[cliffhall]

That is both awesome and devastating at the same time. I feel the same way about the stories from “old timers” of what the marsh looked like back in the day. It makes me want to appreciate the hell out of what we have now

[cliffhall]

I’ll be out there Thursday-Saturday. I’m fishing/helping out with the Release Over 20 Tournament at Hopedale Marina on Saturday. We will be serving Jambalaya at 2:00 and talking about conservation for anyone who wants to come hang out.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by  cliffhall.

[cliffhall]

Like Josh said….Forage. Fish HAVE to eat and there are some big pods of pogies/mullet in that area right now. I’ve always thought that studying the bait is as important as knowing about the trout themselves.

In other news, today looks like it would be a great day to hunt those schools of mullet and throw some topwater baits on flats back there.

[cliffhall]

I have a 9 week old so that’s totally understood lol. I’ll be doing daddy duties next week/weekend to make up for the next few days

[cliffhall]

In that video of CA, he says that the fish by him turned on from 1013-1007 millibars. Thats a difference of .087psi.

A fish would have to move down 3 inches in the water column to feel the same change. I’m just not sure how that, in and of itself, elicits a change in behavior. Maybe it impacts fish that primarily live in shallower water year round a bit more but I think the most likely thing impacting fish is all of the other variable changes that come with changes in pressure.

[cliffhall]

The correlation must be there given how long that theory has been proposed but I don’t think it’s anything more than an indirect correlation. I’m trying to understand the exact mechanism that would cause a fishes behavior to change because of a pressure increase. The pressure increase a fish would “feel” from atmospheric changes would be insignificant compared to a trout diving 3ft lower in the water column.

[cliffhall]

I think we just have too many variables to prioritize before that. They are often dealing with non migrating trout in shallow bays so it’s easier to focus on subtle environmental factors that may turn a bite on or off. Our biggest challenge seems to be finding them and theirs is more so getting them to bite. That’s at least my first hypothesis from the few trips I’ve taken to Texas and Florida where they key in on stuff like that.

[cliffhall]

Totally correlation and not causation. I get that picking up on the pattern can be useful but it’s even more useful to know the exact mechanism causing the behavioral change. I would agree that all of the other variables that change with a front (water temps, water levels, and water clarity) have a far greater impact. Think of all the trout that chase lures to the boat at the Lake P bridges or MRGO rocks…..Within seconds, those trout are experiencing 8-12x the largest fluctuations we see in atmospheric pressure

[cliffhall]

It is actually a Saltmarsh/Heron 16. Ive taken that thing to the chandys and back in some gnarly conditions so Hopedale Lagoon was no problem.

[cliffhall]

It’s definitely not perfect and reading the articles is your best bet but I’ve had to be as efficient as possible with planning trips lately lol. The insights on tackle might be even more valuable because I used to scour the bass resource sites for hours to get people’s opinions on matching rod set ups to specific techniques. You can get that information consolidated in a minute now.

One example of helpful information is what I found on a rabbit trail of getting it to gather information on finding big trout in Louisiana. It mentioned all of the typical spots you’d think of but it kept saying to try fishing as slow as possible right up against the pilings when fishing highway 11 for big trout. Sure enough that seemed to be what worked this year when trying to size up. Again, not earth shattering but I’ll take all the help I can get lol.

[cliffhall]

You have to play around with it a bit to get the specific information you are looking for. So I may put “summarize all of the Louisiana sportsman articles on speckled trout” and after it pops that out I could put “in the spring”. You could do that and ask it to specifically mention certain times of year or other areas or even how to target big trout. Generally the information isn’t earth shattering but a few extra insights can sometimes make the difference in a trip.

I also use it to summarize the bass resource forums when looking for a new rod for a specific application.

[cliffhall]

Shoot, I remember when it was an actual blog. My wife and I both quit our jobs, started a business, and had a kid over the last 10 months so fishing trips and fishing reports have been hard to come by lol. I just read through a bunch of reports today and it is so good to see the community you’ve built. I’ve actually met a good buddy, Chad Gonzales, through LAFB Elite and we’ve shared insights and ideas for years. The knowledge inside the LAFB courses is invaluable and the people you meet in here will be some of the best folks around.