Devin
Forum Replies Created
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Here’s the email I sent to them:
Gentlemen of the Wildlife & Fisheries Commission,
I’m reaching out to all of you in regard to tomorrow’s hearing on bowfishing of redfish.It’s been brought to my attention that your commission wishes to sample the public’s opinion on this practice, and I believe that I can offer an insight.
My name is Devin, I’m a lifelong inshore angler, former charter captain and today I teach people how to fish Louisiana’s coast for speckled trout, redfish and more. You can learn more about me here.
Based off what my membership and following has told me, bowfishing redfish is extremely unpopular. There are many reasons as to why, but the chief among them is the unsportsmanlike nature of the method of taking redfish, not just with a bow, but also “burning” shorelines and corralling redfish. Many inshore anglers equate it to spotlighting deer: it’s unethical and takes away from other user groups.
After that, the redfish don’t get a break at night, so when we do see them in the morning, they’re far less likely to take a bait.
Bowfishing and associated bowfishing charters have grown in popularity to such an extent that it’s very easy to find never-ending double prop scars in the marsh, which I have filmed and you can see as B-roll in the following video at the 8:16 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXOgNzrVh0I
It has also been my personal experience — as well as that of others — that wherever bowfishing outfits crop up, the redfish practically disappear. Typically, when going sight fishing for redfish, one can expect to see about 60 redfish. A really good day is 100+ and I’ve had truly epic sight fishing trips of seeing 200+ redfish. But in areas that are bowfished I only see 10 to 20 redfish. It’s a night and day difference.
It’s very common to pull into beautiful redfish ponds with lots of clear water, bait, stingrays, sheepshead and bass, but not see any redfish. I think that’s because redfish are targeted moreso than the other species, and the bowfishing outfits are best at targeting them in those places.
So that’s my take on bowfishing of redfish. I really wish they concentrated on gar and sheepshead, as there are plenty of those.
Thank you for your time and consideration! Please reach out if I can answer any questions or clear anything up.
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Don’t shy away from running north toward grass to sight fish redfish. I’ve had a lotta good trips doing that.
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“and it was already being worked by 2-3 boats”
That just bums me out and makes me not want to launch the boat. Like, I’ll just sacrifice myself so everyone else can enjoy the water without some a-hole being in their spot. lol
“There is something uniquely satisfying about hammering fish in front of a guide that has the perme-orange stained hull from time on the water throwing shrimp after shrimp into the oblivion.”
Yes, there is. Yesssss therrreeee isssss.
“and after 5 more boats showed up they were headed home”
Ugh, what I said earlier.
“but also not skunked.”
Very important.
“The water in fuel thing I think we responded as quick as we could and now he knows how to do it on the fly.”
Yeah, that’s pretty ace.
Great report, thanks for posting!
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What’s important with the HDS (and anything you could ever tie on) is not “working” it or whatever, it’s getting that presentation in front of the fish.
Did the bait get to where you think fish are? Yes? Did you get bit? Great, reel that fish in and do it again.
Didn’t get bit? Cast somewhere else. Rinse and repeat until you either find fish or move to your next spot.
If you really want to feel warm and fuzzy I have YT videos where you can watch me cast the thing.
Don’t get sucked into the bottomless black pit of how to work it. What matters is presentations. Can the fish see the fcking thing?!
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Yeah, I think your report more or less reflects mine from the last time I was down there.
I am also thinking “most water, least fish” scenario.
To get after these fish you’re just gonna have to cover more water. It’s a giant PITA. The fishing is good, but still a shadow of what it used to be.
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In my experience fishing that area and judging those predictions, you want to see that wave height well under 2ft. Otherwise the beach is dirty and you’re getting your ass kicked. “Doable” is a charitable word.
I like to see wave height under 1ft the day preceding and the day of my trip. A little over 1ft is more “doable”, like 1.3ft.
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+1
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My guess was west of Goose Point. Overall looks like a good install location. The other shell pad/reef balls isn’t far away, either.
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I cleaned those up here:
30° 15’15.91” N 89° 57’55.76” W
30° 15’12.44” N 89° 58’01.76” W
30° 15’19.30” N 89° 57’50.10” W
30° 15’14.77” N 89° 57’49.00” W
30° 15’16.98” N 89° 58’02.86” W
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There’s an app for the Garmin InReach that works best to send/receive texts.
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Yeah, I got a SpotX messenger years ago to trial/review and it wasn’t that great. It hardly worked.
Garmin’s InReach just works. I love tech that just works and no errors, not working, etc.
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A really good option that can be a little pricey but definitely just works is Starlink Mini. I’m accessing this forum now through one. Literally just plug it in and throw it on the lawn and *voila* you’re on the Internet.
And I ordered one for the house, because Spectrum is continuously not working for whatever reason despite having a monopoly on the terrestrial grid. It’s Monday, there’s work to do, I am annoyed because I couldn’t get on the Internet and work. Like, what the hell? So Starlink it is. And when we get whacked by a storm I will still have Internet. Spectrum can crawl up my ass and fight for air.
Anyway, I digress.
My point is that if you invest in a Starlink Mini you will have an option to get Internet out on the water (or anywhere in the world, pretty much) and when you inevitably get an Internet outage at your home you can use it as a backup. It costs $50/month and you can pause your subscription when you’re not using it. You do have to pay for the hardware (a dish, cable and wall adapter) that’s about $300 IIRC. The wifi router is built into the dish. It’s super slick.
The next step is getting SeaTow onboard with the future. I’ve talked to the NOLA franchise owner about this, telling him that a simple and free solution for SeaTow is to get on Signal, a secure messaging app that’s pretty standard these days. SMS is out, data is in.
Perhaps there’s a data-to-SMS app out there, but ultimately it would be better for everyone to just use data.
After that, there’s the SeaTow app, but I have no idea if it’s wonky or not. It’s probably wonky.
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I love it. Glad to hear about the Helix. If you have a PC then you will want to consider using Humminbird PC to transfer waypoints/tracks.
This course here helps to that end: https://www.lafbelite.com/course/hbpc/
There’s always next weekend. Love the positive attitude. You’ll whack ’em. It’s just a matter of time right now.
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When we get more content to filter, I’ll implement that. Great idea.
Yeah, the search is way better than FaceCrap. I just love all things that are good tech, and this platform is a step in that direction.
