April 26-30, 2007 - What a great weekend of fishing in the Lafitte area. Saturday I had Ken Sandberg and his two sons, Jonathan and Stephen. They have fished with me for the last several years, usually around Jazz Fest. We made the run to Barataria Bay to catch a few trout and then it was off to find some redfish, which is what they wanted most of all. They enjoy them on the half shell on the BBQ pit and ended up with 5 gallons of fish to take home. Conditions: light winds and clear. Bait: spinner baits, smoke/char. For the reds, tight lining smoke/char cocahoe's for the trout.

Saturday afternoon trip with Brian Loui and Shy Darnell. They came all the way from Honolulu, Hawaii to fish with us and as hard as it is to believe Shy caught the biggest fish of her life here in Louisiana. The fish were still where I had left them that morning. The trout had shut down but the red fish were still hungry and still smacking that spinner bait.

Capt. Mike`s party for Saturday morning, Dennis and Helen Ownby. They had headed out with us in search of speckled trout, but also returned to the smaller inland bays in search of redfish. Here are a few pictures of some of their catch.

Monday`s trip with Don and Bob here with the insurance convention in New Orleans. The guys didn`t want to leave early so it turned out to be a 10am departure time. It was kind of what I call a picnic trip. Bring some lunch and a few beers or maybe lots of beer. The trout bite was over but the redfish gave us plenty of action. The guys boated over a limit of fish and we were back by 2pm, all catch and release. My kind of trip. Spinner baits have been the hot bait for me the past few days.

 

 

 

April 19-25, 2007 - The trout are in the large lakes and bays. The reds are in the duck ponds. Wind and clean water have dictated where and what we are able to fish for. As most guides have been reporting the winds have been giving us fits the past several days.
Sunday, Capt. Mike had Lori and Travis. They had a dozen reds over 9lbs and a mess of small ones they kept for dinner. I had the Derek Maxey party, James, Jeremy and Derek. They had fished with me several weeks ago and were back for a return trip. 15 or so reds with only 4 keepers, 6 trout with one going 4lbs and 1 flounder.
Monday, I had John and Ian. Probably one of the better trips of the last couple of weeks. 17 reds with 10 going over 9lbs and 3 of those over 12lbs. These guys fished a trip in Florida yesterday and hadn't caught a fish. Conditions: wind and more wind. Bait: all of our fish the past few days have been caught on spinner baits, Purple/char, smoke /char. The fish are out there, we just need the right conditions to be able to reach them. Capt. E.J.

 

 

 

April 17, 2007 - Report from Capt. Mike - Today we had a great day with the reds,  with about 12  reds caught.  Anna Sawyer caught three weighing 6, 8, & 10 1/2 pounds with David catching one that weighed10+ pounds.  I'm sending four pictures.  Thanks for the trip they were nice folks.

 

 

April 13-16, 2007 - Had to take the weekend off so my wife and I could go up to our little weekend retreat and wait for a man to deliver some horses that we bought, so all the trips this weekend were done by my good buddies Capt. Mike, Capt. Bobby and Capt. Joe. I will get the details and pics of the charters soon and will post back. I had to cancel the trip on Saturday because the weather was so bad, and Sunday wasn't much better. Capt. Bobby took PGA golfer Mr. Steve Stricker and his caddy on Monday evening, and they ended the day with a couple reds and a couple trout. Water condition were terrible after that strong northwestern came roaring through the state. Fishing should really get kicking with just a couple of good weather days thrown together in a row. Check back for these photos.

 

April 12, 2007 - The Richard McLin party and I left the dock at 6:30am. Not having any luck with the trout yesterday, today turned out to be a much better day. Its great when you can catch all your fish in your first two or three stops. A limit of trout and a 22lb redfish, caught by Richard under a popping cork. Conditions: blue bird and windy, stain water. Bait: glow beetle's under a cork

 

April 2-11, 2007 - What a roller coaster the weather has been playing on us. Hot, cold, windy, foggy. It has made for some interesting conditions, and some unpredictable fishing. Water has been high, low, clean, and dirty. Everyday that we have been  going out has been a new and interesting challenge to locate some fish for our customers. When the water was high,  the redfish were biting very well in the flooded marsh and duck ponds. All you had to do was find some clean water, and a little grass and bait, and the redfish were not far behind. All the redfish we were catching were falling to  purple and chartreuse spinner baits, fished with a number four gold spinner, or a gold spoon. When fishing with the a spoon, try adding a double closed ended swivel to the top of the bait. Just get your pliers out and open the ring, and then close it up. This allows for the spoon to turn freely with out ever twisting your line. Very helpful, and  keeps the strength in the line.

When the water has been low, we have been fishing in the canals with a little deeper water, 3-6 feet. Trout are usually pushed into the canals and have been falling to glow with grey flake H&H beetles under a cork. Or the curly tail grub bounced off of the bottom. The reds in the canal, can be caught on H&H cochahoes fished tight lined on the bottom, or  with shrimp under a cork, or on the bottom in the holes where the marsh drains.

Very Important to success. The trout in the Lafitte area are heading for the beaches. No more trout in Lake Salvador,  PEN, Rigolets, and Bayou Perot. If you want to catch any numbers of trout, you need to head south. Start south of Mud Lake, Airplane Bay, Turtle Bay, Bayou St. Denis. The brown shrimp season is a month away, and are already popping on the surface. Start looking for the birds, shrimp, and clean water in the good ole salt water, and you will start catching fish. Beetle under the cork has been doing the trick. The fish are still decent size since the schoolies of summer have
not made an appearance yet, but will not be long before you will have to start bouncing around from school to school looking for more quality fish. Really glad warmer weather, and salt sprays are here. Winter time patterns are tough,  and cold boat rides are getting miserable. This weekend should be really nice weather to fish, as long as the wind doesn't start blowing after the little cool front came through.

Will try to start keeping up with the reports more. I have been struggling just to keep website updated with all of the happenings. Below are a couple people we took out the last few days. Have many trips the next couple days, with a few boats open. so if you wanna take a trip, just gives us a call.

This past weekend Darrin and Christine Tigue joined us for some redfish actions. Things were a little slow in the morning but picked up a little as the weather warmed up a little. The couple only kept a few reds for lunch at Jan's and the most impressive fish of the day was a nice 7lbs beauty. Monday I had the Wayne Knowle crew. Fishing was tough again, as all the water was dirty from the passing front over the weekend. Ended the day with a nice mess of reds and a few trout.

Yesterday I had Tom Kahler and Ron Wanbaugh group. We left the dock around 6:30 in the very thick fog. Thanks to the GPS, it was  no problem shooting across the open water and ending up at the exact spot where we wanted to start. We didn't get much cooperation from the trout, and clean water was tough to find, so we headed out in search of some redfish. Caught a nice mess with a 9lbs and 20lbs beauty thrown in. Heading in search of the trout in Barataria today, check back and will let you know how it goes.

 

March 20 - April 1, 2007 - Just trying to catch up on some recent trips from the past week. 3-20 with the Ralph Dufour group, 3-23 the Bob Vennes group,3-26 Steve Ohl and his wife who just came along for the ride, 3-31 the Anderson Brothers with John catching the largest fish, 4-01 John Laflen and his son with the best red fishing day of the last two weeks. Capt. Mike had the Jeff Efird family Sunday and Monday. Should have some pictures of some of their catch in the next few days. For the past week its been windy with most of the fish being caught on spinner baits. If the tide remains high as its been, the fishing should continue to improve. We are also still catching some nice bass on worms and spinner baits. Most boats are catching between 20-30 per day, with bigger catches coming daily now that we are into the warming trend. Capt. E.J.

To read more reports from other months, please view our Archived Reports page.