Devin
Forum Replies Created
-
“I’m going to be at the committee meeting and plan on testifying in support of these bills if my testimony is needed.”
You are the man!
-
Done and done. Thank you for sharing.
-
And those hazards I mentioned earlier.
-
Here’s the .kml for the above screenshots.
-
The second plan is to punch out further away from where those awful bow fishing boats go. I can’t guarantee they don’t run out toward the opposite side of the Rock Dam, but it sure would be harder for them to do so.
That and last month I saw one prowling the east side of Borgne as the sun was going down. <insert expletives>
You want to fish big points. It looks like you’ve got a bunch of smaller ponds and interior bodies of water picked out, but the bigger schools run on bigger shorelines. Think offshore bass. It’s kinda like that, you’re just fishing the shoreline on the bigger body of water, preferably where the tide flows the most.
Also, check out this planning post for more MRGO intel.
Again, pick out big points and the big coves between them. Use the alphabet spots I marked as examples to go off of.
“Bait and wait” with cork and dead shrimp will work if your pops isn’t up for staying on the trolling motor and chunking/winding a gold spoon, wake bait or spinnerbait.
-
Okay, here’s the deal. I want you to think critically about this, so I’m going to show you how. Like, one time when I was fishing Chickamauga I took it for granted that there is no tide there, and that fish wouldn’t wait for current like they tend to do in Louisiana.
Boy, was I wrong.
I learned the hard way that there is indeed current in Chick: the hydroelectric dam….when it generates. Which is at midnight, when I am not fishing.
Not that you can’t catch bass during the day (I did), but it was something that I was oblivious to. It was something that I didn’t know that I did not know.
That cross-training in bassin’ helped me out as an inshore angler, so maybe some cross-training in inshore fishing will help you crush the crappie. Or not. But we can try.
So the first thing we gotta look at is the wind. And it’s probably gonna blow its ass off and just suck. It will be probably anywhere from 10-20mph out of the SE, which actually isn’t bad. You just need to pick your shorelines out that are in the lee of the land (which you already have in mind). Or, the wind could magically lay down and let you punch out to spots in open water.
What’s good about the SE wind is that it will raise water levels. It will make ponds and shorelines much more fishable because you’ll be able to float your boat into them and fish over aquatic grass without getting snagged so much. So that’s a plus.
Gimme a minute and I’ll pick out some spots that I think you should fish.
Next is tide. You’re coming in on the ass end of a neap tide. The 17th-18th should have a better tide. The 15th is gonna be neapy. The 16th should fall in the evening.
I also have a hunch that you want to catch redfish more than trout. Correct me if I am wrong.
Next, another thing you may not know about that area is that it absolutely gets hammered by bow fishing rigs. Fishing ponds nearby in and around Shell Beach/Hopedale for redfish will probably amount to pissing in the wind. I hate it, but those awful charters have really put the hurting on redfish. Even if you do find some they are likely to be easily spooked.
So I would run a little further out. Here’s what I would do:
From wherever you are staying, you can run across the MRGO to Fort Proctor and fish in front of the fort there. That can be good fishing. Then run to Doulut’s. Be sure to swing wide around all the rubble just east of the mouth of the bayou you came out of. After that, you can run closer to the shore to stay out of the wind. It shouldn’t be too rough.
Then hit Douluts.
Then go up the east side of Lake Borgne and hit those spots I marked. You can fish those rocks by casting to them. Throw a topwater if its overcast, you could catch speckled trout that way. Also fish the breaks between the rocks where there is aquatic grass growing like what you see in the screenshots attached to here. Put that .kml on GED to see it closer for yourself.
Go simple stupid with dead shrimp under a cork. Campo’s will have the dead shrimp. They will prob try to sell you on live shrimp if they don’t have it. Live shrimp is okay to soak and wait for fish to swim to it if your pops isn’t up for power fishing.
I’m not saying fish just those spots, but fish those spots and spots that look like them.
Alright, so that’s your first plan.
-
Man, given the hellacious wind today, I’d be happy with that. Great work. Got some tracks and got a handle on some fish.
As for Sweetwater, I just get there earlier.
-
Can you be more specific?
Are you referring to the dredge pipe?
-
When exactly are you arriving and departing? Are you driving down from OK on the 15th? Or the 14th? When exactly do you leave?
-
Okay, so off the top of my head looking at your map…
1. There are submerged rocks in the MRGO as you enter that bayou. They are painstakingly marked with white poles, and you can see the in historical imagery on GED. I’m assuming you saw where I used those as an example in IF101?
2. There are some pilings at the mouth of Doulut’s as you enter Lake Borgne. You can see them on historical imagery. Definitely don’t want to hit those at speed. I have hit them idling.
3. This dead end canal can be good for redfish, as well as the pond on its east side. Chunk and wind a Texas rigged craw, gold spoon or wake bait. A 1/4oz jighead works well here, too. Fish the canal all the way to the end then fish your way back into that pond.
4. Lots of kayakers like to fish here, so maybe don’t blast through there on plane. Take the next bayou down to get into Pisana, but be aware you will have the occasional Chris Columbus in a kayak down there, too. lol Just be mindful.
5. That’s the Rock Dam, just in case you didn’t now. That can be a good spot to catch specks, reds, sheeps and puppy drum. It will probably be a grind and will probably have boats there.
-
I think using treble hooks is fine, but would use single hooks when the scenario calls for it, and that scenario would be fishing over the top of thick enough milfoil where treble hooks would get caught on the grass. I’ve had this happen before, where the only way to get a presentation on the speckled trout loitering in the grass was to throw a topwater at them. Everything else sank into the grass and snagged. It doesn’t rip free like hydrilla does.
If the water was any lower (and sometimes it was) I would throw a topwater with single hooks. It works because it is the only thing that works.
But if any person is bored and just wants to play with tackle, then there’s really no point in switching to single hooks for the sake of it (unless you really just enjoy swapping hooks).
If single hooks were better, bass anglers would’ve figured that out decades ago and ship all topwaters with single hooks.
But they don’t.
-
It’s looking like there’s gonna be some wind during your trip. That pretty much scratches off Bay Eloi. This is not like a lake such as Eufala, where there are hills and trees to block or slow down the wind. It is wide open and anything over 5-10mph will make it bumpy.
Same for Lake Borgne.
I’ve looked at your routes and identified some discrepancies. Later when I get to a stopping point in my work I will highlight those for you and give corrections.
As for your fishing spots, let me think that over and I can give some advice. Your plan isn’t bad, I just want to make sure we are on the same sheet of music.
-
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
-
Perfect, this is what I was hoping to hear. Standby.
-
That book is amazing. I’ve read it and keep a copy in my personal library. Anybody who hasn’t read it does not know Louisiana inshore fishing until they have.
If that book doesn’t make you want to start putting fish back in the water, then I don’t know what does. Rudy Grigar’s book is amazing for many reasons, but a good one is that it shows how far Louisiana’s fishing has declined.
It is hopelessly tragic what has happened.
So, in Grigar’s case, he had an exponentially higher amount of fish to catch. The guy could have used a single barbless J-hook completely straightened out off the back of a topwater and he still would have caught the hell out of fish.
The Louisiana back then may as well be another planet from a science fiction novel. lol
If Grigar was alive today – and could be talked out of jumping off the Crescent City Connection after seeing what’s left (or starting an eco-terror cell to put it back) – he would probably use treble hooks after a few days of getting his ass kicked by the few pressured fish that are left.
lol I joke…
…sort of.
