An actual fishing post, and another state falls from my list

Imagine, an actual fishing post on Flowing Waters. Not a shark tooth post, not a cat post. Real, honest to God fishing!

I recently spent a week in Texas and Louisiana working with a few of our reps in the field. During the course of the week in LA, we got a chance to sample some of the fishing the bayou is famous for. And I got to cross off another state from my list.


Dawn on the bayou




Those of you who actually read this mess may be familiar with a list I keep on the right hand side of the Blog. It is my quest to catch a fish in all 50 states. I have been stalled at 39 for a few years. This was my first opportunity to fish in LA, and I took advantage of it.

We spent the night in a fish camp near Cocodrie, south of Houma. We actually weren't too far from the home of Bayou Woman, a blog I still follow - see my list on right. (Great blog, btw) the morning had us launching the boat at daybreak and looking for trout..


Sometimes the birds were diving, other times they were just sitting. But there were fish below them


We caught plenty of these little guys. But catching any fish is good!




I love to fish new ways, and I had never fished with that standard of the trout / redfish world, the popping cork. We fished plastics under popping corks most of the day. The secret, like any tidal area, was catching the tide right, and looking for birds. Some things are universal. We spent the morning going from bird pod to bird pod. Some had a lot of fish, others a few. The trout were generally small - the 12" minimum was reached by maybe one out of 4 or 5 fish. As I found out, it is early for trout. They are moving from their wintering areas to the spawning areas. EVERYONE says come back in May / June / July and limits of big trout are the rule . Today was a good numbers day by my standards, although the locals thought it was pretty slow. I had a great time, we caught fish, and that's all the really mattered.


The grocery / gas / bait store on the canal


All i could think of was "Forrest Gump"


At the end of the morning, we ran across Lake (???) and fished some barrier islands on the outside of the lake with live bait. Here we got a few bigger trout, and one big redfish ate the guides bait. At least I thought it was big. We ended the day with 22 trout and 1 red.


A little better trout


Nice red


A wheelbarrow of fish, destined to become fillets shortly



Beautiful day on the water, took some delicious fillets home, and knocked off another state on my quest. Doesn't get much better than that! And I think I've got another state or 2 up my sleeves this year!

The "Traveling Dark Cloud of Doom" remains firmly in place, over my head.

Last week I was in Louisiana for a day and a half on business. Our plans were to stay at the house of an older gentleman who is a FANATIC bass fisherman, and possibly (probably?) sneak out and catch some fall bass. The most astute of you will realize that Louisiana is one of the states in which I have NOT caught a fish (the list is on the right hand side of this blog, following the Blog List), so it had a little more importance to me. But, before I proceed with this tale, let me take you back a few months . . .

1) The first failed mission was the Minnesota smallmouth bass adventure in October. First, there was the early snowfall. I wavered about fishing, but was convinced to give it a shot. Until the morning of our scheduled trip, when the boat was blocked in by a couple of Winnebago's. Part bad weather, part bad luck.

2) I had plane tickets to fly to Arkansas the second week of November to try my hand at tailrace trout fishing, Arkansas-style. Never fished Arkansas before, so that would have been another state to check off of my list. 2 weeks before my departure, torrential rains hit Arkansas, and the Little Red River rose somewhere around 20 FEET. Another trip dashed by the weather gods.

Which brings us back to last week. You may have noticed that the upper Midwest garnered most of the attention for it's crappy weather - snow in Chicago, bitter cold temps across heartland. Well, that cold front ranged FAR to the South. When we arrived in Monroe LA on the afternoon of the 9th, it was 35 degrees with a strong NW wind. The previous afternoon, it was 72 degrees and the front was moving through, with the requisite storms that accompany these strong cold fronts. The next morning dawned with a temp of 27.

Being from the Chicago area now, and previously from Syracuse, I would classify the 27 and windy weather as "Chilly". In LA, on the rare occasion that the temp falls to these depths, they hunker down and wait for spring. Needless to say, there were NO fish caught during the short attempt we made to get a few.

Three trips planned, three trips un-done due to weather.

Can't wait for 2010 - it HAS TO be better than the past 3 months!