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Past Fishing Reports April - September 2003 SEPTEMBER 2003 September 10, 2003- Today I scouted the Delacroix Island Marsh for redfish with my fishin' buddy Steve Hudson. We procured a few live shrimp and off we went. Our first area only produced a few good black drum and sheepshead but these are the fish you want to find because generally the reds are not too far. This proved to be correct this time as a short jaunt over to the other side of the lagoon we were fishing held a good number of reds. These awesome bronze beauties in the 8-10# class, were stipping line and doubling over our rods. A lot of the strikes on these big reds came on presentations of live shrimp rigged 14" under floats. We sighted a lot of these reds as we trolled the shoreline, but did not fish thenm too hard as we only wanted to keep a few for the grill. A few of the other areas that we visited yielded a few reds and small speckled trout, and they were released. The purpose of a scouting trip is to locate or keep up with the fish and their movements. Steve and I accomplished exactly what we set out to do. My next trip is Friday and I will report on my findings. Titelines!! September 5, 2003- Elbert and Betty Bivins of Jackson, MS were out with me this morning. The passing front really got the winds up and getting out to the Bay would not be in the game plan. Elbert and I spoke about the wind forecast but this being the only day that they would be able to fish, we made a go of it. The marsh is in a flooded condition and with the tide incoming all morning it made for a tough day on trout. I did find a fair amount of decent sized specks and they were taking our presentations of live shrimp rigged 2' under floats. Some specks were taken on artificials, and Elbert surprised me with his taking of a speckled trout on his fly rod. There was some fair action in this flooded pond we fished with quite a few throwbacks and fish lost. We had also hooked up with three unidentifiable monster fish, but were unsuccessful in sighting them. One, I believe was a jack crevelle and others were huge bull reds. We ended the trip with 20 good specks and some mixed fish. Not too bad nhaving to work with the wind and marsh conditions that we faced. The redfish are starting to show up from the reports I have been recieving, but they can be a bit difficult to find in the high water conditions that are present in the Delacroix Marsh. The late afternoon would be an excellent time to get on lots more fish as the tide starts to fall around noon in that area. The falling tide in a flooded marsh condition is the best opportunity for you to get on better numbers of fish right now. September 2, 2003- Don Cox and son Chip were aboard today for a pretty good haul on nice speckled trout. The pattern early morning bite continues starting at first light and ending around 8:00. Our first spot produced 30 good specks 14-17" caught on carolina rigged live shrimp. There were a few nicer sized specks taken there as well on live croaker. Once this spot dried up on us we fished a couple of other spots out in Black Bay. One having little success producing only 3 keeper specks, and the second would add 8 more good sized specks to the box. We ended the trip at 10:30 with over 40 specks and headed to the barn to get Chip on schedule for his flight out. Get your fish early as the bite on trout seems to end at mid-morning. AUGUST 2003 August 28, 2003- Bill Cole of New Orleans was onboard for a quick trip. I have been on an early morning bite as of late, and this morning would be no different. Our carolina rigged presentations of live shrimp and croaker would immediately get the specks going. These trout are not big running in the 13-16" class, but the action was very fast and over one hour after the sun rose. Another area gave up a pretty good bite as well and by 9:00 we were headed to the dock with 40 specks 12-22". All trout were caught on structure out in Black Bay. August 23&24, 2003-Had a great time fishing this week end with 3 awesome guys from the Nashville, Tennessee area. Robert Ellis and his two buddies Brady and Jim stayed in the cottage right across from our point of launch and we got early starts on both days and were on the fish. 51 nice speckled trout in the 13-19" class and 1 nice "doormat" flounder were in the box on Saturday fishing live shrimp under floats and freelined croaker out in Black Bay. There was also a good bite on titelined bass assassins as well. The Sunday trip started off just as well but I do believe the trout, on this different rig, were a lot bigger in average size and thet were slamming the croaker pretty good until Mr. Jack Crevelle showed up and had Jims' rod doudled over and drag screaming. I really thought this big fish was going to spool Jims line but Jims' expertise in handling the equipment really paid off. After about a 15 minute battle with this huge brute on light tackle we were able to boat the beauty to get a few shots and quickly release her. This jack was in excess of 25# and was battled and landed by Jim on light tackle with 12# mono. Not many people are as fortunate in doing so. The only bad thing you can find in this type of battle in shallow water is that is will put the "lock-jaw" on the speckled trout. This being the case our short jaunt over to the area that produced for us yesterday would be our destination. We immediately started hooking up with some good specks and the bite stayed with us for a good while. The guys wanted to try and get on some reds so we left the specks biting to find little success in the marsh. Thats fishing! We could have easily topped our catch from the day before but the 30 beautiful specks averaging 14-15" would be the tally for the day. Thanks Guys! You were Great!! August 19, 2003- It is now apparent to me that Mr. Hammontree has not had enough of that croaker bite. He fished with me last Thursday and called me Monday and wanted to fish again on Tuesday. Once again I armed the bait wells with some beautiful shrimp and croaker, and we were off for an early start yesterday morning. Immediately the sizeable specks were slamming our presentations of live shrimp rigged 2' under floats and freelined croaker. The tide was moving beautifully around a point on an island out in Black Bay, and this most certainly helped in keeping the trout feeding. But there were a lot of other nuisance fish that moved into our area and they really started giving us fits. Juvenile lady fish, pinfish and needle fish had made their presence known before too long, and that would keep us on the move. After about 4 repositionings of the boat, and a nice catch of speckled trout 13-19" on each position, I decided to try and do some structure fishing for some big trout and redfish. Our first stop yielded a hefty 21" speckled trout but no other action after that. Our second stop at another rig would be the ticket to some wild hookups on BIG TROUT and BIG REDS!!! The only problem with the reds was that they were running hard into the structure and we were not able to boat one of the mighty beasts as they would have our 40# mono cut like sewing thread on the pilings of the rig we were fishing. The big specks were quite a different story. They were falling prey to our freelined presentations of croaker, and were making their way into our chest that was filling up with beautiful trout. We ended the day with 44 specks, just shy of our limit, of which a dozen exceeded the 20" mark and quite a few in the 4# class. It was certainly a hot day on the water but would equal the action on beautiful speckled trout. I have trips coming up on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and will report on these upcoming trips. Had the camera out to take images of the big trout we were on, but the batteries were too low to take the images. I #@*#!*# hate when that happens!!! I have reloaded the camera with fresh batteries at the house and hope to have the oportunity to take some great shots for you on my upcoming trips. Titelines!!! August 14, 2003- I gave Glen Hammontree a call on Wednesday on short notice for a trip on Thursday. The wind would be picking up as the Tropical system would be moving into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. I did think that we would have an early morning window before the winds achieved forecast status, and we decided to head out. The ride was a bit bumpy heading out to the area that has been producing well for me as of late, but once we arrived we were protected and sitting pretty. The difference today would be the high winds, and the water clarity. This would be the first time in the last 5 trips that I would be fishing this area with stained water as opposed to nearly "gin clear". The live wells were armed with live shrimp and croaker and our various presentations of both baits would yield slow bites on good sized specks, but the bite would come and go. There was not a whole of variance to the game plan today as the winds were increasing all morning long, but a few slight repositionings of the boat inside of our protected area would be the ticket to boxing 39 real pretty specks mostly 14-20", with a lot of smaller 12-14" fish lost while fishing croaker. When these smaller class speckled trout are taking the free-lined or carolina rigged croaker, it is a real challenge to get a good hook-set with the larger sized croaker versus the live shrimp. Glen and I had a blast catching and missing trout most of the morning. We easily could have achived our limit on trout if we hadn't run out of live shrimp, but I dont think the quality would have been there. A hook-up and visual of a large jack crevelle in the 20-25# class in the skinny water would be the demise of our trout bite and we headed in with a strong tail wind. Sorry! No images for this trip. Titelines!! August 4,8,9 2003- Finaly got all of the bugs out of my system, and will be posting reports once again. Scott Danelly and his buddy from Arkansas along with another buddy Chris from Mississippi were along on the 8/4/03 date. We were fishing carolina rigged croaker and shrimp under floats along with assassins to get a nice mess of specks in real skinny water. The guys had a blast on that croaker bite and this "one-stop-shop" wound up with 60 specks in the 13-20" class. Scott is already planning another 2 day trip back with me next year, and I am looking forward to having him come back with my old friend Don Brown. My 8/8/03 trip was with the boys from Mississippi Power Co. Don Anderson and buddies Glen and Jody were an absolute treat to fish with. They made my job extremely easy as they immediately caught on the the "croaker bite" in skinny water. There was a lot of joking around and cutting up on this, another "one-stop-shop" trip. Their attitude was right as the guys just wanted to go out and have a good time. I have been pushing back a lot of trips lately as the fishing has been real slow to return back to our normal summer cycle since all of the rain back in June and July. We ended this trip falling 5 trout short of their limit of 75 speckled trout in the 13-22" class. Don and his buddies are planning to come back in the fall/winter session to get in on the marsh fishing. The trip on 8/9/03 was a Woodall family affair. Dave, Tom, Steve, and his son Kevin were onboard heading down the bayou before the chickens were up. You really have to get an early start on these extremely competitive week ends. We couldnt have been one minute earlier. As soon as we arrived at our area, there were 3 boats vieing for the same spot. This trip was going to be a bit tougher with all of the boat traffic, and it took some more time and a couple of repositions of the boat to get into the bite, as I discovered that the fish were holding real tight to the shore in 14" of water. The skinny water croker bite as well as live shrimp rigged 14" under floats were the ticket to the total of 46 specks for the clan. Tom was very impressive doing battle with, and landing a real fat 26" speck caught on a carolina rigged croaker at a short stop on some Black Bay structure. JULY 2003 JUNE 2003
June 20,21, 2003- Kevin Raby along with his group including Ken Hanson, Jim Jancik, Mike Mooney, John Fridley, and Lane Tucker. This great group of guys have been fishing with me since 2000, and as usual it was great fun having them back to fish and hang out with me down at Delacroix Island. Our first morning out was a stormy one to start but it wasnt too long before the weather had passed and we were into the specks. Live shrimp rigged under floats were the ticket to some huge trout today. Kevin had boated 2 of his all-time biggest specks. One 25.5 inches and the other "Big Girl" pushing past 6 lbs at 27" and a huge girth. Lots of other monster trout were caught on Friday as well as we did not achieve the limit but we were working on a second 90 qt chest by mid-morning. Ken and Jim were certainly contributing as well. Jim expertly battled a beast of a Jack Crevelle in the 20-25# class on light tackle. We took a quick image of this guy and released it to do battle another day. The next morning we were all chomping at the bit and ready to do another days battle with the monster specks. This day would turn out to be a strugglle for us as the steady bite would just not materialize. We would start off with positive action on nice specks as the day before, but the action would just not get started. We visited numerous areas and the competition with other boats was incredible as it is this time of year on weekends. We noticed only a few boats out of the armada of hulls we found at the numerous areas we visited, doing any business on specks at all. Capt. Miltons' Boat was out with half of Kevins group, managed to get on a decent bite in the area he fished at yesterday and tried to contact me and my guys to get over there but our great cellular systems seemed to be on the fritz with all of the air traffic and weather we were experiencing and we could not make the connection. Totals for the 2 days was 164 beautiful specks mostly averaging 2 lbs each, but many in the 4-6 lb class, and many other mixed fish including redfish, spanish mackerel, lady fish, jack crevelle, and sheepshead. Once again I would like to thank all of the guys from the "Hot Lanta" area. These Georgia boys are always great fun and a pleasure to fish with. I am looking forward to fishing with some of these guys again around Thanksgiving. June 16,17, 2003- Monday morning was an absolutely gorgeous one with Dave Scott and youngsters Joshua and Gregory all from Springfield, MO., down for two days of fishing. We got an early start on this morning and upon arrival at our destination, the specks were hitting the deck of the boat and filling the chest. Live shrimp under floats and also carolina rigged shrimp were the ticket to 72 speckled trout up to five pounds. Some specks were also taken with tightlined bass assasins. The next day was not as pretty. The weather was stormy and we waited out some of the rain before heading out. I had procured some croaker for this trip to get the guys on some Big Girls, and then they wanted to try to get on redfish today as they had enough trout filets from the previous trip. I have been struggling on redfish for quite sometime now. For some reason they are not in the usual honey holes. The bay was pretty rough but we arrived safely and started offering free-lined and carolina rigged croaker. We did manage to get into some big trout but not what we were really looking for. The bay was too rough to visit other structures, so we fished out all 25 of the croaker we had at this rig. The bay would remain rough for the entire day as a low pressure system that has been stationary over N/E Texas had started moving east and numerous small impulses of energy would keep forming over our area the entire day. The marsh continues to be a struggle for redfish. We found only a few and Joshua had broke off on a nicer redfish that really had the drag screaming. We spent the entire morning and early afternoon covering a lot of ground in search of the elusive reds. We also caught specks, flounder, sheepshead, and black drum. Thanks Dave for taking Gregory and Joshua along for the trip. I had a lot of fun fishing with you guys and I certainly hope to be fishing with you agin real soon. June 12,13,14, 2003-Thursday, being a real blustery day, my group would be confined to the marsh to fish. There was a slow bite almost everywhere we went but just couldn't seem to find anything real consistant. But Roger Blackwell of Petal, Ms, along with his buddies Wayne, Craig and Mike, did manage to fill the chest with a mix of real nice bull reds, beautiful flounder, great grilling black drum and some keeper specks. They are looking forward to coming back soon and gettin' on a mess of specks. Friday mornings conditions would be even worse to start. Torrential rains were all over the Delacroix Island area and would remain until mid-morning. We got away from the dock to fish the marsh and watch the weather but only managed one nice redfish and a few breaking off, and a real nice soaking. I just couldnt keep Matt Glatt at the dock just a while longer. Those live crokers swimming in the well were just too much for him to stand and we left just a bit too soon. Matt was joined by his buddy Jon Folse, and Rinaldo Fiorello was also aboard for the early morning soaking. But the skies would eventually clear and the wind gods would provide an open door for a jaunt out to Black Bay where our presentations of freelined and carolina rigged croakers, and live shrimp would be eaten up by some hefty trout. It wasn't too long before the bait well was empty and the ice chest full of gorgeous speckled trout. Saturday, my guests Paul Stelly, daughter Clair and his buddy John Aslakson, all of the New Orleans area, got a real early start. We arrived at my predetermined area at 6:00 a.m. and at 8:15 we were headed back to the dock with our limit of beautiful specks in the 15-21" class. No need to measure any of these beauties. This one stop shop would be the best speckled trout trip ever for Paul who has chartered boats a few times in the S/E Louisiana area. These guys kept me real busy but I managed to "sneak" a few casts and get into the awesome action myself. Live shrimp rigged under floats and rigged carolina would be the only two presentations used on this very succesful morning. June 10, 2003 - What a great day on the water with some real special folks. Bill Reiss along with his 11 year old neice, "Trout Terror" Taylor, and his 10 year old grand-daughter "Speck Meister" Sarah, all from the Great State of Kentuky, were aboard for a real speckled trout slam. The girls kept me and Bill extremely busy baiting casting netting and boxing some really nice trout in the 13-22" class. Bill and I barely had time to wet a line the entire trip as Sarah and Taylor just kept putting it to the hard fighting specks. Their offerings of live shrimp rigged under floats would be the ticket to obtaining a packed icechest by late morning. All of the fish caught at our hotspot were keeper specks. Not even one catfish would find their baits. Taylor had hooked into one of these specks and it managed to snap the line 15 feet above the knot on her slip cork rig. With the cork still showing a hooked trout, Taylor convinced the trout to swim toward the boat, and "lo and behold" the fish seemingly obeyed her wishes and swam right to the boat where Bill would grab the line above the float and then retrieve the leader and soon after this nice specimen of a speck would be socializing with the crowd in the box. "When it's good, it's good!" I really had a great time fishing with Bill, Sarah and Taylor. The wide smiles on their faces would be all of the proof needed to say that they had an awesome time on this great fishing day. Oh, by the way Bill and I did manage to catch about 6 of the 75 specks we had today. Great Job Girls! You guys were awesome. Titelines!! June 7, 2003- Today was a real tough start on Black Bay with S/S/W winds blowing steady at 18 knots and gusting slightly more. There were 3' seas and a few rouge 4's. But this did not discourage a large group of guys I was helping out Capt. Warren Dudenheffer with.Three of his group were aboard for this slow and rough start but we did manage to get on a bite with carolina rigged croaker. Fishing in water 7' deep, and surprisingly not too stained from the rough seas, the bite would be on and off but the beautiful 2-5# specks that the guys were boxing would most assuredly make up for the slow but steady bite. We managed to nearly fill the chest with 32 of these big girls but had to cut the trip a bit short as Capt. Dude alerted us of some bad weather heading out our way. Capt. Dude told me later that day that the guys in the group had managed to place 1st at the Fais-Do-Do rodeo in the 5 speck stringer category, 2nd in the largest Speckled Trout, and 1st in the Black Drum. Congratulations to the winners!! My thanks to Capt. Dude for allowing me to join in on the fun with this great group of guys. MAY 2003 May 28th, 2003- My guests today were Harland Massey and his buddy Leon of Mississippi, along with Rinaldo Fiorello of New Orleans. With the forecasts being 8-15 knots and seas 1-2 feet we ventured out to Black Bay only to find that the weatherman had it wrong today. The N/E winds were a steady 15-18knots and seas were 2-3 feet. We rocked and rolled on the waves for most of the early morning fishing a real tough bite on specks. We also fished a few rigs that, in this wind direction, we would not be as uncomfotable fishing. Surprisingly at these rigs the water was not too stained, but the bite on big specks remained slow. By late morning the numbers were starting to add up but the action was slow and never really picked up. The noon hour brought some slacking of the wind and the only thing we could do from here on out was to locate school trout under birds. This was the ticket as we did manage to find several flocks and got into a lot of action. A lot of the trout were undersized but there were also a good number of keeper specks and quite a few going up to 15 inches. We easily could have gotten the limit of specks if we had continued this but it was getting late and the guys had a long drive back to North Mississippi to get to work the next day. Not too bad for the rough conditions as we ended the trip with 54 specks. I am looking forward to an evening trip with all of these guys in July. Titelines!! May 24, 2003- It doesn't get any better than this!!-Cool temps, good conditions, a live well full of beautiful croakers, and 3 great guys to fish with out in Black Bay. Gerry Tetreau of Providence, RI...Pat Swann of Thousand Oaks, CA...and Jim Hart of Vineland, NJ were my guests onboard today for a SOW TROUT SLAM. Fishing structure with carolina rigged croaker was the ticket once again to getting the BIG GIRLS. The bite was never real fast but it was certainly steady all morning long and by late morning we were headed in with an over stuffed chest with speckled trout mostly over the 20inch mark and many in the 3-5 lb. class. These hungry monsters were ripping drag off of the light tackle rigs the guys were using and had the rods doubled over like big redfish. Jim says he fishes weakfish along the east coast but has never caught any seatrout like the ones they were catching today. My buddies had reported to me that they did a speck slam as well today using nothing but plastics near an island in B/Bay. The specks are really in right now and the birds are everywhere for you school trout enthusiasts. Limits of trout can be taken at will, but most of my clients are apt to stay with the slower action but big pay-off on huge sow trout. I am still finding that the overall average size of the sow trout right now are still running smaller that they were in the few years past but the season is still very early and there will be a lot more monster trout caught to be able to size up this season as a whole. In 1999- 2001, my guests were into lots more of the 5-6 lb. class fish and a few going over 7lb. The water was surisingly pretty out in the bay with the wind being up for the last couple of days with the passage of a late season front. The storms that had roared through the area last October have really seemed to clean up the river silt off of the bottom and as a result, the water does not stain as easily nor stay stained as long when it does. I am looking forward to a stellar season for speckled trout out in Black Bay this year, so give me a call to get in on the great action for monster trout that the Delacroix Island area has to offer. Toll free: 1.877.847.7846 Titelines!! May 21, 2003- Another fantastic day!! Don Cox of Covington, La. was my guest today. Don has been onboard quite a few times with me, and is a real pleasure to be out fishing with. Out first casts with offerings of free-lined croaker out in Black Bay, were immediately met by some very nice specks and a few monsters as well. The few live shrimp that were in the well did not produce any fish at all, except for hardheads. We did not stay on the water long as the 40 specks we boxed topped the 90 qt cooler off, and the weather really started threatening from the N/W. We made one quick stop in the marsh looking for the redfish that have been eluding me of late, but our rushed effort only yeilded one pretty flounder. 15 of the specks we caught were 3-5 lbs. and the rest were in the 15-21" class. Did not see any bird activity in B/Bay to speak of but they are thick out to the west with plenty of keeper specks underneath. Hopefully this wind with the passage of this late season cool front will die off for my w/end trip. I will post on our results. May 14, 2003- What a great day on the water. The high winds have quelled and the waters out in Black Bay are setteled out and teeming with lots of speckled trout. My guests arrived promptly at 6:00 and we were off to get on some of the awesome action on those big specks. Chuck and Mark Russell both of Petal, Ms., were joined by Don Harvey of Brooklyn, Ms. As soon as we arrived at pur destination the guys were immediately hooked up with some big trout. Their carolina rigged presentations of croaker would be the ticket to lots of double and triple hook-ups. This awesome action on these big specks would yield 30 19-22inch trout but the action would come to a dead halt. The tide would be the culprit here, and after a couple more of willing specks taking our baits we opted to get on the school trout. The action was fast and furious at times on these school trout mostly in the 12-13 inch class but there were several that were boated in the 15-16" class. With the 90 qt cooler maxed out, we turned our attention to the marsh to once again try for, what has lately been a slow bite, on redfish. The cycle on the redfish continues to be slow in the marsh, but the guys were able to get hooked up on 2 nice grill sized reds 19-22" along with other mixed fish. I am anticipating the redfish to start showing up in good numbers at any time, but in the meanwhile the great action for big specks will definitely fill in the interim. Give me a call at toll free: 1.877.847.7846 to get in on the great action for big speckled trout that the Delacroix Island area has to offer. The summer time session has begun but will only get much better as we roll into the month of June. Titelines!! May 8,9, 2003-With south winds still blowing hard for the last 5 days and no sign of letting up, you can only relent to fishing the protection of the marsh. This is not where you really want to be fishing this time of year, as the trips that we were able to make to the outer bays in open water have been very successful. The wind has been blowing so hard and non stop, even fishing in the marsh, it has been tough to find good water. Matt Glatt of Mandeville, LA., joined by Joe Hutzler of Delacroix Is., LA. were onboard on Thursday. We had a bit of a tough go to start, but it wasn't too long before Matt had his rod doubled over and drag screaming on a hook up and eventual landing of a beast of a redfish. This 40# beauty would top the 25lb. mark and the 12- minute battle that Matt underwent with this monster on light tackle was a thing of beauty. We had visited a few spots and covered a lot of area looking for suitable water conditions, and came a cross a few fish while doing so. Then came across a spot deep in the marsh and found some real pretty and FAT SPECKS. They were eating up our carolina rigged presentations of live croaker. We ended up with 30 speckled trout 12-20 inches, 2 real nice flounder, and a 40inch redfish. On Friday Matt was back on board with his partner Marty Berhyl also of Mandeville, LA. After a late start and a live well full of croaker we started up where we had finished the day before but to no avail. The last of the falling tide moving water against the wind had really stained the water up in this area and as a result there was absolutely no bite. We had visited a number of different areas and could only manage a couple of flounder. After a few hours and little results, the tide had changed and we would end up back at our original destination and found the water conditions much more suitable and we finaly found a bite. The action was only fair and we were timing out on the trip but we managed to catch a nice mess of trout, and a good 21" redfish. After a pretty good trip yesterday this follow up trip fell a bit short but it was certainly great catching up with Matt and Marty again. The weather forecasts this morning were showing light at the end of the tunnel, as winds are forecast to lay down on Sunday. I have a few trips coming up next week starting on Monday. From what is materializing with the conditions we may be able to once again fish where the fish are. I will report on my findings. Until then, Titelines!! May 3, 2003- Today I had a great group of guys out of the Jackson, MS area. Joe Poe and his group had a great time out on the water. Leon Payton, C.R. Williamson, and Mr. Ray were the anglers aboard my boat and the rest of the guys were out with Capt. Gene Dugas and Warren "Capt. Dude" Duddenhefer. The west flow at the surface was not a big concern as it was not blowing too hard, and immediately the guys were hooked up with some super specks. Carolina rigged croaker would be the ticket to boarding 12 specks as fast as they could get their baits in the water, but this bite came to a screeching halt and we would have to look at other structure. It was pretty much the same result at our second stop but a few more quality than the first stop. The bite was funny on these big trout averaging 20-22" with some topping the 4lb. mark. Constantly changing presentations and tossing out tight-lined bass assassins would help keep the bite going. Everytime the guys gave the big trout something different to look at they would get on fish, but each of the different presentations would not keep a good bite going for long. A third stop at another of my favorite areas would produce the most fish of the day for my group. The specks in this area were all male trout and smaller in average size but the 14-16" fish caught here were definitely adequate. Not quantity but quality as the 44 speckled trout we ended up with topped off the 90 qt. chest. The season for specks is under way out in Black Bay but no way near peaking. It is still early and the birds are starting to show in good numbers. We had passed up some pretty big flocks of birds on the way in and the school trout were definitely there. The guys were great and they all had a good time staying at the Destination Delacroix Camps that are the great on-site accommodation that I use for my customers. I want to, once again thank Capt Gene and Capt. Dude for their help on this excursion. I have some trips coming up next week and will report on my findings. Give me a call at toll free: 1.877.847.7846 to get in on the awesome action and good times that the Delacroix Island, La. area has to offer. Titelines!! May 1, 2003- Today was a great day to be on the water. I had Mike and Pia Curtis from Honululu, Hawaii along with Lyn Elder from Petaluma, Ca. onboard for this trip. We started out fishing under birds that we had come across, but those 12-13" fish that were released, did not hold my interest for long but everyone got a little spinning reel 101 and we headed to stucture armed with 100 live croaker.Our freelined and carolina rigged presentations of these baits started producing big trout right from jump and continued until the baits were gone. Mike, Pia, and Lyn had a great time catching these big trout up to 4lbs. with the smallest speck boated was 16". The majority of these hard fighting speckled trout were 2-3lbs. We could easily have limited by returning to or boxing the smaller school trout that were under the birds, but they really enjoyed the quality of the 44 specks we ended up with. The crokers are still a bit small but if you rig very light they are able to do their thing. I am using wide gap feather light hooks on 15lb Big Game mono for leader and either split shot or 1/4oz egg sinkers for carolina rigs. Quite a few of these big girls were taken on tight-lined offerings of assassins as well. If you want a lot of action on specks, Black Bay is the ticket for big trout on structure or school trout under the birds. The shrimp are just starting to show right now and the action will only get better as the summer approaches. Give me a call at toll free: 1.877.847.7846 to get in on the fun. I still have open dates for May and June, and great on-site accommodations are available. You will be glad you did!! Titelines!! APRIL 2003 April 22,24, 2003- Tuesday was a trip that I had with anticipation of getting back on some of the great speckled trout action I have been having in Black Bay. Dave Johnson of Fernley, NV along with his brother Ron of the Seattle, WA area were my guests for the day. The weatherman really got it wrong today as forecasts were E/S/E 10-15 seas 1-3' with zero percent chance of rain. Well the wind blew in excess of 18 knots and gusted to over 20. After discovering the bad seas and unfavorable water conditions, we headed for the marsh and would fish the perimeter in hopes of getting outside to fish structure. Very little action on the perimeter but after the lightning and rain I hoped that the wind would lay. NOTT! By mid-morning I knew we would have to commit to the marsh and by this time the falling tide had ceased and was now pouring in with a 20 knot east wind behind it. We did manage some real nice fish but not good numbers. The guys worked very hard with me and we covered a lot of area for our fish. On Thursday, Peter and Maggie from The Big Apple, along with their buddy Butch from The Big Easy were on board once again. They had fished with me in January and wanted more of what the Delacroix Island Marsh can produce. They had caught some monster reds then along with an icechest full of other mixed fish on a tough low water day. The forecast was not at all a good one with S/E 20 shifting to S/W 20-25 and a 70% chance of rain late. But as far as fishing goes this would be the better day of the next 2 so off we went. The conditions on their last trip with me was calm winds but no water...this trip was just the opposite. I did arm the bait well for the first time this year with a few good croaker and some cocahoes as well. We found a fair bite in a deep water area by rigging live bait carolina. The bite on specks was slow but the trout were nice sized. Also, a herd of large sailcat moved in and were taking our baits. A slight repositioning of the boat certainly helped in the fast moving tide that was opposed by the 20 kt breeze creating a bit of difficulty in presentation but we were catching some beautiful specks up to 4#. Peter was very impressive catching 7 specks up to 21" on a fly rod. His expert presentation of various colors of clouser minnow patterns would do the trick in what would have to be some of the most super-tough conditions to be working a flyrod in. Live bait did catch the smaller share of our chest full of fish, but tight-lined presentations of various Bass Assassins, as well as rigged under floats would be king. By late-morning, winds were gusting close to 30knots, and we went to another more protected area to continue. The guys got into another mess-o-specks but with the tide dwindling by noon the bite would slow and we would have to reposition in this area to keep a bite going. We ended our trip with 36specks 14-24" with quite a few of these egg laden beauties going 3 and 4 pounds and mixed fish topping the chest.This second area was really holding a good mess of specks and Maggie and Butch were doing well with the live and artificial baits, but, Peter being as good as he was with a fly-rod, I could only guess but I do believe our count on fish could have been better if he had been fishing conventional tackle. But you know about those fly-heads. These specks were the biggest of the season and the batteries in my digital camera went south, but Butch and Maggie did take a bunch of good images on their digital so I will be posting images in a couple of days for this trip. April 15, 2003- Sorry about the late report.....Just before the wind really picked up on Wednesday, I made an evening trip out to Black Bay in search for the big trout that have been there for a few weeks. I started around 7:00p.m. and tight-lined presentations of Bass Assassins would immediately yield trout after trout. Most were small 13-14" fish but the action was great. Water visibility was about 12" and seas were rolling but not capping. I visited to rigs this evening and yielded 30 specks and lots of 12" fish were returned. My partner Irvin Roy had never fished out in the Bay at night and loved every minute of it. There was little and no water movement in this 2.5 hr excursion and we were back at the dock for 10:30. There were a few good sows caught in the 18-19" range but nothing bigger than that. A few trout were also caught under floats as well. I'll be on vacation for the next few days but will be fishing hard when I return. Sorry no images for this trip.
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