Devin
Forum Replies Created
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By the way, I do think popping corks at points with obvious tidelines is a great idea. It’s a good place to start given how this fall has been going.
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Walter, I just saw this. I’m so sorry. I’m sure you’re out there now.
In the future, it really helps to get planning posts out before the weekend. During the weekend everyone is out doing family stuff or fishing themselves. Hardly anyone is looking at this website.
I hope you’re smashing them out there!
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About dang time! Thank you for the heads up!
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Hopefully you’re doing well out there. Rooting for you!
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I’m so confused.
You’re not going to Hopedale now? You’re doing Venice and Port Fourchon?
If you’re going to bass fish, then how do you plan on doing that? When someone says “bass fishing” I think of foot pedal trolling motor and flipping a Texas rig. Are you set up for flipping?
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“We primarily are flyfishing for reds.”
I had a feeling that was the case when you mentioned the places you did.
See, that’s very good to know because that’s very different from wanting to catch speckled trout. You probably don’t want advice for that. And it’s even very different from catching redfish at all, because you probably don’t want to be throwing a fly around a bunch of grass.
“Why do you say fishing in the areas I stated are not good in November?”
Because if you were conventionally fishing for specks or reds, there are better places to go that you would drive right past getting to the outside to where you fly fish for bulls.
But now we have a better idea as to what you want, and that makes knowing how/what to plan much easier. But there’s one more detail:
“I have done very well fishing Hopedale October-November”
What is “very well” for you? A few bulls? 40 redfish? Just managing expectations here. If you’re happy poling around, seeing five to ten fish and catching 1-3, then that’s probably what you’re going to get in that area. I just text an expert on that area and will let you know what he thinks. I’d defer to him.
“Yes, I know Venice is a good area, but I am not familiar with the area.”
Well, neither was I but I still figured it out in a relatively short time. No one showed me around Venice, gave my any advice/intel, I just figured it out on my own using the tools/knowledge/process outlined in Inshore Fishing 101. And I absolutely smashed the daylights out of the trout, redfish and bass there. Use that and you can unlock new areas. And I’ll leave it at that. All I can do is show you where the water is.
So, for Hopedale I’d look at those same areas you mentioned, but also consider the entirety of the East Biloxi Marsh and the MRGO south of the Rock Dam, down to Mozambique Point.
That’s a lot of water to cover, so use Copernicus to reference recent imagery to give you an idea where the clearest water will be. If you’re like me, you probably prefer sight fishing in water where you can actually see the fish, not chocolate milk.
My problem with fishing that area in November is that it may not be so cold yet that the algae dies off and the water gets super clear. It’s been warm. Last year was warm, too. In November the water temperature never saw the 50s until the last week. I doubt it will do any different this year, as warm as its been. I hope I’m wrong.
So I’d lean heavily on Geosphere and Copernicus to figure out where the clearest water is.
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This is probably not the answer you want to hear, but as a fishing professional who’s done this for a long time and BTDT, I think this is what you need: use that time to knock out some of Inshore Fishing 101 so you know how to plan trips.
All of the questions you’re asking here are what that knowledge answers. I laid it out as simple and as structured as possible. That way it’s easy for anyone to understand how it is I look at the conditions at any time of the year in order to find and catch fish.
I understand that taking those lessons is humble work. But it’s nowhere as difficult as what I went through to learn it all, not to mention producing it in a format communicable to others.
I can only lead horses to water, whether or not they drink is up to them.
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Hey welcome to the site and thanks for posting this planning trip.
Why Hopedale/Shell Beach? Are you staying there? Where?
What boat are you in? “Skiff” means a lot of things.
What are you trying to catch.
Next, if you haven’t completed Inshore Fishing 101 then you need to. That way you get all the context, things you don’t know that you didn’t know, etc. rather than just re-hashing it all here and not getting the whole picture anyway. You have time between now and then.
“end of the spoil canal by 7 dollar out to treasure bay, Christmas camp area, fishing smack area”
Yeah, when were you here last? Those aren’t areas you want to fish in November.
Finally, if you’re going to be fishing that time of year, then I personally feel you are wasting time going to Hopedale. The most magic is in Venice, as long as the river is below 5ft at the Carrollton Gauge.
Answer those questions and I can give you more feedback.
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You will more likely than not find bull reds under birds at Southwest Pass, toward the mouth of the river.
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Why don’t you go to Venice?
Hopedale has not held a candle to Venice in any category in years.
If your friends are coming down in November then that means they’ll be down for when Venice should be turned on.
My reports from Hopedale during November last year sucked, and they sucked the year before that, too.
Go to Venice, fish The Jump (tons of info here on it), Baptiste Collette, Southwest Pass, First Spillway, etc.
Hopedale = scarce fish and mostly keepers
Venice = fish you don’t need to measure
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Bang! I like that. Use your angler network, go with someone who knows what’s up and take notes.
Okay, that works.
Also, see if you can’t check The Jump. Fish it with an HDS and sparkle beetle. If they’re there, you will know.
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“Its why when people go out and catch 20-30 reds every so often and say, ‘see, the fishing is back’ I wonder if they even know what ‘back’ actually would mean.”
Dude, yes. Nailed it. I’m sure you heard Ty Hibbs describe this with his “Shifting Baseline Theory”. It’s so funny to me to see someone get into fishing five years ago and start talking trash about the few 20″ trout they caught. Or their day of limiting out with 15. Like, “No, that should be 115”.
I even catch myself caught in the slide. Now I know what the old timers meant.
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Now you’re speaking my language.
I think you’ve got this. Just gotta see what the wind is gonna do.
Do not discount the MRGO south of the Rock Dam. The west side plays really well with a W or SW wind because that spoil will keep you protected and there’s mostly a hard shell bottom the whole way that can be really clean. I’ve seen plenty of bulls and slots there. The east side is good, and obviously better to fish if the wind is coming from the east.
Hopefully the wind lays down and the sun comes out for when you come in!
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“I don’t think chasing reds is worth it anymore but that’s because my reference for what a good day looks like is not realistic anymore”
Man, I was literally in that boat yesterday and metaphorically in that boat right now. Simply put: if the fishing was like this in 2009, there would be no LAFB. <insert further ranting here>
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+1 on what Cliff said
In the last couple years I found reds at the end of SW Pass, at the weirs just downstream of that pilot house. Birds were going nuts and the bulls were every cast. Corking the rocks at the end of South East Pass by Port Eads or the rocks at the end of Baptiste Collette could work, too. Corking cane stubble in Blind Bay is also an option.
These places are more fertile and less pressured than anywhere else in Louisiana.
