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A Neighborly Visit

by Tom Lester
Corsicana, Texas
lester01@airmail.net

    In October of this year, I made my way down to my childhood
stomping grounds of southeast Louisiana . It had been several years
since I had been to the New Orleans area. In fact, I had forgotten how
long on a drive it was, especially by myself.  I was going to meet up
with some bass fishing friends of mine for a redfishing trip in the
Mississippi Delta.
.

 

  As the brackish waters of the delta begin cooling
down from the summer warm up, red drum or
redfish, as we call ‘em, migrate back into the flats
and canals of the delta to begin their spawning
season. Redfish, unlike several freshwater species
of fish, spawn in the fall of the year. When they
move up in the maiden cane or what the locals call
rosos cane, it can be like fishing in barrel. They
get extremely aggressive and a blast to catch.

    Venice, Louisiana was the destination.  After picking up a friend of mine from Luling (just outside
New Orleans), we made the two-hour trip to Venice staying at the Lighthouse Inn. Venice literally feels
like you are at the end of the earth, and in some ways you are. It is just about as far south in
Louisiana as you can drive, on land that is.

27# Bull Redfish!
Jim Culp of Tulsa, OK and Tom Lester II of Corsicana, TX
with 27# bull red

     We awoke the next morning to the sound of helicopter blade wash. The heliport for the offshore rig
workers was right next door to the Lighthouse Inn. Each day helicopters ferry men and women to and
from the numerous offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico off of the Louisiana coast.

     We hooked our boats back up to our trucks and headed for the Venice Marina a few miles down
the road.  After paying our boat launch fee, we unloaded four boats and headed out for the Mississippi
River. We followed the river down to the mouth of the delta and took one of the passes out towards the
Gulf of Mexico. Just before we got to the Gulf, we turned off into a maiden cane lined canal and stopped.
Our friend from Luling, who often fished these waters, pointed us in the direction we needed to fish.

     Fortunately, I had called ahead to get some idea of the type of tackle I needed to bring. I was using a
Quarrow, Dream catcher series 7’2” popping rod with an Abu Garicai TP3000 reel. I had my reel spooled
up with 20# CXX P-Line due to the high abrasion resistance of the P-Line CXX since we were fishing
around the maiden cane.  Maiden cane will fray fishing line quite easily allowing fish to break off easily.
I had a 5/8 oz. Pro-Trap from the folks at Rat-L-Trap tied on.  The Pro-Trap allows the line to go through
the body of the bait and ties directly to the hook.  This helps keep the fish from throwing your bait once
it is hooked because the bait slides up and down the line rather than being connected to the hooks
providing weight to help the fish spit out the bait.

     The tide was on the way out, which was good.  When the tide is on the way out, the redfish that are
deep in the cane along the canals, move out to the edge of the cane as the water level drops making them
more accessible and easier to catch. Throwing the Pro-Trap next to the cane and reeling back with a fairly
rapid retrieve, I anxiously awaited the first bite from one of these redfish I had heard so much about. It
didn’t take long to find out what everyone had been talking about.  Within just a few minutes, I hooked into
my first Mississippi Delta red.  The fight was on.

      As soon as the fish hit my bait, it headed for deeper water, stripping drag all the way. I’m glad the fish
decided to turn and go the other way, because I’m not sure I could have made it stop. He loaded up the
rod and bent it double to the water. The line stretched and made a whining as it cut through the water.

    After a few minutes, he played out and I was able to bring him over to the boat. Being careful not to
touch his gill plate, I gilled him in the first row of gills, lifted him into the boat and removed the single Kale
hook that comes with the Pro-Trap. He weighed in at 8 pounds, so he found his way into the cooler on the
back deck of the boat. Most of the fish we were planning on catching and keeping were too big for the live
well, so we filled a cooler with ice before leaving the marina that morning.

    You must use caution when boating redfish, speckled trout and other saltwater species of fish. Most of
them either have large sharp teeth or sharp gills that can cut you and cut into your fishing trip.  Redfish
have razor sharp gill plates that will slice you open like a knife. They also have spikes inside their gills, so
use caution when gilling one to get it in the boat.  You can safely place your fingers beneath the first row
of gills to get the fish landed, but lookout past that.

      After catching several fish on the Pro-Trap, I decided to try a few other baits. I had noticed a couple
of fish following a hooked fish to the boat.  They were trying to get the bait out of the fish’s mouth. I tied on
a 3.25 inch fire tiger colored Highroller top water bait to see if the reds would hit.  Was I in for a treat!  No
only did they hit it, they seemed to try and knock the paint off of it.  I ended up catching several 4-8 lb.
redfish on this handmade wooden lure.  Each time Brad, my friend from Luling,  hooked up with a red, I
would throw right behind his fish and the trailing fish would explode on the Highroller like only a redfish
can do.

      Brad and I caught over 30 reds apiece up to 22 pounds.  We also caught a few speckled trout and
flounder, too.  It was a great day of fishing.  I was literally exhausted and almost, I repeat, almost, tired
of catching fish.

      That evening when we returned to the motel, another friend of ours had been cooking while we were
out fishing.  Keith had boiled some crabs that he and my friend O.T. Fears had caught the day before at
Lake Ponchitrain. He also had some shrimp in a pot and hot French bread for soppin’. I thought I had died
and gone to heaven.  Go fishing all day, catch fish that will make you want to throw rocks at black bass
and come back to the motel room to eat a meal like off the back of the truck…well, as my buddy Glen
Smith would say, “ if that ain’t living, you can throw me out”!

Until next time enjoy our great outdoors.

Tom Lester II
www.FishingProStaff.com

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