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Originally Posted by Slidellkid
Mathgeek and others. Thanks for the info.
Hell, I s*uck so bad I need to be in Mathgeek's class to catch anything.
I took the kids this morning and tried to fish near the end and on the outside of the east jetty. Man, that current was ripping. I was probably in the wrong place. We didn't catch anything. I had three kids with me and so fishing myself was impossible. I was constantly tying and retying lines and rigs. Kids were snagged on rocks, the bottom, anchor rope, each other and spent most of the time dropping their rods and running around the center console screaming to get away from a bumble bee that was checking them out. I thought I was gonna blow a gasket. I'm gonna have to take one kid at a time or teach them how to tie their own rigs.
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I'm not sure why, but our success outside the east jetty has been closer to the midpoint between the cut and the end rather than between the end and the red channel marker. I'm not sure if there just isn't a hole over there or if we haven't found the sweet spot or if the hole is over a spot where the current is so strong we can never put the bait in the hole. Outside the east jetty, the bait is finding a mud/sand bottom in the good spots rather than sitting on submerged jetty rocks.
Also, if the current is so strong a 4 or 6 oz sinker won't take your bait to the bottom, you probably need to adjust your location a bit so it will, probably further west on the west side (outside) and further east on the east side. There are times when the current in the channel is so strong that the flat (location 1 in the picture) is the only fishable location in the channel.
The jetties are hard to fish with children. When I was a child, the jetties were our favorite spot, but my dad would only take us on the calmest days, and we broke off a lot of fish, because he left the rigging and knot tying to us. Now, I take care of all the rigging, because fresh uni knots are important to landing nearly every fish once it is hooked well. My own children (12-14 now) are pretty tough, so we take a good long look and I get their input regarding whether they are willing to go and when they have had enough and want to go back in. I can take all three and we can fish 6-8 rods total because every angler knows exactly what there role is when someone hooks up. When a big fish is on, the children quickly reel all the other rods in, make them "safe" (put the hook in an eyelet with a bit of tension and get the rod in a holder), a "net man" is selected, and everyone else takes care to keep the boat balanced and be ready to assist of the fish gets into the anchor line, etc. Last time, we actually managed to land a few doubles (two hooked up at the same time) and also not lose several by passing rods under the anchor line to get the fish free.
But in their less experienced years, more than two was not easy, especially when targeting big fish or fishing rough water. I remember my son's first muskellunge (19 lbs 39"). We landed the fish, but it took me 45 minutes to untangle the lines (even cutting and retying), and I think we were only fishing 4-5 lines that evening.
We were fishing the pass at Grand Isle this week, and I got stung by a wasp putting the first bait out. Well, before everyone could get their baits out, I was hooked up with a big (38") redfish. The adrenaline totally nullified the pain and swelling of the sting. About half way through the battle, I couple of boats stopped to watch, honking their congratulations when we finally got it netted.
Once you learn the subtleties, you will consistently do well at the Cameron jetties. In five trips this year, we have boated 22 bull redfish and 3 black drum. There are stretches when you get a lot more black drum and gafftops too. Since we've been fishing the jetties regularly since 2000, we have never been skunked, with our worst day being a dozen big gafftops, two of which are pending Louisiana top ten records (3rd and 6th, I think). You can also add fish to the box with a live shrimp under a popping cork along the rocks, but the wind and current make this a high maintenance deal, and it is hard to manage a crab on the bottom at the same time.