South Louisiana Flyfishing

[nomolites]

I fought the Belle Chase traffic to and from Venice in March; thankfully it was once each way as we stayed at the Marina for the week.  That is some absolute craziness with all those workers down there….

Mike

[Ham]

I had hoped for Gulf Killifish at the Rio ditch, but I didn’t see any micros at all. I had noticed small fish driving by a ditch leading to a bayou near our cabin. 
after a cool off/shower/re-dress from the morning session, we headed out to check the ditch. I toted the trusty TFO Bug Launcher and Dave carried his lightest rod an 8 weight. 
the ditches turned out to be loaded with all sorts of fish. I was quickly able to get a few Gulf Killifish. There was a little truck to getting them and once I worked that out, I could have filled a bucket with them.  I got Dave to come over and catch one and he of course caught a juicy jumbo one.

A little later Ladyfish started blowing up on the down current side of the culvert. So, we had to catch some of those. We caught Redfish. Dave got an Atlantic Croaker. And Dave managed to get a Large really pretty Spotted Gar. I got several Redfish and one of them really wore me out, but I was able to land themI’m still dragging stuff around trying for an Atlantic Croaker when I came tight to another fish. I was stunned to find out it was another Sheepshead!Dave got into a fight with an Alligator Gar and despite pulling on him for a good while was not able to land him. 
I moved around dinking and dunking and finally got my Atlantic Croaker.I hated to stop, but rain was coming and we wanted to have at least one decent meal on the trip so we headed in to get ready for Salvo’s Seafood 

[Quillback]

Some good fishing in those ditches.   

[Johnsfolly]

3 hours ago, Quillback said:

Some good fishing in those ditches.   

Ditches...! We don't need no Stinkin Ditches...! 😆

[Ham]

We banged on the Speckled Trout for an hour or so starting at 9 pm or so. Lots of willing biters.

next Monday we loaded out pretty early and took a disfuncional route to Lafayette to be frustrated by Bantam SF and Golden TM. I saw both and caught neither.

so where in there we realized that a not previously predicted rain event was moving into the area we planned on fishing. Nothing we could do except adapt. 
we drive through lots of rain and stopped at a boat ramp to drain water from the boat. Then on to alligator gar spot. 
we tried an areas that looked to good to pass up and then got to the target area.

I had tied up some ugly buggers with a 4X long #4 streamer hook. It had plastic bead eyes and some rubber legs for a tail. It hovered pretty well. 
in just a little bit I got a good bite and was able to quickly hustle my first Alligator Gar on fly to the bank. He was hooked really well, but I took no chances.I was ecstatic over my tiny AG. I switched to @BilletHead Clouser to prospect for Redfish and stay out of Dave’s way, but another Alligator Gar jumped on it. Dave had shots, but couldn’t convert. At somw

point we bailed and went to the rental

[netboy]

Hope you guys brought a bunch of speckled trout fillets home. They are pretty darn good. We used to catch a bunch of them off our deck at night when we lived in Corpus Christi on the Laguna Madre. We called it commercial fishing, because when you caught one, the rest of the school would scatter and then you went back in and watched TV until the next commercial, then they would be back. 

I remember one night I put one in the refrigerator that I knocked on the head and put in a plastic grocery bag. I thought it was dead and then my Mom, who was in her 90's at the time, opened the refrigerator door and the fish flopped out onto the kitchen floor. Scared the crap out of her. We all had a good laugh at that. And then a wonderful fish fry the next night with the evenings catch.

[Johnsfolly]

13 hours ago, netboy said:

Hope you guys brought a bunch of speckled trout fillets home. They are pretty darn good. 

I have to agree that they are a tasty fish. We have a trip planned for the 16th to fish the outer banks near Nagshead. Trying for ribbonfish but it is likely to end up a speckled trout trip. If so we hope to bring back some fillets 😉

[Johnsfolly]

14 hours ago, Ham said:

I love this Photo!

[Quillback]

42 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

I love this Photo!

Jaws!

[FishnDave]

@Ham insisted we needed that pic to confirm our fish I.D.  It was funny... that gar kept his mouth open for the longest time... until we started to take pictures of his teeth.  Then he clamped up and wouldn't re-open.  Got one ok pic before that.

My fish didn't pose nearly as well: