South Louisiana Flyfishing

[Johnsfolly]

Sounds like a great time and a very successful trip. Great photos. That was a beast of a black drum! We were sweating it out thru texts with Ham hoping for you getting a gator gar😉!

When we lived in FL and headed to Tampa area, we would more often than not see crested caracara on this same ranch near Lake Wales FL. Very cool birds.

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, FishnDave said:

 

I need to catch these two guys 😉. I may have a chance at gafftopsail cats when I go to TX in Nov. It may be a bad time for them but will give them a shot. I also need to catch a hardhead and will try for those as well. I have more hope for the hardheads.

[FishnDave]

56 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

I need to catch these two guys 😉. I may have a chance at gafftopsail cats when I go to TX in Nov. It may be a bad time for them but will give them a shot. I also need to catch a hardhead and will try for those as well. I have more hope for the hardheads.

I hope you get 'em!

The Hardheads were on/near the bottom.  The Gafftopsails we caught were mostly shallower...like 3' down in 17' of water, day AND night!  They were small ones, however.  I would expect bigger ones to be on the bottom.  I'm no expert, tho.  Whether they were under dock lights at night or in faster current areas during the day...they seemed to like being around faster predators, and probably were picking up scraps from the savage Spotted Seatrouts and Ladyfish feeding frenzies.

[Ham]

In the 2000’s a band called the Bravey released two albums at the same time that were different versions of the same set of songs. There was a “Sun” and a “Moon” version. I am tempted to do my of thread about Dave and Ham’s Big Adventure, but I’ll just add to this one.

lots of planning and scheming and research to try to get maximum results from the trip. I reminded myself that Rio Grand Cichlid and Alligator Gar were the primary focus, but didn’t necessarily have to be caught first. I think this trip was I  the planning stages for a year or more. 
i would have loved to make the trip in October when the air would have been drier and the overnight temps lower, but prior commitments made that impossible.

the trip down is a lot easier for me. You aren’t tired yet and you are full of excitement and hope for the trip ahead. I had spent a lot (too much?) time thinking about flys to bring and Flyrods to use. I had bought some pretty Redfish flys that I was sure were gonna knock ‘em dead. I spent a fair amount of time destroying my previous fly boxes and reconstructing them into appropriate boxes for the trip.

the place I choose for marshes  south of New Orleans was Bayou Log Cabins. The owner is Clay Boudrioux. They were not cheap, but he was a super helpful guy and they were on the water. We launched the boat at his ramp right after we got there and pulled it out right before we left.

We were able to use the trolling motor to get to the lights that we fished under at night for a Speckled Trout etc.

plenty of room and well equipped dock for fisherman.

it had been 50 years since I had fished for Specks under lights, but it had not changed much. Lots of action. You’ve already fished hard during the day, might as well catch a bunch of fish in the relative cool. 

 

 

Marty’s Clousers caught 95% of the fish I caught under the lights. I had just under 70 fish in the two nights. Dave beat the heck out of them especially on the second night, but I have no idea how many he caught. 

[Devan S.]

Awesome! Rio's are some pretty fish.

[Ham]

So, I still have a few friends left in Louisiana. My friend Kelly Watson is a guy I check in with from time to time and he knew the area we were gonna fish in. 
I was pretty surprised when Kelly informed me he was meeting us at the cabin and a little concerned actually.Turns out he wanted to show us some spots to try. I have know idea why we couldn’t just have looked at Google earth, but nah we all jumped into Waldo and took off into the failing daylight. He showed us three spots running through a maze of cuts, ditches, and flats. I honestly did not think I could get back to the spot he strongly suggested for Day 1, but amazingly, we were able to find it the next morning.

I put Dave up front and started push piling us around the shallow marsh pond. We saw tons and tons of bait and life, but not really a whole lot of redfish.

somewhere in there I was working a tutti fruiti Clouser under a gadget float. It would chug and the fly would drift down. I was looking for a reds while working it back. I got a tug and strip set in response. Fish On! I was using a 9 weight to chunk the goofy float thingy so the guy was out matched really, but I got very anxious when I caught sight of him, but Dave deftly got him in the net and I could celebrate my Lifer/Flyfer Sheepshead. We spend a while working around with no other success. I moved us out to a deeper cut and I got a rat (mouse?) red. And in short Oder Dave got a couple of Rat Reds. Not big ones, but much better than nothing. 

 

 

[Ham]

The trip is all a big sweaty blur. I had packed plenty of clothes and knew the next rental had a washer/dryer we could use, but I was starting to “sweat it” (see what I did there?) because I was going through multiple shirts and pants a day. 
I’m having to look back at photos to see the order stuff took Place in. 
So, it was hot and I was frustrated and knew that I wanted to go try for Rios, but before we did that I wanted to fish heavy stuff on bottom in the waterway in feony of the camp. Lots of pilings and structure that I hoped would hold Sheepshead and Black Drum.

it took Dave a few minutes to catch not one, but two hardhead catfish. I caught nothing. But, I’m a little like Ruth Bader Ginsberg when it comes to fishing, I persisted.

we dropped further down still trying for benthic beasts when we saw feeding activity on the surface. It took a few hot  minutes as we changed flys until we could get bit, but it was Ladyfish, being not at all Lady like. And just under them were large numbers of baby gafftops which Can get really nice sized and will sometimes take surface lures. Hardhead catfish have a real reputation for venom in their slime coat that is really unpleasant if you get poked. This little turd finned me and I did not love the experience at all.

i tried heavier and larger stuff to get below the frenzy to see if something better was available, but never got a bite and the Rios were waiting so we headed in to prep for that. 

[BilletHead]

            You guys had one heck of a trip! Proud of both of your success and a bit jealous too.  Really sorry I (we) couldn't make the trip with you guys. Won't let that happen again. I really think your success is kind of my success in a sense. Especially when Ham smashes fish on fly's I shared with him. Doing what he is doing with them makes me feel good! 

[Ham]

So, Monday afternoon we took off for Metairie. Which is part of the Big Easy. Traffic was really awful. I don’t like driving in any big city, but there is lots extra workers in the area for the installation of a new LNG plant. And there’s road construction and there’s stupid/ selfish people.

we needed some stuff so we made a target run and then on to the Rio ditch. I had several areas to try, but I was certainly hoping my hottest intell would pay off. I did not want to have to go to the city Tuesday afternoon nor Wednesday morning, but I would have until we both had Rios.

I think Dave had one before I had a fly picked out to try.

We celebrated the success for a minute and then I started fishing hard. My first one was a colored up male. 😍then I got a smaller one. 
we both caught several Rios and Green Sunfish etc.

but it’s not just about the fish, it’s also the natural beauty of the fishing spots and communing with nature.  

 

So, we actually caught them

too quickly and I wasn’t ready to fight the Belle Chase traffic so we drove to another Rio spot that Dave turned into an Alligator Gar Spot, but after a few minutes with no gar in sight I called BS and pointed it towards the cabin. 
it was fairly late when we got back and I think raining so we settled in probably the earliest of any trip. We are a Late Dinner and crashed. 

[Ham]

So, Apparently, I’m a slow learner. We were given another marsh pond to try by Clay. He catches lots of reds there. So, Tuesday morning bright and early, he head to the pond. Bait everywhere, Redfish no where. 
i’m poling  the boat around. Dave got a Speck. I fished a little from the front and hopped down for a cool water and a rest. Dave spots some movement and gets to the front as well glide in. 
so version of him leading the fish and twitching the fly correctly leads to an ear and a hookset. 
The water is off color, but Dave sees enough to know it is a black drum. I asked how big it was and Dave says it’s ok sized or something like that.

As the drum starts pulling the boat along, I suggest that it might be larger than he thinks. 
it took a while to tire it out. Everything held together which was good. Then a combo of fish gripper and Net to get big Boy into the boat

massive big ugly.