[Jason_B]

Can you stand up comfortably in your kayak? Or is your seat up off the water a bit? If your kayak only allows for overhead casts then it will be hard to graduate from pitching into a bucket to casting out on the water. I almost exclusively used spinning gear out of a kayak when I was doing that even though I prefer baitcasters.

[Jason_B]

You’re probably considering a dozen or so things to improve after a tedious day. I would encourage you to focus on eliminating the things that keep your hook out of the water. Sounds like messing with reels was the biggest time waster. So just handle that for now. Sounds like you may not have had the spools laying right when spoiling line and it introduced a lot of twist. There are ways to get that out, but even if you do, Flouro and braid each have their own stubborn or limiting qualities in different regards. If you spent a lot of money on those lines you may want to wind it back on the spools (there’s tools for that) and save it for future applications. Or strip it and throw it away if it’s old and came on those second-hand reels (also tools for that- see Amazon). And go 15# mono on everything to simplify your life. Watch YouTube videos on how to spool it without twist or bring the empty reels to a tackle shop and have them do it – most only charge you the cost of the line anyways. This would also eliminate the need for leaders.

You may have definitely learned this, but make sure to have backup rods ready with the same rig as what you think you’ll use most. Especially where you can get hung. Then you just pickup the next rod and won’t skip a beat

That should greatly increase the amount of time your bait is wet. If you can be done messing with your tackle then you can join the real struggle bus with me on trying to figure out the fish.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 1 week ago by  Jason_B.

[Jason_B]

“I don’t yet know how deep the water is there, but much deeper than the marsh”

This isn’t exact, but generally accurate in well-traveled waterways like the MRGO:

[Jason_B]

Good stuff. I’ll take a look at those links later tonight before I rig up. And when I do rig up it’ll be 2 corks, 1 jig, and a topwater for me. Leaning 2 corks for the skipper.

As for the time of day, my fishing partner flies back into MSY at 11:00 tonight. Letting him sleep in was part of the deal I negotiated to be able to go. I might accidentally be loud around the house in the morning though.

Adding spot 11 and moving the drift sock to the top of the storage compartment.

Many thanks.

[Jason_B]

This is great. Been looking for more local media to consume. Speckled Truth just doesn’t have much in common with SE LA.

Can relate to the Ronnie hate. Glad I have something to call him now. Seems like every time I come off plane in the mrgo to take a leak he’s pulling up on my bow trying to spike a cajun anchor in 30′ of water and casting a popping cork into my piss stream.

[Jason_B]

Sounds like a good day considering the change of plans. Curious on what the beef was with pintos? About the only problems I’ve had there is finding live bait and staying out of the way of people trying to fix junk cars. Limited parking maybe?

[Jason_B]

I plan to head down the road tomorrow with one or two of the kids and fish the bayou between yscloskey and hopedale off the road. Will probably wait until it warms up around noon to go. If anyone has any intel on whether or not to not to push on or linger at the house it would be appreciated.

[Jason_B]

“I did not think of having a backup combo with the exact setup I was fishing. I thought the point of bringing different combos is to have different setups.”

That could be the point, but no matter if I’m fishing bass, crappie or inshore; If I bring 6 different rods with 6 different setups then I always seem to only use 2, maybe 3 at the most. For a long time, my most pristine bass fishing rod was my crank bait rod – because it never got used. But I had the mentality that I had to have the whole academy tackle department tied on and ready to go. I would re-tie texas rigged worms multiple times in a day while other rods just sat there ready to go with shit I would never cast.

[Jason_B]

Many thanks gents

[Jason_B]

I almost skipped wreck bay but it was right there. I’m not a huge fan of the through-route I’ve got there and considered making it a cul-de-sac style stop by coming in and out of it from oak river.

[Jason_B]

Thanks for the keen eye. I was cutting that corner getting to the pipelines.

I’ve seen skippy pop up in discussions around this area a few times. I must be all around it with this route. All I can figure is that skippy must be shorthand or slang for something I’m overlooking on GED or navionics. I’ve even tried translating skip, skippy, and skipjack into french and spanish and couldn’t find anything. I know that last method sounds mental but it’s how I figured out where four horse is.

[Jason_B]

On spot 11; not a secret, just buried well. See the link Devin provided in his first reply to my planning post.

[Jason_B]

“Yeah, I get that. Classic anthropomorphization of something that’s not warm-blooded. I just haven’t seen evidence to lend toward that. It’s been my observation that fish prefer stable water over water that’s warmer. Which is detailed in this article.”

It makes sense that I caught the hardiest of marsh fish in their most hardy sizes while trying this.

[Jason_B]

Hey Devin, thanks for the replies. I’ll try to offer some clarity and responses to a few things here.

As for the Biloxi Marsh not being what it used to be. Yea, I’ve noticed. It’s where I grew up fishing too. I did have a “half limit” day out there where only a few had to be put on the ruler back in December. That predates my intro post here so did not include that day on any report. May have given me some hope that others don’t have.

The “yikes” on not planning. I’m assuming I’m not the only guy who might see a quick window to go. When I can’t plan I always check wind and stick to known routes I have run before and saved. I’ve been a GED nerd since before I learned the acronym in 101 and have followed a similar route planning process in the past, and re-verified mr routes with your process after 101. I’ll risk missing the bite but won’t risk safety. Just don’t want to be a negative influence on others by not clarifying that. I’ll verify the wind forecast once on the water and I have tidal predictions on my charts that I can make live decisions with. Not ideal, but safe, and it’s time on water.

New places: I’ve done Hopedale a few times, mostly in the summer at the long rocks. I like the idea of Delacroix, but as mentioned, I’m a GED nerd and have never fully committed based on the things I don’t like on the images. Need some study time on routes. But I need to commit to that and let it be my next frontier sometime this year.

The bath thing. Man, I’m just bad about using poetic speak. My bad. The idea in my head was that fish would be pushed deep from the cold front (ref the ~50 deg water temps). Meanwhile the shallow lagoons are warming from the few days of warm, calm, sunny weather. As that warm lagoon water drains out on a falling tide into those deeper bayous then those cold fish might want to seek it. Ever jumped into a pool that’s too cold but then hopped into the hot tub for relief? That’s what my mind saw the fish doing – again, too poetic. My bad.

I don’t think your being hard. Thanks for the feedback.

[Jason_B]

Here I am sitting at a computer sending out a department staffing plan on this fine Saturday night… So, it’s a pretty bombable… i mean full schedule.