19

As we began to hear word of a virus spreading the spring fishing was on fire! Cool temps and good sun made for some great days! Then we got locked down… I lost pretty much all of my April trips but was able to get back out again in May. Fortunately I have the rental and people were able to drive in. Post lock down fishing has been pretty good. Plenty of fish around but the interior fish have been relatively difficult to feed. So instead of an average 10 fish spring day we have been catching around 5-6. We have made it to the Chadeluer islands a few times which has been somewhat hit or miss. We sight fished some very nice trout on fly along with some pompano! It does seem like there’s a good bit of jacks around so that gets me excited for summer!

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Typical fall and early winter fly fishing in Louisiana

Overall our fall and early winter was decent. Luckily the weather was actually pretty good so we were able to fish a good bit of days. Unfortunately we had to deal with dirtier then normal water due to the Mississippi River pumping more fresh water into our system then it normally does. Hopefully it’ll be good for our long term… with the fresh water I am seeing a lot more grass in areas that I typically don’t see much grass, which gets me excited for spring fishing.

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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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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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Recent Biloxi Marsh Action

 

Here are some pics from last two weeks. We had good, bad, and ugly weather.  We did what we could to make the most out of the bad and ugly and it turned out to be pretty good.  You gotta love topwater no matter what size the fish are.

 

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Warm Winter Redfish

After catching plenty of little fish Chuck got a hook into this big fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With some really strong wins we made the day by landing this 42 lb monster that was taunting us with his tail.

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New Year, Same Big Redfish

Recent pics…

 

Start it off with a quick duck hunt I had on a bad weather day. Roll Tide.

 

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Mike’s last day of Louisiana redfishing

My buddy Mike from the shop is packing up and moving to Denver.  After fishing Louisiana marsh for years and never having a good opportunity on a trophy fish we decided to make it happen.  After adjusting our presentation from smacking the fish to actually leading the fish we started getting true refusals on the purple fly.  We made the switch to brown and it was on.  We caught some little guys and had 4 takes by big fish before we finally got a hook in.  Good fish to hook into though.  This beast went about 30.5.

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Dec 30 -Jan 2

I fished these four days with two young men visiting from Japan. Since my clients spoke very little English, we had to rely on the basics of fishing to communicate.  During this four day trip, my only interactions with these young men consisted of “cast here”,” reel fast”, “reel slow”, “jig” and “set the hook.”  With this direction we landed 8 fish over 20 lbs, 2 of which were over 30 lbs.

 

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Floating Bull Redfish in Louisiana

We had a great day this day with non stop shots at huge floating bull reds.  The fish were so happy they were daisy chaining on the surface with their tails waving in the air.  It was a sight to see.  Even though some fish were being picky with the bite we had so many shots we obviously capitalized on some.

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The Hords of Bull reds have arrived on the Oyster Flats

Finally had a good weather day with calm winds clear skies and warming temps.  This was the switch that got the big fish moving.  Everywhere we stopped there were big fish floating and hungry.  We landed many fish but this was by far the most unique one.

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Last days of Venice clean water

Here are some picks from the last successful trip I took out of Venice before the water rose and brought with it the chocolate milk.  Partly cloudy with every bit of a 30 mph wind.

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Recent Big Redfish Caught on Fly

This has been a great fall so far.  As the temperature drops and winter sets in the game changes but the results should stay the same.

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12 yr Old With a Huge Redfish He Caught on the Fly

I had a great time fishing with the Greens.  They were both great anglers but Daniel at the age of 12 is better then most adults I have seen.  Daniel can not only see the fish, accurately cast at the fish (with distance), but also remembers to strip set on the take. Needless to say we had a good day.  Big fish for Daniel which was also big fish for the day was this 28 lb beauty. 

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Louisiana Fall Fly Fishing at Its Best

Guide day fun fish with Dini.

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Sharks on the Fly

Had a friend come in town to buy my old boat and while he was down we decided to go look around Venice.  We found clear water big redfish and sharks lots of sharks.  The redfish were being a little difficult to get to bite so we went after the sharks.  We got 3 to bite and we have some footage of one. Enjoy….

 

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Sunday Sept.18

David and Kevin of baton rouge giving it their best, as was I , rough water, dirty water, 50% clouds, approaching front, 20mph ESE winds with gust, fish would not go out of their way for the fly’s and shots at VISIBLE fish where few. These guys fished hard! Had some shots at 30lb. jacks but the wind and visibility made for tough casting conditions and we didn’t connect, we are still fishing……………………………………………………………………………………………

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Venice in August


summer redfish

I fished the IFA redfish tour Louisiana division this weekend out of Grand Isle and finished 9th.  It was a good finish overall and I can always be happy with a top ten finish. Although due to a miserable boat ride from Venice to Grand Isle then back to Venice then back to Grand Isle I refused to go back toVenice by boat.  I felt bad for ditching my partner but riding with no console in front of you is totally different then riding with one in front of you.

After spending the end of last week scouting for this tournament in Venice I have located some interesting and fishy areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I convinced Moon to fish Venice the following morning because not only was the fishing good but i could get a ride back to my car and boat.  Well the fishing didn’t disappoint.  The giant gar were not there like they were friday but the redfish and sheepshead were easily seen in the gin clear water we were fishing.

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7-24 Morning Madness

This Morning couldn’t of worked out better. No wind with good cloud cover made it easy to see fish moving and still kept it bearably hot.  Seemed like from the time we got out there to the time we got chased in by a storm (7am-11am), It was non stop action. If we weren’t fighting a fish we were stalking one or taking a shot on one.  Graham had game too making long, very precise casts to pushing fish.  It made my job real easy, all i had to do was keep the boat moving, he was spotting them and getting the lure in front of them with almost no help from me.

Tide – Falling all morning

 

Water Temperature – 84-87

 

Wind – 0

 

Sun – slim to none

 

Water Visibility – Dirty 6 in the channels decent 8 in the pockets and skinny flats 


 

 

 

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7-20 Warming Water

Another great morning with fish moving everywhere.  They were not tailing like the weekend but they were floating just under the surface and with the low winds it was easy to spot the little flickers of a tail following a bronze hump in the water.  We caught most our fish early and as the water warmed the bite slowed down.  So after grabbing a gator to get Edward a closer look we headed in just before noon.

Tide – Little tide movement but the water was higher then normal

 

Water Temperature – 82-89

 

Wind – 0-5

 

Sun – Mostly sunny

 

Water Visibility – 6

 

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7-17 Skinny water Redfish

Had another great morning. The Nolans had no problem catching these fish in the shade.

Tide – End of falling, beginning of rising

 

Water Temperature – 80-83

 

Wind – 0 – 10mph

 

Sun – Mostly overcast early with a few spots of sun then scattered thunderstorms forced us in around 11:45

 

Water Visibility  (0-10) – 7.5

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7-16 Butterball Redfish

Had a good day today with Jim Wagner and his son Henry.  We found a good school of fish early and they were actually eating!  After busting a school of fish Henry made quick work of getting on the board.

Jim had to step it up with this 9.5lber. (slot fish)

Tide – End of falling, beginning of rising

 

Water Temperature – 79-82

 

Wind – 0 – 5mph

 

Sun – Slight overcast early clearing up to mostly sunny then scattered thunderstorms forced us in around 11;30

 

Water Visibility  (0-10) – 7

 

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Summer Slam

Fishing has been real consistant with mornings being full of action and as the day goes on the fishing slowing down.  Yesterday Moon and I had a great day with little wind, plenty of fish and Moon’s incredible shrimp pattern fly.  We had no problem getting our red in the morning, but trying to get a sheepshead to eat in mid summer is no easy task. Moon got it done. After looking for big drum for a little while we moved into a pond that is known to hold little drum. Didn’t take long before the slam was complete. We accomplished all of this before 11:30am.

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Perfect Summer Morning

With the afternoon rains the day before, the morning started out nice and cool.  With calm winds and clear skies we knew it was going to be a perfect summer day.  Tough bite with the poppers but once we switched to a shrimp pattern it was game on.

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Good Showing for Poor Weather

We started early yesterday hoping to get in a full day before the storms built up. Well we didn’t get a full day but we had a pretty exciting 2 hours.  It was an overcast morning which made it next to impossible to see the fish but due to the low winds we could spot tails and other classic red fish movement which gave us a targets to cast at.  Brock made the best of each target placing casts in perfect positions to catch a total of 4 fish.  When I say this kid can fish that is not even compared to other kids he can fish better then some seasoned vets I know.

Here is a video of us coming up on a school of about 15 fish tailing and Brock making the most of it…

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