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Past Fishing Reports April - September 2002SEPTEMBER 2002 AUGUST 2002 JULY 2002 July 27,28, 2002- Saturday morning we got a late start on a calm morning as we headed out to Black Bay in search of a better bite on speckkled trout that we have been having lately. Adrian Bouchillon of Atlanta, Ga. and his 6 buddies would be onboard celebrating Adrians' upcoming wedding. I had 4 of the guys in the group, and Capt. Cisco would take the rest of the guys. With an army of live shrimp and croaker swimming in the bait well we arrived at the honey hole, but could only manage a few good sized male trout. The big moon the night before and no water movement would keep the sow trout quiet at this location. Trout will sometimes feed heavily during the night on bright, and near full moons, especially if the light that the moon produces is unobscurred by clouds leaving a bright light for fish to feed on. Our efforts at numerous other areas would be about the same. We covered quite a bit of area in search for the elusive spotted swimmers, without much success. I then pulled up to rig that I like to fish croakers on, and we did hit some more paydirt. Not much in numbers here, but the quality was certainly there. The guys managed to put 8-9 good sized sow trout in the box here in the 2-4# class. We had also lost a few real good fish here at the boat as it was pretty difficult to get good hooksets on the slow and non-aggressive strikes this tough day would offer. We ended our trip with 18 very nice specks that stuffed 2 gallon ziplocks. Capt. Ciscos' guys managed a few more fish than we did, but we did catch better quality. After chatting with the 5 other boats that left out of Destination Delacroix Lodge, the consensous was, slow bite and few fish. Congratulations on your upcoming marriage Adrian, along with my best wishes for a happy and prosperous life. See you in the fall. The next morning I had Lila Primm, and her 2 sons, Martin and Adam from California onboard. I could not procure any live croaker for this trip, but we did get some very nice live shrimp from the bait shop. The plan of action would be to cover some different area to start. Upon our arrival at the Triple Pass area, we did manage some action on smaller specks, but still could not get on a good feeding school. Just as the day before we covered a lot of area and found only a few fish here and there. Martin did get on a beast of a speckled trout on a well out at the California Bay area, but this would be the only good fish taken here. This was shaping up to be a pretty tough day as well as the trip we had on the day before, but we would keep plugging. We arrived at California Point and found the water conditions to be pretty good. There was absolutely no water movement and the water surface was as slick as glass. With an approaching rain storm and the waters surface starting to ripple a bit, the specks would start to bite. Most of these trout would be throwbacks but Lila and Martin managed a few good keepers. The trout seemed to start biting as the breeze from the storm started water movement, but this would also be short-lived as the winds really started to blow and the water clarity would change for the worse. I did elect to ride out the rainstorm here to see if the specks would turn on afterwards, but this was not to be. Once the rain had passed I turned my attention back to the Delacroix Marsh to seek out redfish. After a few non productive stops, we did hit some pretty good paydirt. Some keeper specks would make their way to our lines, and suddenly a huge blow-up on Martins' float. I knew this had to be a redfish. Martin retrived his line to find that his bait was missing. I instructed him to quickly re-bait and cast in the very same spot. Within seconds his live shrimp was attacked by a redfish that would have line spooling off of his reel. After a good battle on the light tackle he was using we netted a nice specimen of the bronze beauties that would start nailing our offerings of live shrimp. As soon as Lilas' bait hit the water another hook-up on a beast of a fish, and Adams' rod would also be doubled over as well. We did lose some of these nice redfish, as we did not have time to reposition the boat. With the tide starting to flow at us aroud a nearby point, our lines would develop slack before we could get a real good hookset on these redfish. This would cause faulty hooksets, and would be the cause of losing some of these fish. As I was about to lower the trolling motor and quietly reposition the boat to get better position, wouldn't you know, a lost boatload of airhead anglers approached us asking for directions to areas that they were no way near to. This really disgusted all of us, as the airheads not only spooked the redfish that we finally found on a shallow flat, but they had witnessed one of the big reds that we landed and before we could get repositioned they motored directly up to the upcurrent point, tossed out their anchor, and cut off the tidal flow around the point. This not only pissed all of us off, but the idiot boy operating the airhead boat screwed up the area for himself as well. It's amazing how some people just don't have a clue about fishing ethics. It was getting too late in the day to get back on the hunt, so I called the trip then. Once again, not good numbers but good quality fish for this, yet another tough fishing day. The guys had a great time and I had a blast cutting up all day long with Lila and her boys. July 19,20, 2002- On Friday the 19th, Brandon Fusellier of Harahan, La. was entertaining 7 of his Baton Rouge clients with a day of fishing out of Delacroix. I have had the pleasure of fishing with Brandon and his guys a few times in the past, and we have done fairly well. Aaron, Todd, Norman, and Brandon would be onboard my boat, and the balance of Brandons' group would fish aboard Capt. Ernies, boat. This day would be a bit tougher than in the past as we were greeted by N/NW breezes clipping out at 12-15 knots. This was a bit of a dissapointment for me because I had managed to procure 100 beautiful live croaker for the trip, and the NNW breezes do tend to put lock-jaw on the specks. This was proven as my favorite little honey hole out in Black Bay would only produce 2- 2-21" male trout. After a futile effort in repositioning the boat on the reef, it was oiff to some other structures that have produced nice sow trout for me in the past using croaker for bait. Before we could get to this structure, we came across a bit of bird activity which really produced some pretty good action for some nice sized specks. There were some throw-backs in the school but most of the specks that we were taking were in the 13-14" class. Before long the floor of the boat was half covered with the tasty spots, and the action slowed on this particular school. We did manage more of the same action on thye same sized specks on numerous schools of birds that we attacked. Once this came to a halt we fished the rig that we started out for and with the guys tossing there offerings of live croaker, they started hauling in some rod-bending, and drag screaming sow specks in the 3-4# class. The action was by no means fast, but the guys managed 9 specks here that were real beauties. We finished off our trip on another flock of birds that we found on the way in, and managed another good mess of trout here as well. Lots of double and triple hook-ups, and with some of the tandem rigs that we were using, 2 nice specks on one rod would also make for a real nice fight on light tackle. We ended our trip at 11:00 with 65 specks 12-25". Not too bad considering the wind and water conditions. The next morning I had Gary Spearman and his 8 yr old son Miles, along with his father in law Frank of Shreveport, La. onboard. The wind on this morning would be even tougher, blowing out of the same direction, but with even more velocity. This is really a freak type of condition for this time of year, but I told the guys that we would should still be able to find some more bird action as we did on the day before, as structure fishing would more than likely be out of the question for any productivity. We started off with a bit of action on a few good sized specks and some sheepshead along a protected shoreline in Black Bay waiting out the light of day to be able to scout for birds, and also hoping that the wind would subside a bit, but this would not be the case. The NNW wind blowing 15 knots and gusting would be relentless. The birds did not even find schooling trout as they did yesterday, as we ventured out into the rough waters of the bay in search of flocks of feeding birds. It's amazing how the activity can change in one day. With stucture fishing being taken out of the equation on this tough fishing day, we headed into the confines of the marsh in search of redfish, or with these conditions anything that would bite. Any strong wind direction with a westerly component in our area in SE Louisiana, really makes it tough to get on fish. It has always been that way for the most part. After a couple of stops in the marsh with no fish to show, we came across another spot that I have fished before on a tough west wind and managed a few fish. This spot would be the ticket for a very nice 10# specimen of a redfish that Mr. Fred had hooked up with. After an expertly fought 10 minute battle, he boated and boxed the fish, after a few photos and high fives of course. Little Miles also made a contribution with a 6# red, and Gary with a 4# red. We did also loose a few nice fish that we had hooked up with, as the fish were really biting kind of funny. Most of the baits were finally taken by the redfish that we did manage to boat, by inducing the strikes. They simply would not just come and nail the bait. The catch for the day was not impressive at all in numbers, but some quality fish and lots of fun in catching the few that we did, made for a great day on the water. Gary, Miles and Fred, were great guys to have onboard and they had so much fun, that they promised to return to fish with me again to get in on some of the awesome action that SE Louisiana has to offer. Until then guys!! June 29, 30, 31, 2002- Whew!!! Boy am I tired. Just finished up 3 days in a row and I fished 4 out of the last 5 days. I do have the next week off and then plan to get after it again in the 2nd week of July. On Saturday I had Danny Matt and Todd Prejean of Baton Rouge, La. onboard for what turned out to be a great day on the water. My fishin' buddy Ryan Pruitt also joined in to help out for the day. The struggle for specks has continued on this trip with lots of dirty water still in the entire Black Bay area. We did manage to find some good specks, reds and drum over at the Triple Pass area near American Bay but this trout party would soon be crashed by some 4-5' black-tipped sharks that really shut up all of the different species of fish that we were catching in the pretty water that we found in this area. Just before our arrival here, Matt found and battled a 32" beast of a redfish on a small island that we scouted while looking for trout. After a 5 minute battle on light tackle Matt proudly displayed the monster redfish for a picture and layed her to rest in the chest. Once the sharks moved in on us, we did stop casting our baits in hope that the sharks would eventually swim on and our good bite on specks and reds would resume. NOT! Off to Oak River Bay to get in on the awesome redfish action that I have had here. Matt Danny and Todd all contributed to the chest here with redfish drum sheepshead and trout. We finished up with a 5 man limit of bull reds (over 27"), 15 redfish 18-26", 11 specks 12-17", and lots of black drum and sheepshead. Thanks guys! Hope to be fishing with you again real soon. On Sunday and Monday, I entertained 9 guests at the Destination Delacroix Lodge. What a nice camp/condo this is. Kevin Raby and a bunch of his co-workers from Cap-Gemini-Ernst&Young in Atlanta, and buddies were arriving late Saturday afternoon to get settled in the camp for a 2 day fishing excursion. Kevin was joined by, John Fridley, Lane Roberts, Ken Hanson, Tom Keiser, Billy "Waterboy" Boucher, Jim Jancik, all of the Atlanta, Ga. area, and Johnny Eisler, and his buddy Drew from Picayune, Ms. I had Capt. Ernie, Capt. Eddie and Capt. Cisco helping me out with boats and guiding this fun loving crew around. What a great time we all had. Lots of fishing, partying, card playing and just general bafoonery going on the entire time. All 3 boats limited out on redfish on the 1st day with my boat and Capt. Eddies' boat taking 25 specks per boat as well. Capt Ernies' boat did not fair as well with the ongoing struggle for specks in our area right now, but they took the prize with the biggest redfish going over 30". Day 2 would be a different story. I was determined to get on the big trout with my guys for Monday morning. I made a call to my bait guy back in town and lined up some good hard-swimming croakers for bait. John, Jim, and Billy were the 3 guys that I was supposed to have on my boat for this day, but when I arrived back to Delacroix with my live croakers, I was hijacked by Tom, Ken, and Billy that were patiently awating their guide boat for this rainy morning. I told them I shouldn't do this but they were already climbing aboard while convincing me to shove-off. "Just as long as I am not held accountable." I explained. They were just laughing and telling me to hurry up and leave before the other guys came out to the dock. I did tell the guys the night before that I would be ready to leave at 4:30, and it seemed like Ken and Tom had overheard this information and took advantage of it while John and Jim were a bit late getting down to the dock. Upon our arrival at my spot for sow trout, I gave the guys the croaker-bite 101 while rigging their lines and then we moved into the reef for the kill. And "Kill" we did. Ken Tom and Billy were immediately hooking up and doing battle on some real mean and hard fighting momma specks all in the 2-4# class, as the girls were really slamming these croakers. We quickly boated 25 of these beauties, when suddenly, another boat (I won't mention any names) moved into our area and shut down the huge sow trout bite we had going. We did manage to slowly pick at a few other big, nice trout, but the other boat skipper kept cranking up the motor on his boat as well as the motor on his face and all of the combined noise just kept the spooky specks from returning to a strong feed. I really think we could have done much better here on big trout without all of the ongoing noise. We left the area for a good pull on redfish. They would be a bit slower for me in my hot-spot but we did have a lot of action on drum and sheepshead before I noticed a school of bull reds moving in on us by witnessing the huge wakes they were creating just up th shoreline from us. And "SHONUFF" all rods were doubled over and drags screaming on this triple hook-up on the monster reds. We started boxing a lot more of the bronze beasts after that and wound up with 15 real nice reds on top of our total of 30 sow trout and headed for the dock. The guys on the other "bothersome boat" wound up doing well catching 43 specks in the area we were at earlier once all of the motor noise had ended and the fish settled down, and also got on a good redfish bite in the marsh as well. All in all, it was a great 2 days of fishing for all of the guys and I had just an awesome time fishing, partying, and playing cards with them as well. I really think I have made some good friends here, and look forward to yet another trip with the CGEY boys next year if not sooner. OOPS!! Almost forgot....a special thaks goes out to our "MOM", Judy Greco of Delacroix Island, who came in and prepared our dinners, lunches and breakfasts for us and also cleaned up after us. JUNE 2002 June 27, 2002- Today I had Charles Johnson and Crit Miller, both of Natchitoches, La., onboard. These guys had fished with me last December on a day that a cold front had moved through the area that made for a real tough fishing day, and today would be just as tough with winds way up and stormy weather all around. We did have a small window of opportunity early in the a.m. out in Black Bay. The water has really been beat-up from all of the high winds of late caused by that pesky upper level low pressure system that has lingered around for the past week. The river level has now dropped to under 10' at the New Orleans gauge, so all we really need now is to return to our normal summer pattern (s/se winds at 10 knots or less and seas 1-2') to resume the awesome speckled trout fishing out in the exterior bays. The guys did take advantage of our small window of opportunity while the seas were relativly calm, putting 43 specks in the boat in fairly short order. There were some really nice trout up to 3.5# taken and a lot of juvenille fish were also caught and released. Once the winds picked up and the seas started capping, our bite on specks came to a halt. We then made our move to the more protected areas inside of the perimeter looking for Mr. Redfish. With only 2 stops in the windy area that we fished at, the guys started hammering some real hefty reds. Crit did come out on top of a pretty long battle with a 31" redfish, a 15# beast of a fish, and Mr. Charles followed through with another beast just shy of the 27" mark. Lots of other good sized redfish and black drum made their way into the chest as well. We finished up our trip with the 90 qt. chest maxed out, and the deck box also held quite a few, falling prey to our baits as well. Total for this fairly tough fishing day was 43 trout up to 22", 12 beautiful reds, and a limit (15)of good sized black drum. The guys will be back looking for that monster trout slammaramma, and I certainly hope when they do return, the conditions will allow the big trout slam. June 22, 2002- Today I had a group of guys from South Carolina down to fish today. Holland PetersIII, and his dad Holland Jr, along with 11 year old Austin "Powers" Hamilton, from N. Charleston, and Keith Kinard from Columbia. We got a late start on this blustery Saturday morning pulling out of the dock at 7:00 a.m. An upper level low pressure area had formed over the panhandle of Florida a couple of days before and this system started an easterly track and really put the north winds way up at 12-20 knots, and kept us confined to the interior marsh to fish. This would prove to be a pretty tough day, but the guys hung in there with me and we did manage to put fish in the boat here and there making numerous stops in the marsh scouting for specks and reds. We did find a lot of fish but the majority of the specks were undersized and had to be released. There were some good specks mixed in up to 15- 16", along with some hard fighting lady fish and sheepshead. After some time we came across an area that was holding some real good reds and young Austin started the show off with a hook-up of a monster redfish. After a lot of excitement, and a good hard pull on a 4-5 minute battle with this bronze brute, Austin would celebrate with some high fives and a pretty cramped up forearm. This beast of a redfish was a 15# beauty and would have been a fine contender in placing in the big rodeo that was ongoing in the Delacroix Island area on this tough fishing day. Holland III, Holland Jr.and Keith all made fine contributions to the chest as well. With the tough north wind that we had this day it really would have made areas close to the perimeter that I have been catching well at lately, impossible to fish, so I opted to stay in a lot closer than normal and when we would find fish we would stay and fish those areas out before scouting for more. The areas that we were fishing would probably never be fished this time of year but when I did a salinity check on one of the areas way inside the marsh, to my surprise, I discovered that the salities were anywhere from 29-34 p.p.t. Amazing levels for the Delacroix marsh. That would explain the ladyfish caught in areas like Little Lake, and Lake Batola, where we managed to catch our keeper trout. We ended the day with a fairly decent chest of fish containing 26 specks 12-16", 9 redfish from 3-15# and other mixed fish. Thanks guys for hanging in there with me on a pretty tough day, and for really shining with your angling skills. Especially you Austin. This young fellow really put the hurt on some real quality fish today, and I just know he is definitely hooked on catching redfish. I look forward to the day when I can get these guys out again with some better conditions, and really show what else the Delacroix Island area has to offer. Thanks Holland and guys. You were GREAT!!! June 19,20, 2002- On Wednesday I had the extreme pleasure of entertaining Mike Madden of Dallas, Tx., along with Mike Harville of Mandeville, La., Ron Buie and Don Blair both of Covingtron, La. This day was a MONSTER TROUT EXTRAVAGANZA!!! Right from jump, the guys had their rods doubled over and drags screaming on big sow trout out in Black Bay. With the exception of a handful of fish, the trout averaged over 3# and 1 or 2 were flirting with the 6# mark. Their offerings of big live shrimp rigged 2' under floats werer the ticket to filling the chest to the brim in short order. By 9:30 we had bowed down to the big specks and went into the marsh to get on a redfish bite. This proved to be a good manuvere as it was not too long before the guys were slamming the reds, more huge trout and other mixed fish like black drum, flounder, and sheepshead. We finished our trip at noon and headed back to the dock with a 90 qt chest and the 200 qt. deck box was 75% full as well totaling over 200# of fish. After the fish were cleaned, fileted, and packed, the guys were on their way down the road and left with firm handshakes and promises to return real soon. It was certainly a pleasure to have these expert anglers on board. They made my job extremely easy and I look forward to the day that they return to fish with me again. The very next morning I had 3 great guys as well, being Chuck Russel from Petal, Ms., along with Mark Russel of Sumrall, Ms. and Ben Lewis from Ellisville, Ms. We got a good early start with the bait well full of great looking shrimp and croakers, and it most certainly looked as though we were going to be in for a repeat performance on monster trout out in Black Bay. But upon our arrival out to the perimeter of the marsh there was some squally weather around and the winds had the bay really churned up with 3-4' seas making trout fishing next to impossible in the dirty water conditions. We did a 180 and headed back to the marsh to get inside of protection and found the water there to be a bit stained as well, but fishable. Right from the start, Chuck had found himself doing battle with a pretty hefty redfish in the 10# class, and the corks would be dissapearing producing a good bit of mixed fish including big trout, drum and sheepshead. The bite was not really as good here as it has been for me in the last couple of weeks, so we would try a few other spots and wound up picking up a few fish here and there, but nothing really consistant would materialize. By mid-morning, the wind would die a good bit and we turned our attention back out to the bay. The water was still pretty beat up and stained, but we did manage to get in on a slow bite on trout, but the fish were very nice sized in the 16-24" class. Once this bite came to a halt I tried another area that has produced well for me on monster trout, but the water conditions being as bad as they were, would not even produce one strike. We did go back inside to fish for redfish and trout inside of the perimeter and did find the water conditions had greatly improved with the slacking wind. We did manage to get in on a few more nice reds, drum and sheepshead. Then Mark suddenly had his rod doubled over and the drag screaming on what we thought surely was another redfish. After a good pull and Mark expertly working the fish back to the boat, we discovered that this "redfish" was a huge speckled trout. After successfully landing the beast of a trout in the boat we measured the fish and she was a 25.5" beauty. We ended the trip today with a 90 qt. chest full to the brim with not so many fish in numberes but the quality was certainly there. What a difference a day makes. Conditions are everything out in Black Bay to be able to get in on a real good speckled trout slammaramma. The guys will be back soon and hopefully we will have better conditions then. June 15, 2002- Once again, Pete Barhonovich of Novartis Phamecueticals on the Ms. gulf coast, Dr. Dwight Brower of Baton Rouge, La. and his son Pat Brower of New Orleans, were back on board looking for that big sow trout bite that they had while fishing Black Bay with me a couple of years ago. Sorry to report that with ANOTHER late season front passing through on the night before, and the winds being way up all of that day, it was not looking to good to be able to get in on the big sows. Pete, Doc, and Pat had a trip with me back in July of 2000 and we had really pounded the sows and got a limit of reds as well. They had put a 5 fish stringer of specks together that had totaled over 27# and Pete had caught his carreer speck of 6#. The day would start of a little better than I had expected, and with their offerings of live shrimp rigged 2' under floats, they would slowly start putting some keeper specks into the ice-chest. The first area that we tried did hold a good number of specks, but a lot of throwbacks would be weeded out in order to acheive 25 specks 12-15" and 5 keeper reds as well. Once this bite quelled, we would be on the hunt and picking and pecking at a few more trout. We did visit an area that I had caught well at a month ago with the last late season front that roared through S/E La. where the group I had out did very well in this wind protected area. The guys managed a few more good trout here and some pretty respectable reds as well. I had a hunch that if we implemented the use of the trolling motor and parralled the grassy shoreline of this lake that we should be able to pick up some more good reds tossing weedless gold spoons. This manuvere would pay off with 2 monster 27-28" reds, but that would be all she wrote. By this time in the mid-morning hour, the 15-18 knot north wind would have slowed to under 10 knots and the tides would have risen a good foot or so, and it was off to my hot spot for reds on the perimeter of the marsh. This was the ticket for some awesome action on some more huge reds up to 15#. Luckily for the guys that we had achieved our limit (one p/person)on reds 27" and over, and the rest of these bronze beasts would be 26.5" and under. We did manage our limit of 20 redfish and had caught and released a few more to enjoy the big pull on these hard fighting monsters of the marsh. We ended our trip with 32 speckled trout and a 4 man limit(20) of redfish. After what could have been a pretty slow day after the passage of this front, it turned out to be another great day on the water. Thanks a lot guys. You really made my job easy today. I most certainly hope the next trip that we do, we will have much better conditions to be able to get out on the big girls again. June 11,12,13- 2002- Tuesday Morning, I had Matt Glatt and his daughter Stacy of Covington, La. onboard. Matt usually fishes with me along with "The Glatt Gang", but today it was a quality time day with his daughter Stacy. Stacys' friens was supposed to make this trip, but at the last moment she declined. TOO BAD!!! We really slammed the BIG GIRLS this morning. Same time, same station as the last 2 groups I had out to fish the M.R.G.O., or locally known as the ship channel. Our presentations of huge live shrimp from the best bait shop in New Orleans known as Fishermans' Friend. and hand selected by Bobby, were the ticket to this productive day. Stacy was the hot hand today hooking and landing some real big sow trout up to 6.6#. Matt and I pulled up the rear with our contributuins of real nice specks as well, but Stacy was the girl. Our baits were rigged on sliding corks and set at 12-14' over 19-22' of water. The ship channel is on fire for very nice speckled trout and also for some really beautiful and extremely tasty mangrove snappers. I got a call from the Orleans Parish levee board at about 10:30 a.m. notifying me that they were to close the locks as they had done on the previous day, but by that time Matt, Stacy, and I had put 55 specks and 2 snappers in the icechest and headed in. What a great day to be on the water, and also to see that Matt would share some quaility time on the water and having a great time with his daughter. In the last 3 days fishing the ship channel, my clients have caught 160 specks averaging over 2#. The next 2 days I would be back fishing the Delacroix Island area, with a great group of guys from St. Louis, Mo. and Memphis, Tn. The Norvelle bros. Larry Norvelle and Bill "Snooks" Norvelle, along with their partners Kip Williams and Pete Heidleberg (I hope I got it right Pete). Our first morning we got a bit of a late start and started off in the marsh looking for speckled trout. This paid off in only 10-12 specks up to 18", and we found a lot of juvenille fish that were returned to the water. These guys really enjoyed their 2 day trip down to Delacroix while in town back in April to attend the New Orleans Jazz Festival, catching a pretty good mess of redfish, drum, flounder and sheepshead, and with the trout bite being a bit slow, we turned our attention to the perimeter of the marsh to fish for redfish. This manuver paid off in a big way as all 4 guys were ejoying themselves with some rod bending and drag screaming action on some really hefty reds all in the 26-27" class. There were also some real hefty specks in the mix, as Larry really got into the fight of a 6# beauty. This big sow trout really surprised us as she was putting up a fight in the same manner as the reds and drum and big sheepshead that we were encountering all morning long. This day ended with having to incorporate extra storage space for the fish that they caught. The ice box that I usually use for storage was filled to the brim, and the built-in deck chest was implemented to carry the extra fish totaling over 100#. All fish were caught using the same great handpicked bait from Fishermans Friend rigged 2' under floats. The next morning we headed out to the same area that we had finished up in the day before. We found the redfish there cruising up and down the shoreline, tailing and some wrer really putting up a wake as they would cruise the shoreline. But they would have nothing to do with the live bait the guys were offering. They would just boil the water around the floats and poke at the floats. Its really funny how things can change in fish behavior in just a day. I decided to give a topwater bait a try just to see how they would react to that. This would produce one big strike and a hookup on a good sized 22" redfish, but this would be the only fish taken in the area that had produced so well on the prior morning. So it was off to the Black Bay area in search of speckled trout. We had encountered birds feeding over lots of specks alll over the bay, but the vast majority of these trout were undersized and had to be released. Our search for a flock of birds that were over some quality specks would be in vain with the exception of only a few keeper trout. We had to find some structure that would be holding some trout. Our first 2 visits to some wells would not even produce one strike. This was really looking like it was going to be a tough day for trout as well, and I was thinkinjg of returning back to the marsh to fish the incoming tide as we did the day before. I would make one more stop to fish a reef off of Mozambique Point, to find some pretty good pay-dirt. The guys all started boating some real hefty specks after rigging their baits down to the 5-6' depth in 8' of water. The quick action was not here but the quality was. Most of the specks here were going 16-21", with only a couple of throwbacks. Sometimes we would sit through a slow period of 5-7 minutes with nothing and them Wham! Double, and sometimes triple hookups on these hard-fighting specks. We ended our day with 40 nice specks and one 22" redfish. Not quite as productive as yesterday but still a pretty decent trip materialized for us after a real slow start. June 7,9,10, 2002-This past Friday I had the pleasure of fishing with Jim Parman and his son Brad of Nebraska. We had 2 other guys bail out on us fearing the gloom and doom reports coming out of Delacroix Island. This most certainly did not scare off these guys. The trout bite is a bit off in the Black Bay area as the Mississippi River water is still encroching there. Look for things to really start improving when the river level drops to 10' at the New Orleans guage. We had a blast out fishing. We did not slam fish at any one spot but numerous visits to 8 or 9 of my spots inside the perimeter of the marsh produced a 90qt chest full of very nice speckled trout from 14-24", redfish up to 27", and various other species of fish including black drum, sheepshead, & lady fish. All fish were caught using live shrimp rigged 2' under floats. The guys hung in there with me while a slow bite would be the case with neap tides and not even a breath of wind to help move the water around points. But for the conditions, Jim and Brad came out like champs and smelling like a rose when all was said and done. Thanks guys you were great! Sunday was going to be a coin toss for me. Bubba Andrews along with his wife Ann and his buddy Bradley all from Mobile, Alabama, wanted speckled trout, and speckled trout only. They did not have an interest in catching some of the fine redfish I have been on in the Delacroix Island marsh. So I would turn my attention, as I sometimes do, to the MRGO. The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, or sometimes localy known as the ship channel, has been on fire. It seems that the high river stage, along with lots of S/E breezes has really made a good push of seawater and good numbers of specks into the channel at New Orleans. We started our day with lots of nice sized specks in the 13-25" class, and very few throwbacks. With the exception of a couple of small croaker, an oyster fish and a white trout, all the fish that were taken were speckled trout. Ann had just a bit slower day than her counterparts, but this was "Quality Gal" on this day. She really got into some super specks. Bubba and Bradley definitely kept up with a ggod pace of hookups on specks most of the entire trip. There were some slow moments, but it seemed to start right back up. Two different presentations would be the ticket for the day. One was a live shrimp rigged under a slip cork, and set at a depth of 12-14' and freelined live shrimp with just a bit of a splitshot weight to help the bait down to the 20-22' depths where the trout were holding up. Sometimes the slip corks would dissapear in a hurry, and sometimes the freelined baits would have the fast action. We had lots of double and some triple hookups, and ended our day with 70 specks. The only downside to this trip may have been the rain showers that soaked us, but these guys would have no part of heading in and it paid off in great fashion. Bubba, Ann and Bradley went back to Alabama with 25-30# of sweet eatin' speckled trout filets, and promises to return for round 2 with the great action in the MRGO. Monday morning....Don Cox along with his son Chip, who was in for a visit from Nashville, were onboard this morning in hopes of getting on some of the same action we had on the previous morning. The wind would be more of a factor this morning coming at a 15 knot clip out of the S/E. This day would start off slow with lots of nuisiance fish around. 5-6" croakers and small sheepshead would steal a number of baits for a while while sending down live shrimp rigged on slip corks, but after changing depths and freelining presentations we were able to get the trout biting. The size of the bait seemed to have a lot to do with wether or not you would catch fish. There were fewer 13-14" fish than yesterday, and the fast bite just never seemed to materialize, but Don and Chip were able to get hookups on some monster fish in the upper 4# class. After boating 34 real nice specks, 2 keeper mangrove snappers, and releasing a few 12-13" trout, the bait well was looking pretty sad with only small sized baits left. We soon decided to make the short run back to the bait shop and get 50 more monster shrimp and do some more battle with the 3-4# trout that were around and selectively attacking only the biggest baits that we had earlier. Upon our arrival to the bait shop we got the bad news of the Bayou Bienvenue flood gates were to be closed at 10:00 a.m., and we had no choice but to pull the plug on this trip. I will be out there again tommorrow with a decreasing wind in the forecast, and with this lighter breeze, I would certainly hope that the engineers do not decide to close the gates again tommorrow. I am noticing that the river stage has stabilized and should start falling before too long, but for the time being I will be working in 2 areas, being the MRGO and inside the perimeter of the Delacroix Island Marsh. June 4, 2002- "The Schweiger Clan"....John, along with his wife Kathleen, 10 yr. old son Nicholas, and 9 yr. old daughter Jennifer were out for a days fun fishing while vacationing in New Orleans. After the weekend I had with 2 other groups and lots of huge sow speckled trout taken, I could only anticipate more of the same for this crew. I knew that there was only a .5 range in the tide, but that can still offer some water movement. This would not be the case today. There was absolutely no water movement, as we were fishing between high and low tide. Also with the Mississippi River at 15.3' and still rising, the river water has started to affect the entire Black Bay and west Breton Sound areas. We started off the day with some real nice trout but experienced a slow bite and wound up bouncing around a few different rigs. The action would be the same. We did manage, however, to get a few big trout in the boat. The bite, even on live croaker was real funny and we did lose a few real good fish out by a few of my favorite rigs. We would find some birds feeding as we moved farther south into bay, along with much dirtier river water mixed in the good water. The birds would produce a few good trout but mostly hardhead catfish, so I opted to get them back inside of the perimeter of the marsh to fish much cleaner water. As soon as we arrived the big reds that we found had broken off our first two lines on submerged structure. It wouldn't be too long before some very exceptional redfish and speckled trout were taking our presentations of live shrimp rigged under floats. Kathleen had the hot hand for a while landing 3 redfish in the 17-20" class, John also contributed a few of the same with one very nice drag screamer going 12#. Little Nicholas would also be fighting some very nice reds, and to my surprise, little Jennifer was hooking, fisghting and landing some real pretty specks all by herself. Very impressive Jennifer!!! The Schweiger Clan wound up catching 21 specks 13-25", and 11 redfish up to 12#. Not a bad day at all with no water movement, and having to fish the marsh. The Delacroix Island Marsh is holding some fair numbers of good fish and until the river stages start to drop, my attention will be focused in the marsh. No telling how well we would have done in this last stop inside of the marsh if we would have made it our first stop. It thouroughly enjoyed myself and had a very good time having John Kathleen Nicholas and Jennifer out. It is really nice to see a family out along with their children sharing quality time and having a great time together fishing. June 1,2 2002- It was once again a great pleasure to have Rick Barret onboard, along with his son Jason, and buddy Rick Tyson all of the Jackson, Ms. area. The fast slamming action for school trout continues to be a little slow in the Black Bay area, but the Big Sow Trout continue to provide awesome rod bending and drag screaming good times when fishing live croaker. Jason started off the morning right after we conducted croaker bite 101, with some fine 3#+ specks and Ricky and Mr. Tyson were also soon contributing these monster sized specks, some running in the upper 4# class, to the ice box. It wasn't long before the area was crowded with boats, and the bite on these big trout would be over. Weekends can be particularly tough in the summer months especially when there are rodeos in the area as was the case on this Saturday morning. We did manage to get on a bit of school trout action way out into the far reaches of Black Bay/Breton Sound, but there were so many boats at this, one of few fish producing gas wells, that we could only muster up 15 or so 13-14" specks while fishing live shrimp rigged 3-5' under floats. We did have only a few good croaker left in the bait well, so I opted to fish another area that can produce some nice sizable specks. We did hit a little pay-dirt here on the last of the croaker. Three 2-4# specks would be boated and boxed here, and then off to the marsh to fish out our live shrimp in search of a redfish bite. Our first stop in the marsh would produce some more real nice keeper trout up to 3#, 3 good reds in the 17-20" class and a mess of sheepshead. We ended our day with good quality fish, but the numbers of fish in the total catch are still off. The next morning I was real pleased to once again have Steve Andrews and his guest Brian Sweeney onboard. One of Steves other clients had to bail out on this trip, so it would just be the two of them fishing today. What a difference a day makes! I did manage to get a lot better bait for this trip, and when we arrived at my honey hole for the big girls, there was not another boat there. A north wind on this morning would throw me a curve ball, and it took a bit to find the proper presentation and technique to get the sows to bite. Before to long we found them right off the bow of the boat, and the presentation would be totaly freelined croaker with no weight at all on the lines. And another tactic that would produce a bite would be a couple of sharp twitches in the retrieval of the baits. Normally you would never have to do this with presentations of live croaker that are in very good shape and are hard swimmers, but these baits were still a bit on the lithargic side, and they would need a little help with the twitching to induce a good kill strike from the sow trout. Once the guys got the technique and presentation down the "slammaramma" was on. Huge trout in the 3-4+# class were flopping all over the floor of the boat and stacking up in the chest. Steve did manage to land a whopper of a speck that was flirting with the 5# mark, and this fish would be his career largerst speck after many fishing trips all over the gulf coast. A few boats did manage to visit the area, but their stops would be in vain, and would shortly leave the area. More than likely they did not have live croaker for bait. There are a few times when live shrimp will work here for sow trout, and the guys today even managed about 6-7 real nice trout on presentations of large live shrimp, but for the most part, this is an area that produces time and time again on monster trout with freelined croaker as bait. Today we ended our trip with 38 gorgeous specks, and 1-22" redfish that packed the 90 qt. chest to the point where we could barely get the top to close completely. Once again quality not quantity would be the case, but from the high fives, and the 100 pounds of fish in the box, this trip would be a great success. Thanks to both of my groups for this weekend. You were all great fun to fish with and I look forward to many other trips with you in the future. Give me a call at 504.908.4874 and lets get on the BIG GIRLS!! MAY 2002 May 28,29, 2002- On Tuesday I had "The Glatt Gang" out looking for a repeat performance of some of their great trips out to Black Bay with me in previous years. Matt Glatt, Jim and Ed Pemberton, along with their buddy Chris, all of the Mandeville/Covington, La. area, really enjoy fishing as much as anyone whom has ever been onboard my boat, and it certainly showed on this gorgeous morning out on Black Bay. As soon as their presentations of live shrimp,( the live croakers have yet to become good sized and hard working) rigged 2' under floats hit the reef we targeted, the floats started dissapearing and some really re"speck"table fish started hitting the deck of the boat. I got some quick photos of some of these beauties and quickly stored the camera away as "The Glatt Gang" really kept me busy handling the landing net. Lots of these fish were in the 3-4# class and one or two made it over the 5# mark. These were some real solid fish and the bite was really fast and furious at time with lots of double and a few triple hookups. After boating and boxing 27 of these monster sow trout, the bite quelled and it was of to fish some gas well and rig structure. This manuvere did not yield a single fish at a number of stops. We then found some flocks of hard working gulls, and we were back on the action. Tossing tandem rigged soft plastics, the guys were able to get a lot of smaller but sweet eating specks and white trout onboard. With the schools of fish moving real fast, we had to implement the use of my trolling motor in an attempt to keep up with the school of fish. After all was said and done an additional 50+ specks in the 12-16" class and 6 white trout 12-17" were chillin' in the chest. This would end our day with a 100 qt. chest filled to the brim. What a great day to be on the water with a great bunch of guys. As usual, lots of antics and joking and general bafoonery would abound while fishing with "The Glatt Gang". The next morning I had Don Cox of Covington, La. and Dave Cabiran of New Orleans out looking for some of the same. We were all pumped up in anticipation of getting on those big "momma" trout, even after a second morning of dissapointment at the bait shop. "NO CROAKERS!!" Soon after our arrival at the reef, our baits hit the water but no action at all. None of the other boats that were soon crowding the area were on any fish either. But after repositioning the boat a short distance, our floats would soon be dissapearing and those big fat momma trout were making their way to the landing net. Don had really hung into a real big girl that was real close if in fact did not go 5#. Most of the others would be in the 3-4# class. The action today, sadly, did not compare to what we had the day before. Our efforts only produced 6 of these monster fish. I have fished this particular area for many years and have always had presentations of freelined croker work magic on the big sow trout. I just knew that not having some hard swimming live croaker was the problem on this trip. This theory would be proven later on as we returned to the reef a couple of hours later and discovered only one of the boats that were there earlier, still fishing there. These guys had been using live croaker, and really slammed the fish. Don, Dave and I , would work over some areas around the perimeter of the bay and picked up some nice specks here and there but nothing we tried would remain consistant. We then decided to go and give it a go under the birds where we had good succsess the day before. This would also only yield a few good specks, and a bunch of good sized and hard fighting lady fish, also known as the "Poor-Mans' Tarpon." These lady fish, when hooked, are some of the fastest swimming fish around and on light tackle, their drag screaming runs, and aireal acrobatics can be lots of fun. But we abandoned this action and I took a gamble for a run to the marsh in search of Mr. Redfish. A buddy of mine told me of an area in which a couple of days ago, he and his wife were sight-casting weedless spoons to redfish in a grass laden lagoon with gin-clear water. This was like drifting over a huge aquarium. I saw lots of mullet and sheepshead swimming and gliding through all of the differnt types of underwater vegetation. Dave did manage to sight a couple of reds, but they would turn their noses up to our baits. Don did manage a hook-up on a pretty nice largemouth bass. We took a quick picture and released her to fight another day. We then decided to pull the cork on this trip and headed for the dock with our "quality but not quantity" catch of 19 specks 14-25". Don has never been on a "meat hunt" while fishing with me, which was kind of a good thing today. He has another trip scheduled with me in a couple of weeks, and hopefully our trip then will be a much better one. Thanks for hanging in there with me Don May 25, 2002- My group for this day would be Joe Luquet, and his daughter Roxy Merckel both of Covington, La. joined by Mike Goe of Tempe, Az. and Jane Bucano of Poplarville, Ms. Lots of boat traffic and less than favorable water conditions from all of the high winds we have had in the past 5 weeks would make this day a little tougher than normal. Although the winds were down and we were able to get out in Black Bay, we discovered a lot of juvenille speckled trout and catfish would be the predominate catch under the flocks of birds that we first targeted. There were. however some keeper sized specks mixed in, and everybody onboard were boating and boxing some of these sweet eating specks. We wound up having to bounce around quite a few flock before we found some better sized specks in the 13-15" class, but the action was short lived under each flock of birds. We did manage to fish some reefs and Roxy and Jane did get on a few real nice sized sow specks in the 18-22" class on their presentations of live shrimp under floats and carolina rigs, but this action would also be short lived. The live croakers are still a bit small and did not make the party on this trip, but I believe that the sow trout were there in decent numbers, but I find that most of the time they will turn their noses up to the live shrimp but jump all over the croakers. This was the only structure fishing out in Black Bay that would produce any fish for us. The morning would continue with fishing under the birds and everyone on board would make their contributuion to the icebox. As the breezes started to get going we focused our attention to the marsh in hopes of getting on a good redfish bite. It wasn't long before everyone was on some hard fighting black drum and some pretty hefty sheepshead. The redfish just wouldn't get going, but they had a great time putting a pretty good mess of black drum and sheepshead in the box as well as another real fat speck. After bouncing around a few more spots in the marsh in search of some redfish action, they would still be surprisingly elusive. Roxy did manage to break the "ice" when her drag started screaming and her rod doubled over landing a pretty good sized redfish, which by the way, was her first redfish ever. We ended the day with some good speckled trout action way inside the marsh close to the dock, and added some more fish to the days tally. We may not have limited out on this trip but we all had a great time. Conditions should only improve from here on out as we settle into a summer time weather pattern and those big trout will soon start filling up the box. I look forward to a return trip with these guys real soon. May 18, 2002- It's been a while since my last report. I have had some trouble with my server connection and networking problems, but that is all taken care of now and I will start regular posting from here on out. I would like to thank all of my customers that I have had during this time. I had fished with Art Davis' group out of Grand Rapids, Tx., and also Bob Reas' group out of Meridian, Ms. The late season fronts that have blown through the area have kept the winds way up and have made fishing conditions pretty tough, have also caused quite a few rescheduled trips since my last report. The boats that have braved the rough conditions out in Black Bay have been catching fish under the birds but in my opinion, it is very hard to really enjoy yourself fishing in these conditions. I opt to urge my clients to reschedule trips to fish better conditions, and in the long run, I think this is much better business than taking clients out on any given conditions for a particular day. Most of the time, my clients are willing to set another date to fish, but sometimes they just want to fish no matter what the conditions are. Take, for instance, the group of guys I had out yesterday. Chris Edmonson, Jimmy Ragsdale, & Tommy Miller of Douglasville, Ga., along with James Bunn, & Jack Purcell of Hampton, Ga., Danny Daniel of Breman, Ga., and last but not least, Dennis Baldwin of Stone Mt., Ga. These guys really wanted to fish, and Capt. Cisco Serpas and I agreed to get them out and work hard for them to get on some fish. The majority of the fish are not in the marsh right now but this is where we were confined to fish as the winds were kicked up 18- 22 kts. and gusting to 25. Chris, Jack, James, and Jimmy would board my boat and Capt. Cisco would take Tommy, Danny, and Dennis. We all knew it would be a rough go but to my surprise, in these very rough conditions, we did manage to get on some pretty good numbers of fish. And talk about a mixed bag! The guys were great catching 24 nice speckled trout up to 3# with all trout boxed in the 14-22" class, 9 redfish up to 5#, 3 flounder, black drum, sheepshead, croaker, largemouth bass, ladyfish, stingrays, catfish, and even needle fish. That's 10 different species of fish in one spot. That is one truly amazing thing about the Delacroix Island, La. area. Quite a few fish were also lost at the boat, and by spitting the hook. Some of the guys had really hooked up with some big fish that just flat out broke the leaders by sounding down into beds of oysters and cutting the lines. Counting all of the mixed fish that were boxed, the guys totaled over 50 fish, with a lot of other fish released for being undersized. Most of the fish were caught using live shrimp under floats, and live croaker fished on a carolina rig. This was certainly an awesome group of guys from Georgia. We had lots of fun cracking jokes and cutting up all day long. The guys deperted Delacroix with a small chest full of filets, firm handshakes and promises to return. Thanks guys! You were great. APRIL 2002 April 23,24, 2002- On these 2 fishing days I had a great group of guys onboard from all over the country. Larry Norvell from Memphis, Tn. headed up the group which included Kip Williams from St. Louis, Mo., Bill Norvell from Louisville, Ky., and Bob Grooms from Sherman, Il. The guys were in the Big Easy for Jazz Fest and get some of that, oh so good Delacroix Island, Louisiana fishin' therepy. We started out on the first day with live croaker in the bait well in hopes of getting out in Black Bay for some speckled trout action, but with the winds being up from a front that had passed through the day before, the bay water was a bit churned up and we had to fish inside of marsh protection to wet our lines. On the first stop we imediately hit paydirt on some hard fighting redfish and black drum. All of the guys were into fish and we started filling up the chest with these delectible swimmers. Bob had really hooked up with a huge redfish but he eluded the icechest as he managed to sound and make a strong run to the rear of the boat where he managed to break the line off on the prop. The guys did miss a few real good fish. With neap tides on both of these fishing days, we had to bounce around to find fish, but managed a chest full of all kinds of fish. They boated redfish, drum, flounder, speckled trout, garfish, sheepshead, and stingrays. Bob really got into a few very nice specks in our last stop of the day and Larry landed a real nice "doormat" of a flounder. The second day we started out in the area where we had found some speckled trout and flounder on the previous trip. We did manage to catch a bit of a falling tide and I really thought we would get in on some good trout action. Our first 3 positions of the boat only managed 1 nice speck caught by Kip, but after one more repositioning of the boat we found a decent bite and started getting on some quality speckled trout. We only managed 8 good specks here in the 14-18" class and a couple of flounder. We then headed out to get back on some of that good rod bending action we had on reds and drum. We had to fish hard to find them and after a few spots that produced nothing, we finaly hit. Kip hung into and landed a very nice 8# redfish here and Bill rivaled Kips' catch with one that may have been a bit nicer. I'll let those two settle that argument. Larry and Bob also contributed some very nice redfish and more black drum as well. We did not manage quite as many fish on the second day as we did on the first, but we did have some better quality fish. All in all the guys totaled nearly 100# of fish for the 2 days, and for the neap tide conditions and winds blowing 15-18 knots and gusting, I though they had done extremely well. The speckled trout slamaramma is just around the corner. In fact it is so close you can taste it. The guys are coming back down in June to fish a couple of more days with me, and I told them that the action will be so hot and heavy that they won't belive it. Topwater action will still be the focus on perimeter islands in Black Bay when conditions are right. And in a couple of more weeks the live croaker that is now available will have grown to a much better size to be able to get on those real fat momma trout up to 7 pounds out on the reefs of the Bay. May and June are booking up pretty fast so give me a call to get in on the awesome speckled trout action then. "Titelines" April 16, 2002- Today I had a great group of guys that have been great clients for me in the past. The infamous Matt Glatt, along with Jim and Ed Pemberton, all of Covington, La. We were all looking forward to getting on to the great action that I have had of late. To make things even a little more tasty, live croaker had just become available and we took 100 of them along to the party. The forecast was for s/e winds at 10knots, and after a sleepless night for me in anticipation of a great day, we were greeted with 15-20 knot winds. This would keep us inside the perimter of the marsh and we had to start working hard for our fish. With 3 stops and only 2 specks in the box, we came across an area that was holding some real hard fighting reds and black drum. Right from the start Ed and I had broken off and lost 2 big redfish, while Jim was successful in landing his 10# bronze beauty. The reds were not thick in this spot but the black drum certainly were. Everyone was hooking up with drum on presentations of dead shrimp rigged 3' under floats, and we did manage our 4 man limit (20) of these delectible beauties. The big redfish would show up from time to time while we were partying on the drum, but the results from using light tackle over these oyster laded bottoms would only give results of our leaders being cut as the big fish would sound to the bottom. Matt also hooked up with a beast of a jack crevelle in the 20-25# class. We did get a short look at the fish but as Matt got the fish close to the boat it peeled of a good amount of line, sounded, and was also sucsessful in cutting his line as well. As the wind died a bit I decided to give Black Bay a try. We did manage only one hookup with a nice speck, but this fish eluded the ice chest as he broke off, as witnessed by a section of his lip that was left on the hook. The wind managed to pick back up and we headed back inside of protection. The remainder of the trip only produced a few more fish, and we called it and headed back to the dock with 20 black drum 17-20", 3 reds up to 26" and 3 speckled trout up to 22". Not a bad day at all, in fact a very productive day. We had lots of fun cutting up and joking which is always par for the course when Matt is onboard. The fish that we caught filled Matts ice chest to the brim before we even iced them down. The only other downfall to this trip besides the wind, was that I managed to delete the pictures from my new digital camera right before I sat down to write this report. This is a brand new camera and I am still getting familiar with its workings. "Sorry Guys!" Especially to you Jim! Jim was the hot hand of the day. This guy probably could have caught fish in a bath tub. I have inserted some other fine pictures that I had on file so I would at least have something for visitors to my site to view. I have another trip planned with Matt in a few weeks, and I willl just have to make up for this bone-headed mistake on images on this trip on Matts' next trip by putting him on some even better fish. "Titelines!!!" The last image on this report was a 25" speckled trout caught by one of my clients at the very same spot I fished at with Matt today. April 11, 2002- Today I was out for some more of that great topwater action that I had last week. The conditons started out great and I found the results to be the same as last trip. Big trout and reds were slamming presentations of top pups and zara spooks. This action would be shortlived as the winds really started to blow and sent me inside to the protection of the marsh where I did manage more smaller specks and reds. I ended this trip with 26 spekled trout in the 13-24" class and the 3 redfish up to 26". The patterns are really shaping up and looking like it will be a great spring/summer session out of Delacroix Island. Get you gear in shape and let get on The Big Girls. "Titelines!!!" April 4 , 2002 - Wednesday I was out on a scouting
trip. Finally the weather permitted a venture
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