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| Past Fishing Reports April - September 2004 SEPTEMBER 2004 AUGUST 2004
August 19, 2004- This morning we were able to get outside into open waters and fish speckled trout. and what a morning it was. I fished with Steve Hudson of Covington, La. and Jerry Lee of Kenner, La. Our first area to visit certainly looked "fishy", and it was..Jerry and Steves' first presentations with tight-lined Saltwater Assassins would immediately hook-up with monster jack crevelle. These guys are a great fight on light tackle, but do not serve well as table fare. Once these guys are hooked up and do battle with you, you can forget about any trout being around, much-less feeding. Our next stop would be paydirt in a big way on beautiful specks. The guys were throwing the plastic at 'em and I would offer freelined live croakers to boat and box a fine mess of these silver beauties. After a great time on these hard fighting and tasty swimmers, we would be in search for redfish. We did find a couple at some rig structure out in the bay, and also a few more real big sow trout that were caught and released. We then focused on the marsh, where I have been having success with our targeted fish. After a couple of blanks we approached an area that was holding some of the drag smokin' reds we were hunting. We put a few of these in the box in the 22-24" class, running 4-6#, and released some bulls as well. Speaking of smokin', if you haven't experienced, the culinary spectacular, grilled redfish, you are missing out on some of the finest tasting fish to ever come off of a grill. Jerry, Steve and I had a great time on the water as we usually do, and had a good box of fish to boot. Thanks guys! The bull reds are abundant in the marsh, and big speckled trout, are all around the outer rigs and reefs right now in fairly good numbers. Good sized live croaker and shrimp are available and are now giving access the fast action of these hard fighting and tasty swimmers. Give me a call at 1.877.847.7846 to book your redfish and trout slammin' trip out in the bays, marsh, and Breton Sound. You will be glad you did!! Titelines!! August 16, 2004-We had a fantastic day on the water today. My guests were Bill Cole and Edmond Artigue both hailing from the "Big Easy". With the winds still up and open waters stained, I kept my sights on the marsh today and our target was redfish. After a slow start in the areas that I scouted, we continued on the hunt. The main thing to look for is the feed. When you find the schools of mullet you have found the fish. By mid-morning things were starting to improve as the incoming tide really got cranking in behind a good E/SE breeze. We came across an area that was loaded with schools of mullet, and as soon as our lines hit the water, the rods would double over and the drags were smokin'. It did not take long to get our limit of these bronze beauties. The huge jack crevelle were also amidst the schools of mullet and really puttin' a bad hurtin' on the mullet as well. Within casting distance from the boat you would hear a huge uproaring of the schools of baitfish as the jacks worked them over. They really put on a show for us. Persistance really paid off in a big way today as we found the fish just after mid-morning. The cool weather and breeze gave all a bit more staying power, as the conditions this time of year usually have us heading to the barn by 11:00. We ended the trip before noon with 15 reds 20-30", and other mixed fish were caught as well. Lots of juvenille redfish, lady fish, 2 beautiful flounder, and speckled trout. All of the huge jacks that tested our lines broke off, which was a good thing as they did not spook our fish, as they normally would.
August 9,11, 2004-On Monday I had a real fun group of guys from Brookhaven, MS. onn board. Joshua Watts, and his pals Joey and Chico would be the crew on this "iffy" day. After the passage of a freak cold front through our area a couple of days ago, it would back up out of the Gulf and a low pressure system would form on this front at the mouth of the Mississippi River. This system really got the winds howling from 20-25 knots on Saturday evening and continued through 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, as per the real-time data I obtained from a U.S.G.S. site near our area that we fish. To be able to obtain this data from my remote location is an invaluabe tool that I often use, as I reside over 100 miles from the Delacroix Island area. This would put a real hamper on the trout fishing as we were not going to be able to get out in open water to fish Breton Sound structures, where we have been getting on some great action for beautiful speckled trout, and bull reds. Even the water conditions that we found inside of the perimeter of the marsh were stained and visability would be low. But the guys were able to get on a good bunch of fish including bull reds (over 27"), 18-22" reds, trout, black drum, and other mixed fish. They obtained their limits of bull reds, and we also had to release some as well. Thanks guys! See ya next time. Wednesday morning would be another "iffy" day to be able to fish conditions. With tropical storm "Bonnie" churning 300 miles south of New Orleans, and looking back to the water conditions from Monday, we decided to make the trip and stay within the confines of the marsh to fish reds. Jeremy and Brian Jungling both from Iowa, boarded at 6:00 a.m. and we were off to the races. To my surprise, the winds were relatively calm, and I decided to get out to some islands out in Black Bay in hopes that the water conditions would have improved. The only other thing I was concerned about was the time of launch, (I normally get away from the dock at 4:30-4:45 a.m. in the summer) and I did not obtain any live croaker from my bait vendor. The bait well was only armed with live shrimp today as I anticipated a marsh trip for reds today. Upon our arrival at the islands we found water conditions "doable" and the scout was on for specks. After a blank at one island, we would hit paydirt at our second stop on some real nice specks up to 20". They were inhaling our presentations of live shrimp and assassins rigged 14" under floats. The great action would continue for Jeremy and Brian as we slowly covered the area with the trolling motor. But the action would quell as the suns angle rose. In late summer, the specks will feed early in the shallows, but quickly receed to the cooler depths and scatter. We headed back to the marsh to finish up on reds, but found that they had moved from all of the areas that we had caught in a couple of days ago. We searched in vain until noon boxing only one good 20" red, and then headed for the dock. Brian and Jeremy were extremely pleased with a good mess of nice trout. I must say that I was also pleased as well with the catch considering alll of the uncertainty of the conditions of late. There is still another Hurricane approaching the Gulf now and it will be closely watched. My trips in the near future will be done on a wait and see basis, as these storms can really wreak havoc on the fishing conditions even if they are not going to make a nearby landfall. Thanks Jeremy and Brian...I really enjoyed my day out fishing with you. JULY 2004
July 28,29, 2004- My guests on Wednesday were James Hyatt and son James Jr. and Vic Van and son Jason, all of New Orleans. We got a great start out this morning and arrived at our destination just before sun-up after a fairly bouncy ride in the 2' seas. This stop drew a blank for all of us after trying numerous presentations of live croaker and shrimp while working the area over pretty good. It would be the same story for the next area as well. But after arriving at our third area we would hit some paydirt. Jason would hook up with and do battle with a pretty good redfish. He did a great job getting this fish into the net and put her to rest in the box. Finally we broke the ice, then a couple of hefty specks found our baits and the ice chest as well. The hardhead catfish would really start taking over at this gas well, and our efforts would be drawn to the next well in the area. We found a better concentration of good speckled trout at this well, and the offerings of freelined croaker seemed to be getting the trout to bite the best. Everyone was contributing good fish to the box at this well. Speckled trout, redfish, sheepshead, and lady fish at this well. Although the bite on good fish for the ice-chest would never be totally consistant, we would remain at this spot and start to slowly add to the catch. Then the lady fish would show up and really started to put on a show. These 2-3# acrobatic swimmers would hit our baits and really start to tear it up. These fish do put up a great battle on light tackle, but are not very desireable table fare. We repositioned the boat at the next well and were now fishing with no water movement at all and the surface temperature of the water was really starting to warm up. We did manage a few more good specks here and would then turn our attention to the marsh. Our final stop for the day would produce some black drum and a monster sheepshead for Jason. It was a good day for quality time on the water with good friends and the kids. The next day It was back out to the same area. With real calm seas and an early start we arrived 30 minutes before sunup. Don Cox of Covington, La was my guest today. Immediately, our presentations of freelined croaker had the big trout coming to the boat. This was looking like a trout slam after we went 6 for 6. We had great conditions, but the bite would slow and we had to change up our presentations. The bite would start again after our offerings of live shrimp on slip floats and popping corks. The trout were mixed in size on the surface but the action started up again. We had a pretty good mess of trout in the box and decided to look at some other wells for the big trout. This would be the ticket as we would find a few real nice specks and reds at almost each well we visited. The morning would end for us after doing battle with a few monster bull reds that were schooled up on a well we came across. We kept our legal limit and caught and released a few after taking a quick image. Don ended up with his legal limit of real nice specks and bull reds we had caught a couple of reds under the 27" mark and they would also add to the talley. Lots of smaller specks in the 12-13" class were released. We probably could have caught a slew of these school trout, but opted to scout for the big trout with success.We headed to the barn with the heat really starting to build on this windless day at 10:00 July 21,22, 2004- These last 2 days are showing vast improvment in the Black Bay and Breton sound areas. It has been real tough out here for the last 4-5 weeks with the Mississippi River staying real high and its delta swelling into our fishery. And to add insult to injury, the rainfall amounts during the last week of June and first 2 weeks of July, did not help the situation at all. This influx of river and rain water, really gets the salinity index going like a roller coaster, and in turn this will keep the feed and our beloved speckled trout on the move. With the river now at an acceptable level and the rainfall really dropping off, the specks are really starting to show up again in good numbers and size and are really starting to turn on. My last 2 trips out in Breton Sound with Jerry Lee, Frank Gee, Mark Richardson and Mary, all of New Orleans, La. produced a lot of good action. The summation of these 2 trips was over 70 speckled trout mostly in the 2-3# class, 3 bull redfish over 20#, and some smaller 18-20" reds and black drum in the perimeter of the marsh. Mark and Marys' trip was the motherload. We fished the same area that I had fished the day before, but this trip really turned into a trout slammaramma. Before sunup we were nailing some real hefty specks on freelined croaker, and just after sunup the specks would suspend to about a 4-5' depth in 8' of water. Then our presentations of live shrimp rigged 4-5' under floats would keep us in the action for the next 2 hours. The only interruptions in the action was a few hookups with some behemoth redfish. After those screaming drags and doubled over rods would come the jubilant cries of forearm cramps, then the netting and boxing of these hard fighting brutes. By 9:00 a.m. we were done Mark and Mary had their legal limits of speckled trout and bull reds, and we headed for the dock.
JUNE 2004
MAY 2004
May 7,8, 2004-My guests on Friday were Dr. Charlie Illawan of Covington, La., along with his bro-in-law Mark hailing from the state of Florida, and Rinaldo, Fiorello of New Orleans. We had obtained some real pretty croaker for this trip and it certainly paid off with some real hefty sow trout, mostly in the 3-4 lb. class with a couple reaching the 5 lb. mark. The feed on carolina rigged croaker was real fast early but would slow after an hour of pretty good action. Charlie butted heads with a monster of a redfish in the same area after a slight re-positioning of the boat. We got a pretty good look at this big red as Charlie got the big fish to turn after she nearly spooled the 10lb. mono from the light tackle spinning rig, but she had made a nother hard run once she got sight of the boat and dragged the line over a bed of some clustered oysters and she would swim free. From what I could see of this big red she was 30-32" and was in the 12-15 lb. class. After our trout bite was over, I suggested a run to the Delacroix marsh to see about getting on to some flounder and more specks. The cycle on flounder in our area this year has been the best I have seen in over 5 years. The bite on these delectible flat guys has been better on the falling tide, but we would give it a try anyway as my last trip in the marsh paid off pretty good on trout with the incoming tide. No serious bites would develop for us after a number of stops but we did manage to put more fish in the box. We ended our day with 39 beautiful specks 13-27", and a couple of good flounder. These guys will have another "bout with the trout" in a few weeks, when the bait should be even better and live shrimp will be in the mix as well. My Saturday trip was almost a repeat of the Friday trip, with the exception of a lot more boat traffic. Randy, Ken, Josh, Kevin and "sharky", all from the Shreveport, La. area were my guests. We got a real early start and arrived at the chosen area before sun-up. Offerings of carolina rigged croaker would immediately start the pay-off with some beautiful specks making their way to the boat. We did not get into the big girls as we did the day before but the male trout that were present were all in the 14-17" class, with a few sows in the 17-21" class. We bounced around to a few different rigs and various other structures and managed a few real nice sows and a good red with our efforts at some of these stops. Back-tracking to our starting area would pay again with a slow bite but a bite none the less. The guys really worked hard today for their catch and did well boxing 37 specks 14-21", an 8 lb. redfish, and other mixed fish as well, nearly topping off the 120 qt. chest. Thanks a lot guys! You were all a lot of fun to fish with and I am looking forward to your return trips with me.
May 5, 2004-Great day on the water with my guest Matt Glatt and Jim Pemberton of Covington, La. We started off a bit slow fishing the drains in Oak River. The falling tide was coming to an end and the water movement almost non-exsistant. Buy a few stops did wind up paying off with some good specks, flounder and reds. With the live bait dilema we are faced with at present, the only thing swimming in the bait well was cocahoe minnows. If croaker would have been available my first area targeted would have been Black Bay. Next area would be working back down river(to find moving water)at a drain just off of Bakers' Bay. This would pay off in a good number of specks in the 13-17" class....the majority of these beauties were in the 13-14" class with quite a few going 15-17". All of these trout were caught carolina rigging cocahoe minnows in 5-7' of water. The bite would be fast at times and then fall off but as the trout would move in the bite would return. Just to change things up a bit, we would start targeting flounder and reds again. This also had a bit of success as more flounder were soon flopping in the chest. A quick run to Black Bay would also pay with a few quality fish. 2 beautiful 20" specks and a good flounder ia all we could muster after a few stops. On the way in there were a few big flocks of birds working on some shrimp, but there were only juvenille trout feeding under them. We ended our day with 46 specks 13-20", 2 reds, and a dozen beautiful flounder. We also lost a few real pretty trout and flounder at the boat. Thanks a lot Matt and Jim for a real fun day on the water, and we will see you again"reel" soon. In fact I have so much fun with Matt and Jim, I forget I am at work and totally forgot to take images of the beautiful fish that we caught. Sorry about that! I have trips coming up for Friday and Saturday and will post my findings and images. APRIL 2004 April 26,27,28, 2004- Finaly back on the water after 16 days of down time in the shop. You got it right over 2 weeks of NO FISHING!! I was going through withdrawls on this one. I would have had to reschedule my trips in the interim anyway as the conditions continued to keep boats confined to the protection of the marsh, where the transitional season is still ongoing in the marsh. There are some real good specks in the marsh as well and some hefty flounder as my guests would discover, but we really had to cover some area and work hard for our fish. "Snowbirds" Patti and Dennis Heikkinen from the upper peninsula of Michigan, Stephenson, MI to be exact, would be aboard for these 3 fairly tough days of fishing the marsh. Patti and Dennis were a real fun couple to be with, and their fishing skills were definitely sharp as the guys were successful boating and boxing a wide variety of southeast Louisiana species of fish. They caught bull reds up to 12 lbs., speckled trout 13-20", lots of gorgeous flounder up to 4 lbs., lots of freshwater "blue cats", sailcat, gar, stingray, and croaker. Almost all of our fish were caught in Oak River fishing the drains and sloughs while carolina rigging live croaker and cocahoe minnows in 6-8' of water. We were really in hopes of being able to get out in the bays, outer islands, and reefs to get some serious speck fishing in, but the strong winds would be relentless and would keep us within the confines of the marsh for all 3 days. If there was any "downside" to these days fishing with Patti and Dennis, I guess that would be it because we all had a great time fishing and viewing lots of wildlife including a rare sighting of some Pink Spoonbill, and alligator.
April 3,4, 2004- Major quality on specks today....not quite as good in numbers as I have had as of late but the specks that Billy and Dave got on today were super nice fish. Billy Howell, hailing from Praieview, TX and his buddy Dave were my guests today. After another start of the day with Spining Reel 101 and Tightlining 101 these guys were off to the races with early fast action on really good specks. Their offerings of tightlined assassins had the big specks flooping in the boat in short order. Both of the guys were impressive, but Dave seemed to go from novice at start-up, to pro towards the end of the day as he had the "hot-hand" nailing the prettiest specks of the day...I think Billy would have added a few different adjectives to the previous line. :) The absence of water movement and a fairly stiff N/E breeze kept the numbers and action down a bit, but that would not keep my crew down. We covered a lot of area to end the day with 23 real gorgeous specks 14-24". Thanks Bill and Dave...I truly enjoyed your trip out with me today and I am looking forward to our next outing. On the 7th Elbert and Betty Bivins from Jackson, MS were back with me...Elbert keeps up with my reports and emailed me to try and get a trip in. His business keeps him extremely busy this time of year and the only day he could fish was Sunday....knowing in advance of the neap tide situation that we would encounter, We tried to get another day in for them, but it just would not work out logistically. We got an early start to take full advantage of an early morning feed. With the big moon shining bright all night and the little bit of falling tide ending before our arrival, the earlier start would be to our advantage. The area that had been producing a good number of big trout would not give up one fish...not even a bump. We worked it really hard but to no avail. The second area would be a spot that I had not visited in a couple of weeks and it did give up 4 beautiful specks in the 17-19" class. The windless day and neap tide situation really created a tought scenario to go up against, and after a good bit of scouting area we could only muster up a few more smaller 13" trout. We then directed our attention to the perimeter of the marsh where I was surprised by some tidal activity. There was a narrow pass between 2 islands that was holding a pile of small trout, and there was a good bit of fast action on these little guys, but only 5 of them would make the mark. As we worked the adjacent shoreline of on of the islands we found much nicer specks, and would add to the tally. Then Elberts drag was suddenly screaming and his rod doubled over, as a 30" bull red engulfed his bait and ran for Cuba. "Ol" Elbert knew exactly what to do with the handling of this bronze beast and he would eventualy coax the huge fish right to the landing net. We continued to work this shoreline in hopes of getting on a few more of these monsters, but that would just not materialize for us. One more big fat speck would fall victim and then we headed to the dock with 16 trout 12-21" and one bull red. Elbert and Betty expressed what a good time they had with such a pretty day to be on the water and said their good byes thinking of when they will return. Lots of good specks and lots of bull reds are in the Delacroix Island area and are just a cast away. Give me a call to book your spring/summer session trip for that awesome action on big sow trout. You will be glad you did !! Titelines!! 1.877.847.7846. Great on-site accommodations are also available. April 1, 2004- Another great day on the water as Jason Lahr from Northfield, MN was my guest. We started late trying to fish the incoming tide and lines did not hit the water until 9:00. It was a slow start for us boxing 10 good specks for about 90 minutes of fishing time. The tide did not start moving until about 11:00 and when the water movement started, so did the specks and bull reds. We worked around a structure for about 2 hours tight-lining assassins steady hooking up with some real gorgeous specks and an occassional bull red in slightly stained 6' of water. What a lot of fun we had nailing these great fish. For a good part of this time of good water movement, it was "pitch-and-catch". We fell a few specks short of our 50 limit but our limit of bull reds came to the chest and a few others were hooked. Some broke us off and some were boated and released. Jason was a very good angler and once again made my job a piece of cake for the day.
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Titeline Charters, Delacroix Island
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