[cliffhall]

Mid to late september around the MRGO. Could show up a little earlier than that on lake p grass flats

[cliffhall]

I don’t track the pearl nearly as much as I should, but it looks low, no?

Could be worth getting into some of the deeper holes looking for trout.

[cliffhall]

The BS King strikes again. Well done!

[cliffhall]

You are an absolute menace to those speckled creatures. I love how you are not afraid to try any and everywhere.

[cliffhall]

Well done, as usual. Guiding and catching at the same time is no easy task lol

[cliffhall]

My angst has built up to almost intolerable levels all summer in anticipation of Fall fishing and this post is certainly not helping. Great job on turning a teaching trip into a fun catching trip as well!

[cliffhall]

Ive done this in ponds with drains as well. For instance, if you have a big pond that drains out through a bayou, sometimes wind blowing the water out towards that bayou will counter act a rising tide. That and it helps to know what has happened the days leading up to the trip. If you have had a big wind keeping the water from falling for a couple of days then even a dip in wind speed can trigger a fall. This happened quite a few times this year in March and April

[cliffhall]

Put Lake Catherine on your radar as well

[cliffhall]

It doesn’t get more legendary than that!

[cliffhall]

Elmer’s 5/29–30

I decided to rent a camp in Elmer’s for the weekend with a few buddies. The previous two years (2024 and 2025), I went down there and absolutely obliterated the trout. If my memory is correct, I personally caught somewhere over 170 keepers in three out of five days of fishing between two separate trips and 20 keepers in the other two. It seems as if Elmer’s is feast or famine, but I figured we would run into one good day of fishing out of the three days leading up to the full moon.

All but one of the guys I went with rarely fish, so I was not sure what to expect with them tagging along. The night before, we feverishly prepped, getting everyone set up with leaders and a game plan for the following day until we could see what was happening in real time. Without knowing how many people would be on the beach, we planned to get there before the carts arrived and walk to the pass. I’ve had more success on the northern end the last few years, so I figured we could start there.

The alarm clocks rang early, and we headed off from Bridgeside Marina, coffee in hand, dark and early. We got out of the trucks around 4:45 to make the long walk to the pass. Within a few minutes of walking, we realized the terrible mistake we had made. Our excitement over a lack of wind in the forecast blinded us to the reality set before us. We proceeded to experience the worst attack of mosquitoes I have ever experienced in my life.

I have spent nights in the marsh during teal season without bug spray. I have sat knee-deep in the Biloxi Marsh mud with dead-calm wind, hoping for a gray duck or two to light in the decoys while getting molested in the worst ways by gnats. I have NEVER experienced anything even remotely close to what I experienced on that beach. If I didn’t have such respect for servicemen, I would compare it to running into machine-gun fire at Normandy.

At some point, we gave up even trying to swat them and just hoped for a respite while jumping into the water once we got to the end. Thirty minutes later, we arrived at our destination. I immediately dropped all my gear and dove into the water. My comrades could take no more. They hightailed it back to the truck so they could live to fight another day.

Thankfully for me, the bugs calmed down as the sun came up just enough for me to tolerate their assault. Unfortunately, the level of torture I had just endured was not rewarded with a successful trout bite. I fished until about 11:00 for one fish. The sargassum was the worst I had seen, and there must have been residual waves from the previous night’s wind because it was rough. The tide was ripping almost too fast for the types of presentations I was trying.

A tough bite ended up being the theme of the trip. My buddies never made another appearance on the beach while I continued to beat my head against the wall. I caught one more trout that evening farther south on the beach in the second bar.

I slept in a bit the following morning and headed back to the beach. I quickly realized that there would be no luck for me or anyone else around me and decided to pick things up and try some other wading spots around the island. I only caught one more fish that morning, but I do feel that I found some spots I can try at other times of the year.

The sargassum, rough water, and dirty water made things tough all weekend. I threw the kitchen sink at them to no avail. We ended up coming home a day early to save up brownie points with the wives for future trips.

[cliffhall]

Hopedale (RO20 Tournament) April 9th, 10th, and 11th

The plan for the week was for my tournament partner and me to fish together on Thursday, split up on Friday, and then convene on Friday night to make plans for tournament day. We wanted to start in some familiar big trout spots and slowly venture out to either add or eliminate ideas and backup plans for when it mattered.

Thursday started with us launching early and trying out the spot where I caught the big one the previous week. We arrived to similar conditions as the week before: big SE wind, high water, incoming tide, bait, and clean water. We started catching almost as soon as our topwaters landed. It was good and bad. On one hand, we were crushing the fish but never ran into the size that I had found the previous week. We knew, for the types of fishermen coming, we would need to be around 45″ (for the top two fish), and we could not find anything over 20″. We decided to wait out the spot to see if a bigger school of fish would ever move through, but it never happened. At some point, we moved to some nearby areas and caught a few more, but we were not feeling super confident with the size we were bumping into. We ended up with somewhere close to 40 fish, with the biggest being 19.5″. More fish came on Slicks this day, and they seemed to want them weightless and barely worked. This pattern would show up again on Saturday.

Friday started with my buddy and me going in entirely different directions out of the MRGO. He started on the southern end and worked his way up, while I started north and worked my way down. He was met with dirty water and enough wind to make things tough. I started on a familiar flat and caught a 21″ trout on one of my first casts with a topwater. That would end up being one of four fish I caught for the day.

I spent most of my time bouncing back and forth from the rocks to the flats with little to show for it. I found a few pockets with bait, but the trout creatures never made an appearance. I could tell that things would be tough, so I even tried some obscure stuff I had never fished before just to see what things looked like. Nothing worked. Despite not catching much, I was not too discouraged because I felt like I was eliminating a lot of options with each move.

My buddy’s day started off tough but got better as the day went on. We knew the conditions on Friday would be much more like what we would see for tournament day: low water in the morning, an incoming tide around 9:00, and wind. We decided to time our spots around the tide switch, so he made the jump from the lower end of the MRGO to an area near where we caught them the day before. Sure enough, he started to smash the fish as the tide was coming in. We both fished until about 3:00 that day and headed back to get set up for the pre-tournament meet-up on Friday night. I finished with those four fish, and he caught around 25 fish at the original area. Most of them came on topwaters, jerkbaits, and a jig.

Our plan for Saturday was still being hashed out the morning of the trip. We teetered between taking a conservative approach and going to one of the known big trout spots (Rock Dam or MRGO Rocks) or just building off the previous two days’ approach. We also knew that we would likely be dealing with some boat pressure at some of the spots we intended to fish. The fact that you have to consider not only what the trout are doing but also get into the minds of your competitors when planning a tournament strategy makes things so anxiety-provoking and fun at the same time.

Considering all of the variables as best we could, we decided to throw a bit of a Hail Mary. We knew of a spot that has historically held big fish and that no one else would be likely to try, or anywhere close to it. Our plan was to stay there until the tide switch and then be at the spot where we had done well the previous two days as the tide started coming in.

Things were rough at the first spot for a bit. We bumped into a bunch of lower-slot fish on top and probably spent too much time in one area that was not giving up a big one. From there, we drifted to some nearby bait, and that’s when the first big fish came into the boat. We landed a 20.5″ and a 19″ trout on a weightless Slick. We grinded out some other areas nearby, but not much was going on up until around 9:00. Thankfully, everyone else seemed to be struggling, and we were currently sitting at #1. We knew there would be a lull as the tide stopped, so we dialed in our gear, drank some water, and headed off to where we felt most confident.

It took us a while to dial in the next area, and while we were figuring things out, Ricky Trahant bumped us out of first place. Ricky is quickly turning into my arch-nemesis on tournament day, but I was not too mad about seeing him at the top considering he is a legend in the big trout community.

Still, we hammered away trying to reclaim that top spot. The fishing was phenomenal at this point. Cast after cast after cast yielded all the 18-19″ trout you could want. We were in the 30s at this point with solid fish, but that day only two mattered. Eventually, we finally eclipsed Ricky after boating another 20.5″ fish. This was around 11:00, and we were starting to feel a little confidence building, knowing we were only three hours away from the finish line and holding the top spot. The bump to first place only reinvigorated us as we methodically placed cast after cast into the water, hoping that each next “tick” would help solidify our spot at the top.

It only took a quick glance around 12:00 at the phone for that confidence to dry up in a moment. We saw that Ricky bumped into a nice fish, as he claimed, “by accident,” and had us by 1″. We knew that 1″ was not insurmountable, but it would get tougher and tougher to come by as the minutes dwindled away. Still, we would be proud of a top-two finish, especially against some of the guys who made it out to compete.

We were compulsively checking the phone at this point to see how secure our spot was. With about 45 minutes to go, our hearts sank as we saw Jon Miller’s crew blast up into the top spot with 45.5 total inches. We were initially devastated, knowing that it would take a miracle at this point to reclaim the top spot and a large stroke of luck to get back to second place. Still, we grinded on so as to leave it all on the table. With only 20 or so minutes to spare, we started heading back to the marina to make sure we got in before check-in.

It is hard to explain the highs and lows that come with fishing a tournament. You experience 30 days in one as you constantly second-guess yourself and override your emotions, knowing that grinding is what’s needed to make something happen. It is also such a learning experience, having to push yourself that hard and realize how much you still have to learn about these fish and the fishery. I encourage everyone to participate in a tournament like that at least once to see what it’s like.

[cliffhall]

What gage do you follow for out there? I’m still saving up free days for the fall but someone could try and recreate this: https://youtu.be/o3HwCBcMoo4

• This reply was modified 1 week, 2 days ago by  cliffhall.

[cliffhall]

My thoughts as well. Plus sensitivity. I think it’s helpful to have direct contact with your bait which is better with a HDS

[cliffhall]

If this is from who I think it is, and I am pretty sure it is, then go ahead and take it as gospel. You wont get better intel then this right here.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks ago by  cliffhall.

[cliffhall]

Oh wow, of course I remember you. I couldn’t tell from your profile pick on mobile. Last week I was driving past Cathy and saw a ton of jacks crushing on the south western end.

I’m by no means an expert on jacks but my fly fishing buddies like to troll in from very far out and try to intersect them. It’s a bit of a guessing game where they will end up but it helps when you can pin them against the shore line.