Pumpkins . . . Donkies . . . and Redfish
A week or so before Thanksgiving my buddy Jim May and I headed to Louisiana with the intention of targeting bull redfish which usually show about this time. Schools of bull reds come in from the gulf and winter in the marshes. Last year we fished the third week of October and did quite well but our guide suggested we come a little later if we wanted a better chance at bigger fish.
We arrived at our hotel in New Orleans and promptly called our guide, Capt. Greg Moon, to make plans for being picked up the following morning. We fished with Greg the year before and could hardly wait to meet up again. He’d been telling us of how great the fishing was in October and how many bull “donkey” reds they had taken. This was a new term for us that quickly came to life. Fish in the twenty to thirty pound range have been given this nickname locally because of the incredible hard fight they put up, pulling drag like donkeys.
Our mornings started with breakfast at a local café called Penny’s. Loaded with guides from all around we gathered information about what was biting and where, weather, tides, and so on.
The first two mornings we launched out of Delacroix and headed south through the bayous toward the open gulf where we hoped to find bigger fish waiting.
As we poled into our first cove our guide said to keep our eyes open for glowing orange balls that looked like floating “pumpkins”. The larger redfish show bright orange in the morning sun even in the murky choppy water we were fishing in. The wind had been blowing a steady 25 knots for several days and the water was definitely turbid.
Soon enough our guide shouts out “big fish” and Jim is first up to the platform. A couple of false casts and we get our first hook-up and off this “donkey” goes taking line and drag with ease. The guide now yells for me to get up on the platform and cast straight ahead thirty feet to another fish. Jim is still hooked tight playing his fish in while our guide comes off the poling platform to help with the landing. I in the meantime miss several shots at the other red while this is going on.
Jim gets his fish to the boat and boga’s at twenty-four pounds. Not bad for the first fish of the trip.
Our guide had given Jim an unusual fly in a baby blue and white color pattern to help stand out in the dirty water which Jim used the entire trip. I wanted to use my own creations in a variety of colors which they readily ate as well.
The next several days we took good number of “slot fish” in the 18” - 27” size up to twelve pounds.
The next day, the wind still howling, we decided to head west to another area called Port La Heche hoping to find some cleaner water and a few more big fish. Along the way we met up with another guide named Capt. Rocky Thickstun and his guest whom we partnered with to this new water.
The first bayous here were quite a ways offshore and conditions had not improved. Blowing spray and muddy water soaked all of us. Less frequented here by many fishermen proved a real plus as we had our best day with fifteen reds and several shots at big bulls in the thirty and forty pound range.
While here having lunch, Capt. Rocky’s guest (a former captain as well) decided to trade off and pole for a while too. Not bad for a guy seventy-eight years old.
Our last day we headed to Hopedale and the Biloxi Marsh area. The wind had finally layed down and the water cleared. Same tactics as before but now we could see much better in the stained water. Jim and I both picked up several fish before we were forced to move by a group of dolphins. Sort of like when sea lions come in on your stripers, you have to pack up and move.
With the water clearer it was easy to spot hundreds of juvenile reds in this shallow nursery areas. We ended the day with several bigger fish in the 15#-18# range along with a nice black drum still on Jim’s baby blue fly.
While redfish range from the Chesapeake Bay all the way to Texas the southern Louisiana marshes have to be some of the best redfishing anywhere.
Tony
TONY BUZOLICH
Feather River Fly
Yuba City, CA.
(530) 790-7180
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