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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.
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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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