[john-zablocki]

Malice–I hear you. It’s not coming across the wrong way at all–on the contrary, respect you for the honesty. I generally agree with your assessment. It’s kind of like the old adage of “build big fire and sit way back vs build little fire and sit close up.” But in this case, the motivation for these trips is different than a typical fishing trip for me. When I go to a new area for the first time, I kind of like to just cover ground and explore and get a general feel for the area. So that run to the island isn’t really about trying to find fish. I’ve just never been there and would like to see it. So in future trips I probably will slow down and not plan on making long runs–I’d rather be poling than running. But for these trips I just want to get out there and ‘zoom out’ before I start really zooming in. Really more than anything my planning posts are motivated by just navigational knowledge and safety more than the actual fishing. For past few years I lived in Lafayette and pretty much exclusively fished from Dularge west to Calcasieu. Only moved to Slidell this summer and am wanting to explore new territory for me. I try and look at charts and study map beforehand, but you don’t know what you don’t know, so I’m extremely grateful for feedback from people like yourself that.

[john-zablocki]

This is very helpful and much appreciated! Will hunt around for coordinates for the reefs. Do you know if those weirs on the east side of lake are open or not?

[john-zablocki]

Thanks, Devin. Really appreciate you taking the time to look over these in such detail. Respect.

[john-zablocki]

Thanks–I’m definitely gonna avoid the area for now

[john-zablocki]

👍

[john-zablocki]

Thanks bruh! Really appreciate this.

[john-zablocki]

Really, truly appreciate this. Don’t know if you have any interest in fly fishing, but if you do, would love to take you sometime if you’re interested.

Your feedback on routes was extremely helpful. I wasn’t aware of the old sulphur mine but found an old Louisiana Sportsman article talking about and giving some coordinates. I added the coordinates on the map. The last coordinate mentioned in the article is for a debris field SE of the mine, but I think the coordinate they put for that marker is off somehow.

Anyway, would you be willing to look at map and see if how I mapped it looks right to you?

Feel free to drop pins, or draw polygons, or whatever on it–I shared it giving others access to edit rather than just view.

Louisiana Sportsman

[john-zablocki]

Thanks, Devin. Really appreciate how thorough you are with your reviews of these plans. Answers to the questions you posed.

Re: big shorelines–I hear you 100%. My default tactic when fly fishing for bull reds is to poll shorelines on the outside marsh. I didn’t mark any of them in this fishing plan because I wanted to focus more on scouting out areas. This isn’t a guided trip–am just taking out my friend and son, so for me it’s mostly just a scouting/have fun type of trip, which is different from the laser-focused type of fishing I do with clients.

Re: Tackle–fly or conventional (casting/spin)? The answer is both, but probably more spin. My 9 year old doesn’t know how to fly cast yet. The friend coming with us has limited experience fly fishing and wants to try it if conditions are right, but otherwise just wants to have fun and catch fish using any method. So I’ll have a couple fly rods rigged up, and a couple spin rods with corks and/or plastics. And if we’re really struggling, I plan on brining some crab to fish on the bottom (my son enjoys fishing this way).

Re: why Port Sulphur?
My uncle used to live in Belle Chasse and have been down to Mrytle Grove / Port Sulphur a few times, but never in my own boat. I became interested in the area and just want to explore it. I’ve fished some, but not much, on east side of river (Delacroix/Hopedale) but never out of Pointe a la Hache. I’m sure I will in future.

Re: fly fishing around grass–most fly guides prefer fishing areas without much grass for the obvious reason that they want to avoid grass getting caught on flies. There are some weedless-ish fly patterns. But others don’t avoid the grass. You can make a good presentation to a fish with a fly in areas with grass.

[john-zablocki]

Thanks, Devin. Embarrassed to ask, but how do I bump it to top?

[john-zablocki]

Thanks, Devin. No worries. I posted it the day before we left, lol.

Got to Pass Christian about 5am. Put my skiff in water and … realized I had no steering. So I tied up to dock and waited until a marine shop opened to get some SeaStar hydrauilic fluid. Tried bleeding the lines and it didn’t do anything. I think the steering rod must be fused to cylinder or somehow locked, or something mechanical like that. So trailered the boat back home and took my friends boat out of Eden Isles and made the same run. We didn’t fish a lot–tried fishing Shell Point and then tried fishing some on gulf side of Cat Island. There was a lot of bait but didn’t find anything other than ladyfish and doplhins. Ran back to Pass Christian to get fuel. Then wind kicked up on run back in. Stopped at Apache Rig and CSX train bridge just for a few minutes but nothing happened.

Water temps were super high everywhere 90+ even around Cat Island. I wasn’t expecting much in those conditions but it was good just to see some new water. Ride across Borgne was beautiful before the wind kicked up late afternoon.

[john-zablocki]

Thanks–am pretty excited. We just had offer accepted and are supposed to close May 6. House has boat lift, so I should be able to walk to the backyard and be out fishing in minutes.

[john-zablocki]

Hey Devin–wasn’t sure how to message or email you, so am just replying here. My wife, son and I are planning on relocating from Lafayette to Slidell this summer. We were looking at a few houses on Eden Isle this weekend.

If I recall, you live in Slidell. Was just wondering if you had any knowledge or thoughts on Abney Elementary? No worries if not but thought I’d ask.

[john-zablocki]

You da man

[john-zablocki]

Thanks, bruh. Helpful advice and much appreciated. Love the flies too!

[john-zablocki]

Thanks for the advice. We didn’t end up going to Wax, but instead launched at Berwicks and ran down Atchafalaya delta to Four League Bay. Poled the boat on shorelines and flats around Lake Chapeau and then made our way all the way out to the SW corner of the island. On the inside marsh the water was pretty dirty, and very shallow in many places. Saw a few reds sightfishing but was tough. Hit the west shoreline down to the southwest tip of the island with corks and found some fish there. Overall it was cool to explore but didn’t find as many fish as I have before on the other end of the island (Oyster Bayou area).

What time of year do you like fishing the Wax–the fall? Is the water clean enough for sight fishing?