Lagniappe from the Bayou

Headed down to New Orleans on Thursday night for a weekend of fishing the Louisiana marshes for giant reds with my buddy Capt. Christian Yergens of Shallow Water Expeditions. Had three days planned, and favorable weather, albeit cold and windy, forecasted for about half of that time.

Capt. Yergs at the helm

Day 1:

Cold and windy, just as NOAA had predicted. We let the sun warm the flats a little before heading out into the marsh. Shrimp po boy for breakfast, and then a half hour run through the creeks and canals that the area is littered with. Fished a new area and found plenty of slot fish that were built like footballs. Mainly cruising the mud flats, not a ton of tailing going on due to the cold temperatures. Not too many big fish around either, but we did catch reds up to 17 lbs and even a small black drum around 10 lbs or so.

Day 2:

Today's forecast looked a little better so we headed out earlier to take advantage of the calm winds. The temperature still did not break 55 all day, but we had some better sunlight that came and went in shifts. On our first flat were plenty of tailing slot fish, along with a few big fish showing. I blew a shot on a large redfish, but then rebounded when this 35lb black drum showed itself tailing.

Shortly thereafter, Christian was able to feed this 22lb redfish.

The winds picked up substantially in the afternoon and we got a good workout on the way home until we hit the canals.

Day 3:

Third and final day was supposed to be like day one, but instead the sun decided to show. This helped visibility and air temps quite a bit, and we were able to witness a good bit more activity than the previous two days. We fished a different area and did well early with a 23lb red on the first flat. Then we moved into a different bay where big schools of black drum and sheepshead were out sunning themselves. I caught a sheepshead about 8-10lbs on a big redfish fly, and Christian pulled a big red out of a group of 6 or so reds that were mixed in with some drum. Shortly thereafter, we moved over to another spot where we found a good number of "big" fish working the bank. By "big", we mean 30lb+. I fed a huge one fairly early, only to have it break me off during its first run to deeper water. As time drew near for us to leave so I could make my flight home, we found a couple more big reds moving around and I led a cruiser by a few feet and let the fly drop to his level. Once in position, I stripped a couple of times and watched the broad head of this large fish turn on the fly, follow it, and then eat about 10 feet from the bow of the boat. This fish made quite a few runs before I could finally turn it on its side and bring it to hand.

Weighed in at 36lbs on the 60lb boga grip. Hell of a way to end a great trip to the marsh.