South Louisiana Flyfishing

[Johnsfolly]

6 hours ago, FishnDave said:

@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:

 

The head shape will also be a key id feature. 

[Ham]

On 7/31/2024 at 6:31 PM, netboy said:

Hope you guys brought a bunch of speckled trout fillets home. 

Sadly, we did not keep any of our catch for food. I felt like I had enough on my plate already without worrying about cleaning fish and getting in home in decent shape to eat. 

[Ham]

12 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

The head shape will also be a key id feature. 

Some of the heads looked more blunt than the others, but I felt like the teeth were definitive. I really Don’t want to see what I want to see and misidentify a  fish .

[FishnDave]

After losing so many Alligator Gar... the one I caught STILL had to pile on the stress by getting hung up on a stout piece of vegetation about 12' from shore.  Despite having just watched a good-sized gator munching it's lunch about 35' away (but on the other side of a driveway culvert)... I waded in and grabbed that gar and carried it back to shore!  💪

[Ham]

So, we got to the rental pretty late Wednesday night and had a cold salad. A hero’s meal to celebrate my Flyfer Alligator Gar. 
Rental was very nice. Kinda pricey. Set up really well for fishermen and families. Dave and I would not spend much time there, but it was nice.

weather was going to be an issue. We had to wait and see in the morning how bad and what issues. My plan had been to use the boat in the morning and in the afternoon/evening fish from shore.

Thursday morning it looked like near constant bands of rain coming through and at times quite heavy with lightening possible. I nixed the boat. We had plenty of spots to try. 
First spot, I tied on an oversized bunny chartreuse Clouser with heavy lead eyes. The tide was pulling water out of one canal 90 degrees into another bank.I made my cast up Current and brought the fly back close to bottom with the current. It really did not take long before I had a nice take and strip set into a good fish. Heavy pull with lots of vibration had me hopeful and I was very excited to see my Flyfer Southern Flounder break the surface. The really inhaled the fly and was well hooked. It was a really nice one too. Not a doormat sized one, but a really solid “keeper”. I forgot about their habit of wanting to bite the hand that caught them and it shredded my pointer finger when I was popping the hook out. Blood poured, but you have to just keep fishing. It’s almost healed at this point.

I think Dave was obsessed with the Alligator Gar working around us. I switched over to trying stuff for Black Drum and Hardhead Catfish. I caught a couple of small Redfish at a couple of the spots.

we swapped spots a couple of times. Interesting interactions with locals catching blue crabs with hand lines in a heavy rain ignoring mosquitos and fighting alligators over a chicken neck. 
I got one of the bites that I was looking for, but it was the bite almost everyone hopes to avoid.I got my Flyfer Hardhead Catfish. They are universally considered not fit to eat and they are good at sticking a fin in you. To add insult to injury, they have venom glands that make getting poked even more uncomfortable. I was Happy to catch one though and Very Happy that I got Dave the Catfish Pro to release it for me. With my Flounder injury and getting poked by a Gafftop already, I was not wanting to take another hit.

a big band of rain settled in For a bit so we drove north to Sulphur, La and ate at a great local place Hollier’s which was a buffet of the home style food I grew up with. I’d love to eat there about once a week. It was awesome. Some guys overheard us talking and suggested a spot for the next day which was supposed to be better weather. 
after Lunch we head south again in search of Alligator Gar! 

[FishnDave]

These little guys are definitely in the running for "cutest dang fish" award.

[FishnDave]

I mean.... c'mon! 😍

It's great we don't take ourselves too seriously.  We did have a couple bragging sessions on just who exactly caught the SMALLEST ones...  

[FishnDave]

I got a couple more pics of @Ham :

Ham caught 2 or 3 or more Redfish that had multiple spots.... which is always kinda cool.  This was one of those:

Black Drum:

Ham's first (of many!) Alligator Gar!

 

[Ham]

So we headed south on Hwy 27. We passed up all the spots we spotted at before and we’re stopping at little pull offs. There would be a “road” that plunged j to the Marsh a bit and culvert would allow water to flow under these “roads”. We could fish boat sides of the culvert and almost always caught some kind of fish, but of course, Dave was after Alligator Gar and Some were usually around. 
i was trying to stay out of the way. At times I wouldn’t fish at all, but I still wanted to catch more species so eventually I tied a small weighed fly onto my trust TFO Bug Launcher and started trying to get a Black Drum or a Pinfish. I was also hoping for shots at larger Atl Needlefish. 
At one of the spots, there was plenty of life at the down current side and not much happening on the up current side, but I wanted  to be out of the way. Dave and I have observed that you might struggle to catch a fish, but once you catch that first one that they come in bunches. I was not going to try for an Alligator Gar again until Dave caught one.

so, I’m dragging a tiny (Size 10) home tie around when I got a big thump. I immediately thought Redfish, but it was gonna be my largest of the trip. The fish flashed the surface and I got greenish color and an asymmetrical tail shape. Bowfin? In brackish water?
the fish powered away and with 6 lb tippet, I let him. A bunch of runs and line retrieval. Hoping for the best and expecting the worst. The fish tired enough to get a look at it and it was another dang Alligator Gar. 😳. That was the last thing in the world I wanted to catch right then, but with patience and Dave pouncing on him like a Spider Monkey when the tippet failed as it was being lead to shore, the beast was captured. I was Very Happy once landed. Picture Time! I’m pretty sure that I was done fishing for Macro species for the rest of the day. I remember getting very upset with Sheepshead Minnows for being the jerks that they are. 
Dave caught another beautiful Spotted Gar that we both thought was an Alligator Gar until we got it on shore and looked at it. That was so bad. Dave caught other fish.

we headed back to the spot where I caught my first couple Alligator Gar and Dave had lots of bites and lots of hooked fish that evaded capture.

I had lots of bites from Fire Ants and mosquitoes. I walked up and down the road. I absolutely was not going to catch another AG out from under Dave. I REALLY WANTED HIM TO GET AN ALLIGATOR GAR.  
we stayed too long and were late getting back. Most of the restaurants were closed by then. We ate at a Mexican place called Rhumba. I enjoyed it. 
Hope Springs eternal. Dave had to catch his gar on Day Three, but Iw as planning on boating the Sabine River backwaters to an area we were told had lots of 30-60 lbers

Friday was gonna be awesome 

[Ham]

So, Friday’s weather was not any better than Thursday’s weather. The Sabine River went to flood stage so we did not go there looking for clear water to spot Gar in.

I checked the weather for another area in Texas that I though we could get Dave an Alligator Gar in, but it was getting heavy rain also.

we accepted our fate, prepped gear and waited for a window of fishable rain.

We hit some of the same spots from the day before had numerous larger AG feeding, but they could not be bothered with us. I caught a couple of Redfish.

we wandered further down the road and fished more ditches and caught reds and Ladyfish and blue crabs AND I got my Black Drum. 
And since I had one Black Drum, I then kept catching them. I caught at least 4,
but it might have been 5.

well, we had some logistical difficulties because I need adult supervision at times, but we got Dave to the spot for Alligator Gar. It was all him. I was not casting where the Alligator Gar were playing. Nope. Not me. I told Dave he was down to two hours.

apparently, Dave has a flair for the dramatic. He got it done. I was so Happy for him.

once Dave got his first, I felt free to fish again. So, I caught more alligator gar. It was Fun. I quit again because Dave was struggling to get a second one.

I was hoping to avoid more fire ant bites, but I failed miserably. I hate those darn things.

we loaded for home, but for flagged down by a guy who caught some Fat Sleepers with his cast net. We had to burn a 1/2 hour trying for those. Sadly, no Fat Sleepers were caught one fly.

Thats the end of the fishing. Lots for goofy stuff happened on the way home, but nothing that y’all would want to hear about.

Great Trip. Very memorable. I appreciate Dave for enabling my whimsical pursuits.

Fish on Gentlemen.