Devin
Forum Replies Created
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“Question for yall is do the reds move more into the ponds later in the summer? We covered a ton of water and expected to see more reds. Should we abandon the interior freshwater ponds as most of the reds we have caught blind casting have been closer to the lake edge?”
There just hasn’t been a lot of redfish. The redfish population has taken a wild hit. It’s a factual reality we are living in backed up by lots of sight fishing reports (found on this forum, but those I also get from guides who are sight fishing for them). Also backed up by science from LDWF. Has been for awhile now.
Even the dead-shrimp have been having a tough time with the reds, and they’re fishing for them in the easiest way possible.
I have no idea what the bowfishing guides are doing, you can check their social media to see. I imagine that if running fish down and shooting them is the only way to limit out, then we are in hard times.
A couple years ago when I put my sight fishing rig back together, I fished everywhere from Lake Pontchartrain’s ponds to Biloxi Marsh to Delacroix to Pointe a la Hache, on down to Buras and even in Houma and came away with pretty sad numbers.
In Houma we did best, but practically all the fish were overs.
I’m comfortable saying that what you’ve experienced isn’t a matter of figuring out when redfish move into ponds (spoiler alert: they’re always in ponds) but that there are no redfish in ponds because there aren’t that many to go around.
Not that a mother lode doesn’t exist out there, but that there aren’t as many mother lodes as there used to be.
This is the result of the Freshening and increased pressure on redfish, as well as Louisianans need to kill/eat everything they come across.
That’s just where we are. I wish it weren’t the case, I’d rather have beautiful ponds loaded with redfish.
The guides who are catching them tend to do so with dead shrimp under a cork or fishing deeper. I’m 99% positive that’s what the Venice guides are doing.
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“Another area I’ve been wanting to check out is the Gulf side between Baptiste Collette and Main Pass.”
There’s a beach over there that looks mighty fine.
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Yeah, I’ve definitely failed a lot, so you’re in good company.
For example, one tournament blastoff my partner (who was driving) went to jump on plane when our number was called, and both his power poles were still down. Right there in front of God and everyone. lol I might have crawled inside the rod locker I was so embarrassed lol.
Thanks for posting an intro!
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I love that you just go down there and do the dang thing. Just full send. No complaining about the drive, you just get down there and paddle your ass off. Good stuff.
“Found a few deeper areas and moving water, but no bites.”
Why were you in deeper water for redfish? Why not get shallow?
With that said, the redfish game has been sparse. Dudes going to Venice have been having a tough time finding them in sightable water. I believe it, that’s been my experience for a few years now.
“Launched out of Grand Isle marina at 5am and paddled out of Barataria pass and fished the rocks.”
You are a unit. lol
Forgive my ignorance, but is it not feasible to drag the kayak to the other side of the island and launch there? Or is it easier to use the marina and paddle around?
“So I switched to a 1/4oz jig with the same plastic and it was on. Almost every cast for the next hour (7:30-8:30a). All 13-17 inches with two throwbacks in between.”
You’re an operator. Straight up.
“It seemed like the dolphins were keeping the school of trout concentrated in a small area, which is where I happened to be fishing–is that a thing?”
I’ve experienced the exact same thing: dolphins all around and the trout are pressed up against the rocks. My guess is that dolphins don’t want to beat themselves up on the rocks and the trout can hide and eat there. Getting close with a jig is the best way I caught them there, just like you did.
Zach, if we awarded medals in this forum I’d pin one on your chest. Way to just do the dang thing.
Excellent work, great report, thanks for posting it!
You’ve got me highly motivated on this Monday morning. Everyone else posting reports are gonna have big shoes to fill.
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“I have been struggling to get up in time to get down to Cypress Cove at a decent hour. I struggled to wake up and didn’t leave my house until 330 so didn’t get to the launch until 515.”
Well, that’s not as bad as getting there at 7am, but that is a long run to South Pass. It’s hard to get good sleep when you gotta get up that early. I get it. But, FWIW, you could invest in Atomic Rhino smelling salts.
It is exactly what it sounds like and will 1,000% launch you into the present moment of reality, if you can just get the cap off and put the bottle under your nose. Bonus points if you build a servo to fling it in your bed when the alarm goes off.
Also, I have one of those old school alarm clocks in the bathroom. No phone alarm, it’s too easy to hit the snooze. The old school alarm just keeps going until I get up and turn it off. lol It is horrible and every female in my life has always hated it. lol
“I thought for sure I would catch them jigging the rocks but nada.”
I would’ve been frustrated by that point.
“It should have been a redfish paradise but they weren’t there.”
Man, either you’re doing a splendid disinformation campaign to keep redfish folks out of Venice, or there really were no redfish. I’m sure it’s the latter.
It really is a bummer. I miss the old days. Hopefully they come back.
I’m really not too sure what else to say, as there’s a gut feeling telling me those specks are somewhere around there. They have to be.
Otherwise, great report, thanks for posting!
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I’ve done that driving back and forth on the Twin Span. Thanks for reminding me. Sometimes you drive across and just see birds/blow ups in the distance and can drive straight to a launch on either side and go get them.
Lots of fun!
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Amen
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Straight up gems.
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ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
I have literally said the same thing about Charlie Thomason for years. “I’M CHARLIE THOMASON!”
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Earlier this year I ran Redfish Bay and it got shallow enough for me to chicken out. One day I’ll go back through that to figure out where a channel is, if indeed there is one.
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Look, we’ll never convince the new guys to hit Venice if y’all keep mentioning this doom and gloom (which totally happens).
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Okay, well next time take pics and post them here and I could give you a for-sure analysis.
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It was the same thing last year for me along the river in PLH and Buras. Tons of beautiful ponds full of rays and heads, but no redfish.
Kinda makes you go, “Hmmmmmm.”
I do think throwing something like Gulp crappie bites on a J-hook could be good for sheepshead. I’ll eventually get around to trying it. There’s just so many of them, so why not?
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Trout usually don’t suspend. You could’ve been seeing another fish that just happened to be there. If I could see a picture I would be more confident in telling you what you were seeing.
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“I do have a specific question, while I have your attention.”
This forum has my undivided attention. This is the place to ask your pie-in-the-sky questions. This is not stupid-ass YouTube. Full send here. This is where it goes down.
“We were in ~20′ of water, and they were between 5-10′ deep. Sometimes a bit deeper. But, they were obviously feeding on the bottom.”
I’m confused. Where they on the bottom or suspended? What sonar type? 2D? Down or side imaging?
Do you have a picture? Most graphs can take screenshots which you pull off the inserted SD card. Or just take a pic with your phone, but those usually aren’t as good due to screen glare.
