Past Fishing Reports OCTOBER 2002 - MARCH 2003

MARCH 2003

March 27,28, 2003- My guests on Thursday were all from the great "Show Me" state of Missouri. Jerry Boehmer and his wife Nancy out of Ladue, and Bill Thomas and his buddy Kenneth McKenzie out of Kansas City. They all seemed to have that "show me" face on this tough morning in the marsh. With the winds still up and marsh water badly stained from big boomers and heavy rains the night before, it was a slow start and the bite would remain that way the entire morning. Nancy started us off with a hook-up of a nice redfish, expertly fought and landed with her presentation of a bass assassin rigged under a float. Only 2 other specks would be taken the entire morning with a few other fish spitting our hooks. We covered a lot of area and fished hard but could not find a bite. Just before noon the winds would die and we made the jump to hyper-space and found a decent bite on some structure out in Black Bay. Bills' presentation of fresh shrimp rigged 6' under a float would be inhaled by a behemoth of a black drum. "OH Noooo!!" MR. BILL...Boy, talk about the dead come to life. Everyone on the boat was cheering and coaching Bill in the duration of this battle with a 25# beast. Everybody was soon into the mix with hook-ups on black drum, redfish, and speckled trout. Mr. Mac would also find himself in a battle with a monster redfish on light tackle. Ken had his ear full of coaching and instruction like some young soldier in boot camp with 3 drill sargeants in his face. After the first 5 minutes of this tug-o-war, poor Ken said "I'm too tired." Then the Master Drill Sargeant got even louder, coaxing and instructing. Just when it looked like the bronze brute was turned and safely away from the perils of the pilings, she would make another hard run pulling another 20 yards of line off the spool. Ken, being "the man" that he is seemed to find a second win and eventually won the battle with a 27# redfish on light tackle. This day with an ultra-slow start, would wind up being salvaged, as the winds layed down and we were able to fish where the fish are. On Friday Mr. Bill and Mr. Ken were out with me again to get some more. With the winds down there was no guess work as to where we would fish today. As soon as our lines hit the water there were immediate hook-ups with nice sized black drum in the 4-5# class, but only one redfish would fall victim in this "banging of the drum." As the falling tide would come to a halt, so would the great bite we had on drum, but soon our tight-lined offerings of assassins in this pretty water would have some BIG FAT SPECKS flopping on the deck of the boat. The bite was a really great one but would soon slow as well. The guys were great on this slow retieve technique. They were nailing these big fat girls, lots of them in the 3-4# class and the rest in the 14-20" class. The rest of the morning we visited a few other structures with little success on the dead tide, but a visit to some small islands near by would give us a bit more action as more nice specks were taken on tight-lined assassins. All but the lonely redfish and 1 of the drum were released of the bottom feeders, but 28 beautiful speckled trout were iced up and add to the talley for the day. This good showing of speckled trout in outside water in March is only a precursor to the up and coming topwater season in April, and then the ever so hot live-bait season in May thru the summer months. Titelines!!

March 24, 2003- MARCH MADNESS CONTINUES!! What a fantastic day on the water! Knowing that the specks were starting to show out in Black Bay, and having a great forecast for the next couple of days, I made a solo venture. My morning started out tossing a few of my favorite top-water baits on some islands on the north shore of the bay, but could only manage a couple of blow-ups. Then my attention turned to one of my favorite structures near Stone Island. With the incoming tide just starting, and the water clarity poor, my presentations of titelines assassins would not produce one hook-up. I ventured a few miles to the south to another structure that has produced decent catches of specks for me earlier this month. The water was pretty and the incoming tide was moving at a pretty good clip. The stop on this structure would yield some hefty specks in the 22-23" class pushing the 3# mark. What a great feeling to be on some quality specks out in Black Bay in March. The ticket today with the tide rolling pretty good was fishing the down-current side of the structure and tossing back my offerings up-current with a slow steady retrieve. I had all I could handle fighting some of these pretty girls and operating the landing net as well. I had broken off on a few reds as well. Fishing light tackle and 10# mono with no strike leader is certainly a hoot on these big specks but only 2 smaller reds in the 5-6# class would find their way to the landing net. After the bite quelled on this structure, another stop would also produce some smaller specks in the 13" class. The bite was fast and furious on these "school" trout, until the big reds would move in. I broke off on a couple of these monsters, and could not even get a look at them. But one 31" brute would make a wrong turn and headed out to unobstructed water and I was able to play him out on the 10" mono. The school trout bite would turn back on after a while, and I caught and released about 18 with the largest going 14". The majority of the school trout were taken on a float and jig rigged 6' under in 8' of water. A total of over 25 specks were caught, and a lot were released. Combined with 3 hefty reds, and quite a few of these brutes breaking off, I would have to say this trip was one of the best I have had in quite sometime fishing Black Bay in March. Some people do not like to fish alone, but I kind of like the solitude every now and then. But on this trip my solitude would be disturbed by a visit from what I believe is some sort of tern. Crazy as it sounds, this loony tune of a bird would simply lite aboard my boat as I was fishing, download a pogie from her front end, download from the rear end, (I hate when that happens) and then take off after a short visit. Just another venue in the ongoing March Madness I guess. Titelines!!

March 21, 2003- Well, after a few days of preventive maintenance on the boat and trailer, it was back on the water. 3 generations of the Bucano Clan were on board...my dad Cesar, brother Gary and nephew Chris. It certainly was a beautiful day on the water but the conditions were less than favorable...a breezy west wind, no water movement, full moon, blue-bird sky conditions, and a mid-morning start of the trip. The odds were certainly against us but to my surprise our first stop yielded catches of nice sized speckled trout up to 15" and redfish as well. Chris was new to the game but soon was on top of it, impressively nailing quite a few of these nice specks and reds on artificial baits.The bite was slow but fairly steady and these fish were taken while anchored and tossing out bass assassins tight-lined and rigged under floats as well. Once this bite slowed we picked up anchor and trolled around the same vicinity and our bite did pick up as more good trout and flounder fell victim. With only one other stop on this short fishing trip, I turned our attention to the perimeter of the marsh to try and get onto some of the big reds and black drum in an area that has been producing well. Once here our offerings of fresh shrimp rigged 2' under floats did just that. Chris got into a pretty good battle with a 5# black drum and managed to get this tasty fellow into the confines of our landing net. Gary, Cesar and myself, also wound up making our contributions to the chest as well with some monster sized sheepshead, redfish and speckled trout in this our second and last stop of the day. The speckled trout are starting a bit early this spring with good showings out in Black Bay as my last few trips out to the open water would prove. I would have loved to get out there on that bite, but those pesky west winds would not lay down and open that widow of opportunity for us. I was surprisingly pleased with a very nice catch on this day within the confines of the marsh without resorting to use of any live bait. But any day is a good day on the water when you have 3 generations of family onboard. Take a kid fishin'. Titelines!!

March 11,12, 2003- What a great pleasure it was having my good friends Norman and Diane Norton of Story, Arkansas, and my brother Gary Bucano fishing with me the last couple of days. They were keeping up with my reports and images of the monster reds my guests have been taking out on the Black Bay rigs, and their call to me the other day was two fold.

1. (Being the "RED-HEADS" that they are) wanted some of that big pull on bull reds.

2. They have been in the deep freeze up in Story, Arkansas, and wanted a bit of a break from the cold weather up north.

Our trip on Wednesday was a bit of a slow start but the action did pick up on our first stop on the perimeter of the marsh. Presentations of fresh shrimp rigged under floats would have Dianes' rod doubled over and her drag screaming on a hook-up of a huge redfish. This monster fish really gave her a hard time managing the fight, and the huge red finally won this first of what would be many battles for her in our campaign of search and destroy. This redfish did not break the line or spit the hook, but it managed to totally straighten out the jighead to ultimately swim free. It's a good thing for that big red, because these "Arkies" were not on a catch and release trip. They absolutely fell in love with the grilled redfish on the "half-shell" recipe, and on these 2 trips, we would be putting the knife to any of their victims. Norman would also loose a battle and fall victim to a monster redfish as well. It's not too hard to break off on these monster fish when hooking up with them in 20" of water on light tackle and with an oyster laden bottom, even the best of anglers will come up on the short end from time to time. We boated and boxed a couple of these brutes along with catches of black drum, sheepshead and other mixed fish, then decided to head out to the open water and fish the Black Bay rigs as the conditions would finally allow. There would be no light tackle fishing out here to put these huge monsters in the boat. Norman and Diane would now both be on much heavier tackle and equipment. It was an immediate bite for us at our first stop. Diane had really hooked into a monster. It appeared that she had won the battle on this beast of a fish as she did get the bull red away from the structure and near the boat, but the big bull would be too much for her as it made another hard run for the structure and would up breaking off. This is the nature of fishing these monster fish on structure....win a few, loose a few. The great action would continue on other big reds, big black drum, sheepshead, flounder and to my surprise....SPECKLED TROUT!!! Once one nice specimen fell victim to a fresh shrimp, our presentations of tight-lined bass assassins rigged on 1/4 oz. jigheads would get the specks biting. What an unexpected treat to find speckled trout out in Black Bay this time of year. I guess they don't call it ":March Madness" for nothing. We were actually in a good mess of these real pretty specks up to 20" with double hook-ups as well. We ended this trip with the ice chest nearly full with a lot of pretty fish, and the Grand Slam of Delacroix Island. Specks, Reds, Black drum, sheepshead, and flounder.

The next day the winds were up a bit and would not allow us access to the structures out in open water so our efforts would be confined to the marsh for the day. Our day started out pretty slow with only an occasional hook-up of mixed fish. Persistance would eventually pay-off by midday as one of my little spots that has paid off for me in the past on tough days came through. Although we were in search for redfish here, the specks turned on for us fishing a pipeline in 13' of water. Lots of specks would fall victim to our tight-lined assassins as well as rigged 4' under a float. Some of these specks were 20' and over but most of them were in the 13-14" class and a few throw-backs as well. The most important thing here was action, and a good bit of it too. Not only real pretty specks, but some hefty reds up to 10# would eat up our baits as well. The weather man would have it dead wrong (again) as the sun was out shining so brightly for so long we had to get the sunscreen on. What a beautiful day this turned out to be. Once the last of the falling tide would cease, our bite would also slow. But even on the still tide and the eventual incoming tide starting, a few more specks were taken by simply using the troll motor and covering a bit more of the area. Thanks Norman and Diane! It was truly a lot of fun fishing with you guys again.

March 1, 2003- With heavy overcast skies and a light drizzle, my guests Dr Tom Waldman, a native of San Diego, CA, now living in Switzerland, along with his partner Mark of the U.K., were still very enthusiastic about getting on some of those monster redfish. Tom and Mark had gone to my website and saw the images of the real pretty fish I had put my group on earlier this week. On our way out we were entertained by a pod of bottle-nosed dolphin. They were leaping out of the water seemingly just playing, as there were no sign of mullet. The seas were not as cooperative for us as they were last trip, but "do-able". Once we were set-up, the only fish we could muster were big black drum and sheepshead. I noticed a very large hatching of sea worms and some other hatchlings of what may have been rock shrimp. I was hoping that the bull reds were not gorging themselves on these easy targets, and would eventually feed on our offerings. With just a slight repositioning on the structure, we got into the bronze brutes, and typically breaking off on some and boating others. Tom managed to expertly hook, battle and land a 40# super-brute on a medium weight rod, and spinning reel rigged with 17# mono and a 25# strike leader. Mark was also into a few good fighters on lesser tackle, and boating his share of these big redfish. One other rig stop would be the last today as it produced fairly well as the first stop did. The guys wanted to do a bit of trout fishing on artificial baits. So our last hour of fishing today would bring us back into the marsh in an area near Bayou Dominique. Our drifting technique and offerings of assassins rigged under floats would produce a fairly decent catch of some surprisingly nice sized specks in the 13-15" class. I did keep a few of those sweet-eatin' speckled trout for the house, and all other fish caught today were released. Tom and Mark were both expert anglers and a real pleasure to fish with. I hope I have the opportunity to fish with them again. Thanks Guys! You were great! Titelines!!

FEBRUARY 2003

February 24, 2003- My guests on this absolutely gorgeous fishing day were a bit special. David Anchell had contacted me from Tipperrary, Ireland to get his group of business associates from Ireland, the UK, and the USA as well. Orla Heenan from Tipperary, Ireland, joined by Allan Hughes of Lancaster, England, and Kevin Dalton of Hoboken, NJ, were to make up the rest of the crew.

With a lot of dirty low water in the marsh, I would not even target speckled trout. We headed straight out to the perimeter of the marsh, and eventually Black Bay, in search of beasts, being BULL REDS. And we found them in force. After landing 2 very nice 32-34" beauties on the perimeter, this first stop would not produce another fish. But a quick jaunt out to the rigs in Black Bay proved to be the right choice to obtain the ticket to the "Motherlode". The water was pretty on an incoming tide and the seas were a foot and stayed that way the entire trip. The show would start and never seem to stop. Only 2 stops out here would provide the gang with big time action on big time fish. It has been a while since I have packed the "heavy artillery" (2 super stout, heavy action rods and reels rigged w/40# test mono) but I am certainly thankful that I did on this trip. This was the piece of equipment that enabled Allan to land a real whopper of a 30#+ redfish. Alan expertly fought and landed and this brute on his offering of fresh shrimp rigged on a 1/2 oz. jighead, 6' under a float. To our surprise after boating this beast, we discovered that there was a big mullet inside of the monsters mouth. Check out the pictures of this. The guys all got into monster fish, but we did loose a number of the 20#+ fish that were hooked on lesser tackle, but they also managed to turn and pull over twenty 8-12# reds away from the perils of the rig pillings that were eventually landed. Lots of real nice black drum up to 7# and sheepshead up to 8#, and even early arrivals of big hard-head catfish were also being taken. All fish were released with the exception of a few choice reds for the grill that night. Allan seeemed to have the hot hand at first, but David, Kevin and Orla all got into the thick of things as well. Great Guys, Great Day, Great Fun, and Great Fish. I am certain that David and his group got a mega dose of what S/E Louisiana waters can provide, and I hope that euphoric state that I left them in continues on for the duration of their stay in the Big Easy. Titelines!!

February 11,13,14, 2003- Well, after a few great trips on lots of good specks in winter pattern, this past week has shown that the hot areas have started playing out. More boats and fewer fish, along with the milder weather causing the specks to exit the hard winter pattern that they were holding in for quite sometime. The trip on the 11th was with Don Cox of Covington, La. We worked over some deep holes with tightlined assassins and found the day to be a fair one as we did manage to box 25 specks, and left that slow bite on specks to hook-up with 8 redfish in my redfish hole. Not too bad for a February blue-bird day with big high barometric pressure.

On the 13th, Glen Hammontree of Gulfport, Ms. was my guest. I certainly thought that with the winds and pressure down that we would have a much better day, but our results were the same as last trip backing my opening statement. We did scout a lot more this trip, and Glen and I did find some specks in different areas, but nothing real consistant. The specks are really starting to scatter and the traditional Feb/Mar transition, I believe is underway.

You can still have some good trips on any given day with good conditions but you will have to work harder and scout a lot more to get on good numbers of specks. Soon there will be the spawning of different baitfish in the marsh, ie: croaker, and the grass beds will start making there comeback and, by April, I would look to target those grassbeds, as well as the perimeter marsh islands for big hungry specks with offereings of various top-water baits.

The 14th would bring Billy "Butch" Spradling of New Orleans along with his "Big Apple" guests, Margaret and Peter of New York, NY onboard. This trip would have me scouting a much different area to start with, and it wasn't long before Peter "The Great" was into a monster speck. He expertly battled and landed a 21" beauty caught on a Bass Assassin rigged 2' under a popping cork. I really thought this was going to be the area to target for the day, but after quite sometime and only 10 specks in the box, it would set up a radical manuvere to get these guys on some fish. Trout would no longer be the targeted species, but redfish would. I ran quite a way from where we were out to the perimeter of the marsh and we found a very good bite on many different species of fish. Peter would start things off with his presentation of fresh shrimp rigged under a float on a tried and true oyster flat that has produced well for me for many years. Almost immediately "The Great One" had his rod doubled over and drag screaming with a 5# black drum on the other end of his line. This and many other big drum up to 7# would find their way into the chest. Inbetween this "beating of the drum", Butchs' and Maggies' rods doubled over and line was spooling off of their reels with hook-ups of Bull Reds. Both of these Bronze Beauties were in excess of 34" in length and were caught in 18" of water. What a battle on 10# test mono and light tackle. They both expertly battled these monsters, and would follow my instructions to a tee, resulting in the netting of these 2 brutes. The guys caught the reds, drum, sheepshead, and trout, and stingray, all in the same spot, and after a lot of high fives and big smiles, they filled the 90 qt. chest to the brim with a 100 pounds of mixed fish. What a fun day on the water with a great group of guys. I impatiently await for there return trip. Titelines!!

JANUARY 2003

January 31 and February 1, 2003- This past Friday, I was a guest/guide aboard Jerry Lees' boat. He, hailing from Metairie, La., along with his partner Steve Hudson of Covington., La. consulted me for a guided trip using their boat to learn the Reggio/Hopedale areas. I really don't fish these areas too much but I do know quite a few spots that have produced for me there in the past. This area does have a bit cleaner water when the river water moves into the Delacroix area. There is a spot just 5 minutes away from the Reggio, La. Marina (our point of launch) that I used to do quite well in at, and that would be our first stop. This spot produced some nice specks for us presenting tight-lined Bass Assassins. We left the fish biting there as none of us were on a meat-hunt, and continued on our survey of the area. We accomplished exactly what we set out to do, and the guys learned and marked waypoints along the way, as other catches of specks in different areas in the new territory proved that these spots can still produce fish. The next day I had a fun group of guys onboard, all students of The University of Alabama. Mike King, and Joey Bearden both of Helena, AL, and Tyler Watts of Pelham, AL, fished in my boat, along with Elwyn Bearden and his partner Lane Bearden both also from Helena who fished out of their boat. What a Great Day on the Water!!! All of the guys were onto some nice specks as they were holding in a hard winter pattern. You would think these guys were finely honed pros the way they were slammin' specks tight-lining various colors and types of assassins over a densely-covered oyster bottom. With a hard falling tide we were all having a bit of a problem snagging into the oysters, but once we figured out the proper drop and retrieve technique, it was on. I did have a bit of help getting onto this area as I had recieved a number of calls from different sources indicating that this area, deep into the Pointe-a-la-hache system, was holding good schools of specks. After putting 70 specks, 12-17" in the box, they wanted to get into some redfish. Even with the specks still feeding pretty good, they still wanted to do battle with a few brutes. I haven't scouted or targeted reds in quite some time, but only a short jaunt over to an area that has produced reds for me going a long way back, we hit paydirt on a good school of reds. We boated and boxed a dozen or so and left them biting and headed in. It has been a while since I have had a trip where I have left both trout and reds biting in only 2 stops. It simply just doesn't get any better than that. I want to thank my father-in-law, Bill Cole and Capt. Gene Dugas for the help on this area. I haven't fished it in quite a while, but I will be certain to scout it a bit more real soon, as there are many more "holes" here that I remember from the past. Titelines!!!

January 20, 2003- Tough day!! Dirty, low water all over the Delacroix Island Marsh made it pretty tough fishing for my guests Steve McKay of Hawaii, and Roland McKay and Walt Kazer both of New York, NY. The area was still suffering from the big N/W blow from the recent past and bone chilling temps, and with S/W breezes 10-15 kts. still around, the water is still falling out of the marsh and keeping the water silted and dirty. The water temps had recovered a bit, but the clarity and levels have the trout lock-jawed for the most part. I had covered a lot of area around Pointe-a-la-hache, to Four Horse Lake, Lake Campo, Oak River Bay, and found no water cleaner than an eight inch visibility. Our tally of 2 redfish and 8 specks was the fruit of our efforts. These guys had fished with me in the past and we have done extremely well as they are all very good anglers, and understand that conditions are all part of the fishing equation. I had run into a few of my buddies and spoke with several guys in boats at all areas and the gloom and doom report I am giving was the same as theirs. The marsh really need a good influx of sea water right now and the only element that will produce the marsh to recover will be some easterly winds. However, if the winds die off to less than 10 kts. for a day or two, the fish will bite better as the water that is left in the marsh will clear and "de-stress" the specks. The forecast does not look good for the rest of the week as another arctic front will pass behind a weaker front and more than likely keep the fishing poor for at least another week. These frontal systems will keep the marsh water levels low and the water dirty. Looks like maybe a dose of cabin fever may come to pass. Keep up on household chores for now, and patiently await the next stretch of weather for good fishing conditions. Titelines!!

January 16, 2003- It seems lately I have been busier rescheduling my clients trips around the weather, than I have been fishing. Today a window of opportunity would appear to materialize, and I gave Glen Hammontree of Gulfport, Ms a call. We were set to go for the morning, and what a morning it was. Calm winds and once again clean water with surface temp at 50f would set the stage for a good trip. We started off catching some beautiful specks in the 19-20" class, with some other good specks in the mix as well. I must say I was very happy to see that the trout were biting after more gloom and doom reports out of Delacroix, and our tightlined or jigged presentations of Bass Assassins and Mirrolures were inducing those strikes. Glen is great fun to fish with we were cutting up all morning even when the fish were not as cooperative. We did not get great numbers of fish but the "respecktable" count of 32 trout 13-20" in the chest looked pretty good to us. There were also a lot of juvenille fish caught and released. This was a 2 stop shop today and both areas produced fairly well. By noon the artic front was starting to rear its ugly head and a strong wind shift would end our trip. Thanks again Glen for a very enjoyable trip. There is another strong arctic front scheduled to arrive in S/E Louisiana late next week. I certainly hope for some easterly component winds to occur after this gale force N/W blows all of the water out of the marsh. This will allow the water levels to recover in the marsh. If this is the case and air temps will get into the 60's again to warm the waters surface, look for another day or two next mid-week to be able to get on the specks. Titelines!!

January 9, 2003- After a lot of gloom and doom reports out of the Delacroix Island area, it appeared that today would offer a window of opportunity for the specks and reds to start a feed. All of the high winds, dirty, low and cold water temps of late have kept the fish lock-jawed for the most part. The day before we fished, the sun would shine brightly and wind velocities were down which would help warm and clear up the shallow waters of our fishing area, followed by forecasts to be the same for early on our selected fishing day. The key was to get out a bit early and beat the high winds that would certainly come with an approaching front. Harold Matzke, his father Bob, and partner Bret, all of Washburn, North Dakota, were my guests today. These snowbirds were down enjoying a weeks vacation in the Big Easy and, as always, this time of year, I suggest that when possible, instead of advance booking a certain day to fish, let me pick one of the days while you are here to be able to fish the most optimum day. Well this day certainly turned out to be an optimum day as we caught fish most of the morning. We arrived in our area finding light winds and clean water. The only variable missing in this fishing day equation was good water movement. All of the guys had a great time catching speckled trout, redfish, flounder and bass. The guys did not want to keep any fish but I elected to keep a few larger sized specks for the house. I generaly do not keep any fish under 14". I prefer the 14-16" class trout for their nicer sized, and sweet eatin' filets. All fish were caught on bass assassins. The nicer sized trout, (14-17") and better numbers were taken on a tightlined presentation. Most of the trout caught tightlined were caught in deeper water 5-6' early and later in the morning they were being taken tight to the shoreline adjacent to the 4-6' depths as the surface water temps warmed. There was a bit of action under floats in 2-3' of water but most of the fish that took baits under floats were 12-13". We ended our trip around noon with S/W winds ripping at 20 knots and 24 specks (14-17") in the chest. There were 30 other specks in the 12-13" class that were caught and released, as well as other mixed fish. What a great day to be out on the water.... Great fishing, great guests, great weather, great....well, you get the picture. We will be back in the deep freeze for a while with high winds and high temps in the 50's and lows in the 30's. This will once again make it difficult to have fishing success. I will report on 4 upcoming trips starting on the 18th. Until then, Titelines!!

DECEMBER 2002

December 30, 2002- First and foremost, I would like to wish everyone to have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Today I was accompanied by Todd Masson who is the editor of the Louisiana Sportsman Magazine. He was looking to do a story for the February issue on winter pattern fishing. We had cancelled a trip we had planned last week due to unforeseen circumstances, and today looked as thought it would be an opportunity for us to get out and make a trip. I arranged a couple of my buddies to come along, gave Todd a call yesterday, and it was on. We started out in an area that has been producing real nice specks for me. Our first casts upon arrival would produce strikes immediately. Some of the specks were nice 14" fish but we found that a lot of smaller 12" fish were in the area. My buddies Maurice and Irvin were working assassins under a float and getting a lot of action on 12-14" specks, while Todd and myself were working baits tightlined on 1/4 oz. jigs. I was only looking to get on some nicer fish for this trip and not neccessarily numbers. After a few good fish and some photo-ops, I tied on a mirrolure to see if I couldn't get on some bigger fish. I have not seen the numbers of mullet move into the area yet that will in turn bring in the bigger trout, but after a couple of dozen casts I managed to hook up with a 20" class speck. She would rip a bit of drag off the spool, do a couple of jumps, and put on a pretty good show. But wouldn't you know as Todd was unpacking his 35mm and ready to make a couple of shots, my line simply went limp as she managed to spit the bait a mere 10' from the boat. I hate when that happens. A couple of other bigger class specks were also missed on this trip by myself and other anglers on the boat today. Todd had hooked into a very nice bass what looked to be in the 3# class as witnessed by one great jump by her, and she as well managed to spit a mirrolure. I guss today, we would need more than the 9 hooks that are rigged on these baits. We covered a few areas with fish being caught here and there, but no great numbers of specks were found on a good bite today. I imagine that if numbers would have been the bag for the day, our catch of 30+ specks in the 13-16" class could definitely been improved upon. The day was a great success as we accomplished exactly what we set out to do. I have 4 trips coming up in the next couple of weeks, and I hope to be able to report about some good numbers of mullet moving in and some big trout being taken on some big baits. Until then, Titelines!! Note! The last 4 images are from my last trip with Lee Sharmat, and Janice Pullicino of New York.

December 26, 2002- Today I had Lee Sharmat and Janice Pullicino of New York on board along with Gary Bucano of Picayune, Ms. We were all chomping at the bit to get back onto the awesome action in the Delacroix Island Marsh. This day started out very cloudy, cold and a windy N/E following a day of very cold air temps and a hard W/NW wind with very little sunshine on either day. This scenario plumetted the water temps down to 50 degrees, and coupled with no tidal movement, really made it hard for the specks to get going. After visiting a few of my honey holes, we had only come up with a few fish including a real nice 20" speck taken on a titelined white bass assassin over oysters. I don't mind working for my fish but it seemed today we would have to work eceptionaly hard as well as do a bit more boat riding in some real chilly weather. I managed to come across a remote area with a small bayou draining into a perimeter bay that had some "wind driven" water movement around a crossing deep pipeline canal. This area really looked "fishy", and it paid off well to start with. Right away we were able to hook up with an land another beauty of a speck that went 19", and a nice 18" redfish. But after that it would go quiet for a while. Persistance would pay off a bit more as we worked this area and tried different baits and colors. The space guppy, pearl/chartreuse and alewife shads would all wind up producing trout, with the space guppy producing the best. All baits were rigged tightline on a 1/4 oz. head, and fish were caught in 6-8' of water with an oyster laden bottom. The specks would have nothing to do with any presentations under a float. I knew this day would be tough and I elected to stay in this area and keep working it. Lee and Janice did also manage to catch a few trout each and I was really impressed with their staying power and their ability to follow my instuction and catch fish on a day when not many anglers, even those with decades of experience, caught any fish at all. We finished up the day catching near 30 specks, of which 14 were juvenille. The remaining keeper fish went 13-20" mostly in the 13-14" class. Look for the great action on specks to resurface in a couple of days as water temps rise a few degrees. Titelines!!

December 16,17, 2002- The Delacroix Island Marsh is on fire!!! I fished the last couple of days with Irvin Roy and Maurice Miller, both of St. Bernard, La. and we nailed the specks on both days. 150 beautiful specks in the 14-18" class were the only fish that we would keep. Loads of 13" fish were caught and released, and all of these beautiful specks were caught with bass assassins. The presentations tightlined down in the oysters are becoming less productive as surface temps start to rise with all of the sunshine and milder air temps of late. But the presentations rigged under floats are definitely picking up the slack. I also tossed the Mirrolures and lost a real nice speck and did succeed in landing a few 14-15" fish on the crawfish colored slow-sink twitcher. I have noticed quite a few more mullet in the area and when they really move in with this milder weather, forecast through next week, the mirrolures should start producing a lot more. These big baits traditionally produce much bigger specks in the 19-23" class when presented on the shallow flats adjacent to deep water. The specks are practically jumping in the boat right now. You don't need live bait at all. The soft plastics will do the trick for you to get your limit of trout. I will be fishing a lot in the coming weeks and will report on my findings. Until then....Titelines!!! P.S. the image you see below is actually different from last update. 75 nice specks in a big chest looks just like 75 nice specks in the same box. Ho Ho Ho!

December 12,13, 2002- Finaly, an awesome winter pattern bite. Today I fished with a couple of guys from St. Bernard, La. Maurice "Murph" Miller and Irvin Roy would make up the crew of three, and we headed out on a cold, windy and overcast morning. With E/NE wind at 15-18 kts., and the water temps(52f) just a couple of degrees warmer that they were a couple of days ago on a tough fishing day, we were hoping that the water temperature would make the difference and we would be able to get on the ever so long awaited winter pattern bite for specks. As I had mentioned in my last report from Monday December 9, the water temps were at 50 degrees, and the presence of all of the feed (shrimp) in the marsh was non-existant causing the trout to go dormant and they were were a bit reluctant to feed. Now, 2 days later and the very same area that we had fished on Monday, using the same baits and presentations, the specks were eatin' up like there would be no tommorrow. THEY ARE HUNGRY NOW! The very same area with the oyster laden would bottom would produce a strike on almost every cast. Tightlined 1/4 oz. jigheads rigged with Bass Assassins presented down deep in 7-9' of water over oysters, would be the ticket to catching over 125 specks. Murph, Irvin and I would keep our limit (75)of specks in the 14-19" class. Lots of good legal 12-13" fish were caught and released. Man! It doesn't get too much better than this. This is my type of fishing. You can hopefully say goodbye to cork fishing for specks for the rest of the winter season. The areas that we had scouted that did not have oysters on the bottom, did not hold fish. The trout were down deep and holding to the oysters. This winter pattern should stay for the most part when water temps remain in the 50s. For consistantly bigger specks, mirrolures and other big baits should start to work as well on the flats when water surface temps rise to the upper 50s and low 60s. All it will take for this scenario to unfold is a good day of warm sunshine. The 1-3' flats will warm rapidly and the big specks will be patrolling the flats in search of small mullet. Work your big baits in areas that are holding schools of mullet where you have oysters, and shallow flats adjacent to a deep water body. I have included some images of big reds taken last spring on spoons and top-water baits for you Norman. Enjoy and Titelines!!

December 9, 2002- David Kidd of Gulfport, Ms. had called me last week to get a good fishing day set up for himself and his buddies John and Ted. I made the call for this morning. Even though thw day would be a bit breezy, I did not think we would have problems having a productive day. With N/E breeze blowing 12-15 knots we departed the dock and started at areas that have been very productive in the recent past, and last 2 trips having limited out on 14-20" specks. Well this would not be the case today as myself and the guys struggled to get only a few fish in the boat at a number of different "hot-spots" in several different areas. The bite just wouldn't materialize. If there was to be blame on any particular reason for the slow bite, it would not be the velocity of the wind but the direction. That N/E wind will keep the tide from falling in the Delacroix Marsh area, and the lack of tidal movement, even in more protected areas, would be the reason for such a slow bite. After a number of visits to different areas, and only a few more fish to show, we visited an area that I was hoping to produce for us. We started a drift in this area and were all tossing various plastics, and came across a fairly decent bite. All of the guys would contribute some good specks to the ice-chest. Once a drift pattern was completed, we would have to "motor back to the starting point and simply start another drift pattern. Some of these drifts would yield 3-4 specks mostly good 13-14" fish, and some drifts would only yield 1 trout. With the day going as it was I elected to stay on this "bite" and we would just have to work hard for our fish. Ted had hooked and landed the nice speck of the day with a beauty of an 18" trout. All 25 specks for the day were caught tightlining various soft polastics on 1/4 oz. jigs. The fish would not have any thing to do with any presentations under a float, which was a very productive presentation for the last 6 weeks. Could they be in a winter pattern NOW? I talked with a bunch of avid fishing buddies of mine that were out fishing in different boats, and also lots of other guys returning to the dock later in the day and discovered that they too had also struggled. One of my buddies boats had only 4 fish, and others had 15-20 fish. I do not have a temperature sensor on my depth finder, but after talking to Irvin, he explained to me that the surface temperature of the marsh water was 50 degrees in the mid morning hours and then only rose a couple of degrees by early afternoon. This factor, along with what I now think is the shrimp have totally left the marsh has the trout down deep in the oysters and dormant. In a day or two, along with the water temperatures staying in the low to upper 50's the specks should turn on like gangbusters on deep water presentations. After all of the area that I covered today, I only spotted a few gulls, and none of them were feeding. There were a lot of boats out fishing and the only boat that we saw catching any fish were releasing them as they were all undersized. I want to thank David, Ted, and John for hanging in there with me today. They all fished very hard, and they were a pleasure to be fishing with. Titelines!!!

December 3, 2002- What a great day to be on the water. Overcast skies, good tidal movement, light breezes, and water temps in the upper 50s'. Glen Hammontree of Gulfport, Ms. had called me last week to pick a day to be able to fish optimum conditions. I called him on Dec. 2nd, and we were set to fish on the 3rd. Glen had wanted to be able to fish artificial baits only, and my reply to him was, "soitanly." Our day started off with a stop under some gulls that were feeding on the, what seemingly is, the everlasting presence of shrimp in the Delacroix Island Marsh. This stop yeilded a few very nice specks to start but the juvenille fish started to swarm and I elected to leave the area in search of better fish. After a few stops and picking up some real nice specks here and there, we wound up in the area that I had fished last trip and did well there. The specks were not in the best feeding mode, but Glen and I, using various presentations and techniques, were able to start working on some real nice specks in the 14-18" class. Tightlined bass assassins, and sparkle beetles rigged on 1/4 oz. jigheads, and curl tail assassins rigged on 1/8 oz. jiheads under floats were the ticket today. Man I love that tightlined jighead bite down deep. This is what I thought would be a bit of winter pattern fishing. This presentation would yield about a dozen real good specks for us, but the presentation of the day was 2' under floats. As long as there are an abundant amount of shrimp as feed for the fish in the marsh, they will be more reluctant to go down deep and school. The time of year and the water temps are where they should be to get the fish in winter pattern, but all of the feed that remains in the marsh has delayed a true winter pattern from happening. Glen was just a bit rusty as he had not fished in over a year, but it wasn't too long before he got into the "swing" of things. He was soon swinging those trout in the boat like an old pro and we achieved our limit of good specks 14-18" by noon, with lots of 12 and 13" fished released to fight another day. Sorry no images for this report. I am going to get rid of that crummy deckhand....he forgot the camera. Again!!! I hate when that happens.

NOVEMBER 2002

November 29,30, 2002- On Friday the 29th, I had Jim Jancik along with his son Brad, Joe, and Ryan, for their second annual, "Day After Thanksgiving Trip". This same group fished with me last year, and had an awesome trip as we limited out on 125 specks. This trip started out on a frosty morning way down south in Delacroix Island. I was really expecting the specks to be in a winter pattern now with this chilly weather of late. The water temps are really getting into the 50's now and the trout should be down deep and schooled up in the holes. This pattern was just not the case today. There are still a lot of shrimp still in the marsh right now. The hurricanes from back in October really put an influx of shrimp in the area and they seem like they are reluctant to leave even with the passage of a fair number of pretty chilly fronts. We were armed with 200 live shrimp and an arsenal of various bass assassins for this trip. It started off pretty good with lots of action on specks taking the groups offerings of live shrimp rigged 2' under floats. The catches on artificials baits were fairly steady for me as well. The first area we fished had a little tidal movement but it would not last long. The range on the tide for this day was less than .5 feet. The guys boxed 40 good specks in the 12-15" class here but with the tide dwindling, the juvenille fish seemed to be the only fish biting. After skipping around the marsh and picking up a few good fish here and there, we found an area that gave up a bit better action on keeper specks. The bite would be slow at times but the fish were good sized. After a count of 72 specks, and other mixed fish, I decided to try and get the guys on some redfish action. I thought this would also be a challenge with the neap tides, but we did hit some paydirt. It wasn't long before the rods were bents and the drags were singing on some hard fighting redfish. The guys lost a few under the boat, and some to busted lines, but with the trip timed out, they managed to land and box 6 very nice reds. We ended the trip with a cooler filled with 72 specks 12-15", 6 redfish 5-9#, and mixed fish like sheepshead, flounder, and largemouth bass. The weather conditions were great on this trip and the catch was a pretty good one for the neap tides. I am looking for their return next year for the 3rd annual afetr turkeyday trip. Thanks a bunch guys. I had a great time fishing with all of you.

The following day, I had an awesome trip with John Fridley of Atlanta, Ga. The light rain showers that greeted us on the start would remain with us until the late morning, but this would not "dampen" our spirits in the least. John is a real trooper and an excellent angler as well. He said these conditions are great, and you couldn't ask for a better fishing day. This statement could only spew from the lips of a true and hardcore fisherman as he was. We left the live bait at the bait shop and would only use artificial baits today and we just had an awesome time catching and releasing, some of the 91 speckled trout that we boated. John did not want to keep any fish for himself, but I wanted to keep some for myself and my family members. Only the 14" or better sized specks would be kept, and the count on these better fish would be 43 by trips end. We had caught and released close to 50 specks that were 12-13". The hot bait and presentation today was a 3" pearl shad assassin rigged 2' under floats in an area that had 3-4' depth and an oyster laden bottom. The only bad side to this trip was that John did have a couple of big specks in the 20" class, break off. We did see these fish for a brief moment in each instance before they would spit the hook. The neap tides did not keep from good sized specks biting, but I did notice that a lot of the 14-16" trout were barely, or lip-hooked. The bigger trout that had broke off on John, were probably lip-hooked and the muscle of the fish had caused the break off. In my opinion, a better tidal movement would have had the much bigger fish in this area biting a lot harder and as a result we would have had a lot more hook-ups and have been able to land this class of trout. This area had produced well for me last year, but most of the fish were caught here on tightlined presentations as well as big hard baits like mirrolures. My attempts at offering mirrolures, would not yield one strike, but a small ledge that I like in the area did produce a 19" speck on a tightlined presentation of a 4" rootbeer colored assassin. John also nailed a nice 16" speck off of this ledge on a tightlined presentation of a mud minnow bait, but that would be the only 2 fish caught in this deeper water. The vast majority of our speckled trout today were caught under floats in 3-4 feet of water. Sorry! No images for this trip due to the rainy conditions that stayed with us for almost the entire time. We ended the trip at noon to get John back to the dock to meet his flight out to Atlanta. John is a good client of mine and has fished with me a number of times. He is looking forwrd to returning in the spring of next year for some of that early spawn top-water action. I have included an image of a 25" speck that I caught last April on a Zara Spook! Thanks John! Hope to be fishing top-waters with you in the spring.

November 23, 2002- Today Scott Ellis and his partners Bob from the Mississippi Coast, and Mo from Miami, Fl. were on board. This being one day after a hard cold front would prove to be a much tougher day fishing that I have had in quite a while. The rule of thumb is that the second day after a hard front is the better day. With blue-bird skies and high pressure building, along with murky water conditions, the fish would have lock-jaw and just would not get on a steady feed. The guys worked real hard and we did manage 32 keeper specks, and lots of undersized fish. Other catches were 4 beautiful reds and 5 good sized largemouth bass. This time of year you really have to pick your days to be able to get on a good bite. We may have done a bit better with live bait, but the shrimp were very small at the bait shop, and I elected to make this trip with artificial baits only. We did get a visit to the boat by the Federal agents out making their surveys. After making their check for licenses, life vests and our fish, I had asked them if they had come across any of the other boats in the area with good catches. They replied that they had come across only one boat in a very remote area that had one limit of specks, the rest of their surveys came up with limited catches of fish on this day. The guys had a great time out on this gorgeous day, even with just a few moments of good action. Sometimes we would hit 3-5 good fish in an area, and then the action would just come to a halt. This is typical for the conditions that we had to fish today.

November 19,20, 2002- Sorry about this late report....I fished these 2 days with Irvin Roy and Maurice Miller, both of Chalmette, La. aboard Irvins' boat. Both of these trips we fished artificial baits only and did pretty good. These bass assassin baits in various styles and sizes rigged under floats and "titelined", were the ticket. We even had a bit of topwater action on nice sized specks as well. The bite is probably not as steady as you would have using live bait, but the fish are most certainly larger on the average size. Most of the specks we were boating were in the 14-15" size with some going 20". We did not keep any of the 12-13" sized trout that would occasionally take our baits. If we would have kept these tasty little specks, or fished live bait, we would have easily limited out on both trips. Until the water temps drop into the mid to lower 50s', you do have to move around a lot more fishing artifial baits. You can work the same area but just troll around slowly to stay in the action. The side show for both of these trips were the big bad bronze beauties of the marsh. We really did not concentrate working on these bad boys (Irvin hates catching these monsters, if you can believe that!!)but we did manage to do battle with 9 of these redfish going up to 12#. All of the redfish that we caught were released to fight another day. The redfish were thick as fleas in this one area that we fished. They were concentrated over a hard shell bottom in 1.5' of water. (Are you getting this Norman and Diane?)They were taken on bass assassins as well rigged under floats and "titelined" as well. The total take on specks for the 2 days of fishing was 112 specks 14-20" and all of the redfish and 12-13" specks were released. The Delacroix Island Marsh is really turned on right now and lots of limits are being taken. Just beware of low water conditions with the strong N/W winds that are blowing with the passage of these cold fronts. Right now, all you need is the desire to get a great mess-o-specks and reds in the ice-chest.

November 8, 2002- Well as I said in my previous report from 2 days ago, it would take a couple of days for the weather and the marsh to clear. That was November the 6th, here it is 2 days later and I had Don Cox from Covington, La. down to do another trip with me. Don has fished with me for quite some time now. We have had some good trips, and some less than average trips, but today we had an awesome trip. Using mostly saltwater assassins rigged under floats, along with tightlined presentations of the same, we were able to get our limit of 50 beautiful speckled trout in fairly short order. I noticed that most of the other boats around were catching lots of smaller trout on live shrimp, so for the most part we styayed with the artificial baits. The trout that we were catching were averaging near 14" and up to 17". After the trout slammarramma, Don wanted to get on a few redfish. We worked pretty hard trolling the shorelines of a few different areas and would only come up with a couple of smaller reds for the ice-chest. Then I tried over by another area that can be good for redfish at times, and this would be the ticket. We did have to wait these brutes out for a while, but in between the slow bite on these big reds, we were catching other mixed species like black drum, sheepshead, bass, and speckled trout. These redfish were going up to 9#, and are great fun to do battle with on light tackle. The Delacroix Island Marsh is on fire right now. You can have great catches of hard fighting, sweet eatin' specks at almost any area in the entire marsh. There are speckled trout everywhere still feeding on the abundant supply of shrimp that have inundated the marsh from the storms of late. I do see this pattern continuing until the water temps drop below the 60 degree mark combined with the passing of another couple of strong cold fronts. When this occurs, the awesome numbers of trout in the marsh right now will remain behind and will school up in the deeper areas of the marsh and our offerings of artificial baits will not have the competition of all of the natural feed that is now available to them. That is the scenario that I personally love the most. Using various soft plastics rigged and presented in different ways, and big hard baits like mirrolures, Bomber Long-A's, and Rattletraps. When we get to this winter pattern, all of these baits will produce good catches on speckled trout and redfish as well. Right now all you need is the time to get a line in the water to get in on the fun. Titelines!!!

I am sorry for not having images for this report. The deckhand forgot the camera at home. OOPS!

November 5,6, 2002- Norman and Diane Norton of Hot Spings, Arkansas, came down to the Big Easy to take in some sights and come back and see me for another couple of days of fishing. They had fished with me back in the summer of 2001, and were looking for another 2 days of great Delacroix Island action. Both Norman and Diane are avid fishermen, and this really makes my job a lot easier. On this trip, they wanted mostly to target our drag-screaming and rod-bending brutes of the marsh....REDFISH!!! My brother Gary Bucano also joined us on the trip. The weather was most certainly going to be a threat, but all of us being a little on the "diehard" side of the angler spectrum decided to make a go of it. The trip really turned out to be a success even though the southerly winds were blowing 18-20 and gusting to near 30 knots in some of the squally weather. That weather certainly tried to dampen our spirit...no pun intended, but the only thing these torrential rains ultimately dampened, was our clothing. We did seek protection at a shelter in the marsh for a brief period and surveyed our catch of some pretty hefty redfish mixed with catches of speckled trout, largemouth bass, flounder, and sheepshead. Shortly after, a break in the weather would have us back in the action again. After a short jog to another area, we were able to get into some really nice speckled trout that were feeding on a school of shrimp scouted out by a flock of seagulls. We were tossing soft plastics rigged on jig heads under floats to put a nice mess-o-specks in the boat. We had lots of double and some triple hook-ups on this hungry school of hard fighting specks and ended our trip with the fish biting. Norman and Diane were not on a "meat-hunt" for their 2 days of fishing, but Gary was certainly ready to get his freezer stocked, and with our ample catch of over 50 speckled trout 13-17", and 9 reds 3-8#, Norman, Diane, and Gary were all packing filets. In a most thoughtful gesture, Diane would only keep the redfish, and give all of the trout filets for my brother to take with him. This was a most enjoyable trip despite the harsh conditions we were up against.

The next day would be a much different story. The passage of a mean coldfront would put the brakes on the action. The previous day, I had given Norman and Diane the option wether or not to fish on this day, as I knew the conditions would be extremely difficult. They, being the hard-core and diehard fishermen that they are, opted to make a go of it. I have seen this scenario all to often in the marsh. The previous day we had a "flooded" marsh condition with tides running near 2' above normal, and with the wind direction forecasted to come roaring out of the N/W at 20-25 knots for the entire night and into the next day, it would create an extreme stressing on the fish for another day or two. When you have this scenario, going from a flooded to a drained marsh condition in such a short time, the prarie drains so quickly that it tends to "silt-up" the water and this murcky water condition really makes for some tough fishing. Most all of the areas that we fished on the first day, were now totaly inaccessible. To make this story short, our efforts for 5 hours of fishing would only produce 2, 17" redfish and 10 speckled trout 13-14", and I was tickled with this amount of fish. I really want to thank Norman and Diane for hanging in there with me on this extremely tough fishing day. The awesome Delacroix Island Marsh action should resume in another couple of days as some winds with an easterly component will get the water levels back up and the murcky conditions will clear. I have only a couple of images for this report as the extreme conditions limited the photo-ops, as well as Diane being a little camera shy for the internet. Just Kidding "D". Titelines!!!

OCTOBER 2002

October 25,26, 2002- The guys from Holmes County Company Hunting Club, out of Jackson, Ms. were back on board for a couple of days. Jim "Bubba" Macarthur, Bill Bates, and Joe Wise, all of Jackson, Ms. were looking for a meat haul on Specks and reds. We started out on Friday, 10 minutes from the dock, with a pretty good bite on specks, with mixed presentations of bass assassins and live shrimp rigged 2' under floats. The bite on specks would be on and off (mostly off), but after putting 25 or so specks in the box, I decided that we will scout for more specks later and try to get in on some light tackle spinning for redfish. This manuvere certainly paid off as some pretty hefty reds found their way to the ice-chest. They were mostly taking the live bait as well as spinner baits and dead shrimp. The hunt for specks after this good pull on reds would only produce another 5 real nice specks in the 18-20" class and another few real nice reds. Most all of these late day fish would fall victim to our efforts on bass assassins under floats. We ended this Overcast day with 30 specks 12-20" and 11 reds 4-10#. The next day we started out in the same area we did the previous day, but I would keep my attention focused on this area much longer and it proved to be a much better day for trout. Same mixed presentations of live shrimp and bass assassins would be the ticket for 45 speckled trout before the threatening skies were dumping shower after shower on our parade. This day the avereage size of the specks was a bit nicer than the day before. The immediate area also produced some more real nice reds for the guys. 5 good reds and a couple that had broken off would be the only action for redfish. Joe also managed a pretty good sized 18" speck on a fly rod with a shrimp pattern fly. We did visit a few other areas that had produced for us on Friday, but with the north breeze picking up to 15+knots, we did not manage another fish, and called the trip. We were all pretty lucky, in my opinion, as the weather did allow the catches that we made on these 2 days. Total for both days was 75 specks and 16 reds. I once again, really enjoyed the company of these 3 guys. Lots of fun, cutting up, joke telling and story telling, filled the slots when the action on fish would be slow. I did not get any pictures of our trip on Saturday, mostly due to the bad conditions. They were soon on the road back to Jackson with a 48 qt. ice chest filled to the brim with trout and redfish filets. Thanks guys! See you again reel soon.

October 20,21,22, 2002 - On Sunday the 20th, I had the pleasure of fishing with Chris Green.and his buddy Patrick, both from Maine. They are both dentists and were enjoying a stay in The Big Easy while attending a dental convention. While they were in town they just had to play hookey and take a trip to get on some trout and redfish action. Well the action was great and so was the company. Chris and Patrick immediately got right into it. As soon as their baits hit the water the were specks inhaling their baits and the floats were dissapearing. They were nailing some pretty good specks on presentations of saltwater assassins rigged on 1/8 oz. jigheads and 2' under floats. The 1/8 oz. jig heads are pretty light but the ones that I use have fairly stout hooks. The light weight really makes a difference and allows the soft plastic baits to slowly flutter down when the floats are popped. This tactic was just absolutely murder on quite a good number of trout that were caught and released. Chris and Patrick had decided that they only wanted to keep a few fish to take back to their condo in New Orleans to cook up. I was tossing a Top-Dog topwater bait in the blue and chrome color and the specks were really jumping all over this bait as well. After about an hour of non-stop action on specks, bass, sheepshead, black drum, and a couple of small reds, the tide had really fallen off and the action slowed. I decided to try and get them on a big pull with bigger reds. I went to my trusty old redfish hole and found that the tide had already quit in this area as well but we did manage to find 4 good redfish in the 5-8# class. These reds were taken on presentations of live shrimp rigged on jigheads under floats as well.The guys certainly had a good time fighting these hard fighting brutes of the Delacroix Island Marsh. Thanks a lot guys.

October 21, 2002 - Garrett Toy of the Los Angeles, Ca. area, another dentist in town for the same convention, was joined by 2 of my regular clients Kip Williams of St Louis, Mo, and Larry Norvell, of Collierville, Tn. We had a lot of dense fog on the front end of this trip, and it was a slow go thru the fog to get to the area that I have been fishing. Normally this is just a 10 minute ride, but after 25 minutes of feeling my way to the area, I decided to just stop and wait until the fog lifts so I could pinpoint the same spot I had been fishing. While we were anchored down in the general area, I told the guys to go ahead and bait up and start fishing. There were so many fish in the area from the 2 days before, I thought maybe we would be able to catch a few fish while we were waiting out the weather. Lo and behold it was just a matter of a few minutes before our presentations of live shrimp rigged 2' under floats would be paying off on some really nice specks in the 14-20" class. After about an hour of some pretty good action on specks, the weather had cleared but the wind started blowing a bit harder than you would like for a good trout bite. We only managed a few more specks in my hot spot, as the wind was blowing in a bad direction for this shoreline to produce well. After a good hour and a half of just picking and pecking at a few trout while scouting for a good school, we came across an area that was holding some redfish. We did miss a few of these reds while drifting slowly along a shoreline in the Lake Lori area, so I repositioned the boat to stick down and target the shoreline that was holding these reds. The wind made it a bit difficult to get a good casting ability, but the guys had managed to do fairly well landing a good number of these bronze beauties. After a short while the wind died off and the lake had just a bit of a ripple, a mother-lode of speckled trout had moved in on us and they were hungry. Garrett was the real hot hand in this area. He was setting hooks and landing pretty good sized specks on almost every cast. Larry and Kip were pulling up some specks as well but they also managed to get some hookups with some more pretty good sized reds. The reds were on the shoreline and the trout were about 40-50' off of the shoreline. This slammarramma on trout and reds would continue for about an hour and a half, and I called the trip with a 90 qt. chest filled to the brim.

October 22, 2002 - it would be Kip Williams alone back on board for his second day of fishing. This morning would prove to be a little less productive than the prevois days. I really had to move around a lot and we would only manage a few fish here and there. The fish are really moving a lot chasing loads of shrimp that have invaded the Dealcroix Marsh due to the back to back storms a week ago. This influx of bait really gives you a lot of competition for the live or artificial baits that you are trying to offer. Once the colder weather fronts start moving this far south, it will run all of that bait out and this in turn will get the fish feeding better on whatever baits you are using to get on fish. It was late morning and we only had 20 specks and 4 good reds in the box. I decided to head out towards the perimeter bays in search of some better schools of trout. Just as we were about to get into that area, I noticed some birds diving on some bait in the distance. I did target this and sure enough there were a bunch of hungry speckled trout and white trout under these birds. We stuck down just downwind of the flock and started hauling in trout. There were shrimp jumping all over the area as the trout were in a feeding frenzy. Our presentations of any soft plastic bait rigged on floats would produce strikes as soon as our baits would hit the water. There were a lot of small and undersized fish under these birds, but there were certainly some hefty ones as well along with lots of keeper sized trout. We ended the trip with 50 trout 4 reds, and acouple of black drum. The trip really turned out well after a real slow start.

October 18, 2002 - With all of the tropical storms, hurricanes, boat repairs, and family illnesses out of the way, it was time to get back on the action. I had made a few trips before this one, but did not post reports. The catches were fair on 3 trips I had made with some of my buddies, using all artificial baits, but now that everything has settled down and the water levels in the Delacroix marsh have returned to normal, the action on speckled trout and redfish in the marsh is nothing short of fantastic. The marsh is on fire right now. I fished today with Jerry Lee of Metairie, La. and Steve Hudson from Covington, La. This was actually a scouting trip, and we were to survey a lot of area to see what was what for a bunch of trips I have coming up next week. We started out in an area just 10 minutes from the launch and did manage a few good specks, but a short jog over to the other side of the lake we were surveying proved to be a hot spot. I mean the specks were thick and hungry. While 100 live shrimp were swimming in the well, our presentations of saltwater assasins rigged 2' under floats were the ticket to an obliteration of specks in the 12-17" range. I am not sure what the actual count was in the trout that we boxed, but I do know this....we could have easily limited on trout in this area. We left the hungry specks to get back on the scouting. Almost every area that we visited produced fish, but the action was much slower. Then redfish became the target. After a couple of stops that produced some more trout, but no reds, it was off to an old redfish honey-hole of mine. Upon our arrival it did not look like it would produce, but knowing that on some other trips I had made here in the past, the best thing to do is wait it out a good bit. There was a good sign when Steve hooked up with a pretty good sized sheepshead and a black drum. I then hit on a hard fighting 19" speck. I was thinking in the back of my mind that this spot should soon start producing reds, and I was right. It wasn't long before that wonderful sounds of a screaming drags, the sights of rods doubled over, and the jubilant cries of three elated anglers filled the boat. Speaking of filling the boat, the 4-9# reds that we were taking, we probably could have done that as well. We did keep a few of these bronze beasts for the grill back at the ranch, and caught and released quite a few more as well. A limit of 15 of these rod benders could have easily been achived. All of the fish in this area were taken with live shrimp rigged 2' under floats. We certainly achived what we had set out to do. This scouting trip was a major success, and I want to thank Jerry and Steve for having me aboard for this one

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