11/1 - 11/3
November has been the typical month of fall fishing that it usually is, with inshore fishing being the top priority. At the beginning of the month, I had an opportunity to fish with Capt. Dennis Marshall of DMJ Charters. Capt. Dennis runs a Chandelier boat and needed some bay boats to take his customers wade fishing on the island. The weather was brutal and we had to move up to Cat Island but we found some willing trout and a pack of schooling reds to fill the stringers. Ended with 45 trout and 42 reds for the weekend. If you haven't heard about those kind of trips, they are pretty freakin awesome!
www.dmjcharters.com/
11/8 - 11/10
With the north winds blowing and back in my stompin grounds (Dularge), the search for trout came up short on my initial scouting mission so I switched gears and looked for reds. Cijii and I were in Lost Lake and was about to call it a day when I saw a few gulls hovering over a spit of marsh. The tide was low and the marsh had all drained into the lake, along with my enemy who had stacked up along the mud banks in just a few inches of water. As I moved in for inspection, I spotted the bronze backs humped out of the water, their tails fluttering amid the pogies and mullet scattering to find cover. High Life Tackle Blue Tiger swim baits found flesh on the first cast and the battles began. The reds were schooled up like a pile of red ants, leaving their homes in the empty duck ponds to find liveable water. In the heat of battle I got a call from my customer for the next day. When I told him I was on the fish Mr. Jack Whitehead dropped what he was doing and shot out the office for an afternoon trip. We caught and released several more and took it to the house. No need for explaining what happened that evening.
The next day was more of the same as described above only Jack had his son Michael and friend Dr. Cavanaugh on board.
Sunday I had a group from Wyoming that flew in for the weekend and wanted to catch and release. I was thinking of letting the reds rest but that actually worked out perfectly. We caught and released 7 reds that morning and then found some trout. I kept a few for the grease.
11/16 & 11/17
The north wind slacked up and the water levels had returned to normal during the week. Reports of a hot trout bite had my spirits up and the plan was targeting the speckled things all weekend. Saturday morning I had Jerrel Sullivan and Julie Bradford in from North Louisiana. With the tide falling steady and light wind, we left the dock in the dark hoping for a quick fun limit. First stop produced two trout and then I got a text from good friend Capt. Travis Miller who indicated he was hammering them around the corner. Easing up with the troll motor, I found him and his customers slinging trout as fast as they could throw. Then I heard him yelling "Stop Stop Stop....NO MORE!!!". It was 6:55 a.m. and he had his limit of 125. That's insane and my mind was blown. I waited for him to pack up and leave and before we could get on his spot, Jerrel and Julie were laying the smack down. I dropped the power pole and it was FISH ON. We immediately boated 50 trout and the bite died. No problem, I knew a spot right up the bayou where we wrecked 'em last year. Pulled up and it was on every cast. We left with 75 at 9:00 a.m. to look for reds and found some bonus largemouth bass! Jerrel, being a bass fisherman back at home was in hog heaven! He found a Spook Jr. in my tackle box and proceeded to put on a clinic! Not gonna lie, I'm not a bass fisherman and he schooled me. But, in the final moments of battle, one of Jerrel's topwater treble hooks somehow buried itself into the cuticle of his right index finger. By the looks of it, I only had one option. Jerrel knew exactly what I was going to do so he chugged a beer. I explained how many times I had done this before and told him it was like pulling teeth. I snipped a piece of mono about 18" long and carefully wrapped in on the shank of the hook. I told him to push down on the barb of the hook and said, "hey look there's a redfish tailing!". As he turned to look I yanked the hook right out of his finger like nothing happened. He never knew what hit him. After a few seconds, I said, "you want to know the truth?"......"I never did that before!!!" He laughed as he inspected his finger to make sure it was still there. Thanks to Capt. Marty Lacoste for setting up the trip.
Sunday morning was a fun trip and since I was on the trout, I called Capt. Dennis Marshall and his wife to come down for a quick smackdown. His daughter (and my girlfriend) Cijii Marshall joined us for the clinic. Pulled up to the hot spot and 6:30 a.m. and for the next 60 minutes put a genuine Dularge whacking on the trout. Every cast from every direction the trout bite was as hot as it gets! Caught a bonus flounder that was fried whole in peanut oil that same day.
11/19
Never been to Delacroix before and I got an invite from Capt. Scott Walker. Capt. Marty and Capt. Travis joined in on the fun trip and we left Sweetwater Marina at 6:30 a.m. with the east wind steady humping 20kts. Probably not a good idea to be fishing, I thought. The first bay we crossed was chocolate milk but Capt. Scott found us some nice protected water. I was introduced to a new technique called the Rucker Rig, which is a carolina rigged plastic shrimp or grub tail with an egg sinker, swivel, and 18" leader. The unusual trick to the grub tail is using a small J hook and puncturing it through the head from the side instead of threading it on the hook the traditional way. It took awhile to get used to that, but I caught the first three fish of the day. Had to be dumb luck. The morning was uneventful picking away at the trout here and there, then around noon we found the hot stuff. The new carolina rig seemed to be after all the preferred method. It wasn't every cast, but it sure was fun catching them this way. We ended the day with 62 trout and tons of laughs, busting each others chops all day!
11-20-2013, 04:21 PM
November Reports From Dularge, Chandelier, and Delacroix
Linear Mode
