Bobfish Tales

There are some days that no matter how much you want to fish, it is better to stay home and rearrange your tackle box or fix items you have been avoiding. When the wind is blowing 30mph plus, the seas are just too much even for the biggest boat. Saltwater fishing can be next to impossible. Tides 2 feet above normal can make even launching the boat tough. Freshwater areas can provide some protection from the winds, but with the water pouring in, it makes it more difficult to find decent water, not to mention incoming water tends to throw the bite off. So these type of days are great for cleaning out the tackle box. Get rid of all those lures that you have never used and never will. Arranging the jigs tails by best color to worst, jigs heads by sizes and styles that you may use the most will save you time the next time you are back on the water. It is also a great time to re-spool reels or at least check for bad spots and frays in the line. Tackle is not the only thing you can work on wh...

Spring time brings the spawn of many fish. One and perhaps the most colorful and fun to catch is the Warmouth aka Goggle Eye. Goggle eye can be found most places that Bluegill and red-ear sunfish are located. Local areas that are great spots to catch bunches of these tasty fish are Lake Bouef/Des Allemandes, Lake Fields/Long, Bayou Black from Orange Grove to Turtle bayou and perhaps the best spot for those extra large goggle eye would be the Atchafalaya basin. The basin gave up record size warmth back in the 70s-80s; all better than one pound and one fish that weighed over 2 pounds. Although those sizes are not common anymore, you still can catch fish weighing up to 1 pound. A one pound goggle eye is a seriously big fish for its' kind considering the average fish weighs half of that or less. Besides sacalait, gogs are one of my favorite fish to catch in freshwater. They will hit a bait bigger than normal because of their large mouths, so no need to downsize like you would for blueg...

Spotting redfish in shallow water seems easy enough, by looking for the obvious tails sticking out of the water or that wake they make cruising the banks. But, on windy days that may be tough at times. There are more ways to detect schools of reds that you may have never noticed. Watching bait fish is certainly one of those. Many times you may never see the tail or the wake. It may just be bait fish running for their lives or popping on the surface trying to escape those hungry fish. Today was one of those have-to-be-observant type of days. Southeast winds creating small waves usually makes it tough to see the fish, but if you look for certain breaks or ripples that are not in the same direction as the wind is blowing it's a dead giveaway. Tossing the lure in front of the school will net you many fish that may have gone undetected and resulting in more hookups than just casting blind. The bait of choice today, catching these schooling reds was a suspending shad bait. But tossing li...

The two times of year that get fishers excited are fall and spring. Although for most crappie folks, anytime of year they are biting is exciting. However, the spring brings an added bonus to the fishery. After the post spawn crappie blues are over with, most fisheries flourish with not only crappie, but bluegill, shell crackers, goggle-eye, bass, catfish, and a host of other fish. It can be down right fantastic or as they say "stupid good". The great thing about the spring is that you can catch all these fish in the same areas or at least here in the marshland, it is that way. Case in point was on a recent trip here in the marshes of South Louisiana in Terrebonne Parish. We found one canal where the water was clearer than most and the fish were active. One cast you would have a big gill, the next a goggle eye, and the next a nice sacalait (crappie). It becomes the perfect storm of fishing. While waiting on the crappie bite, there is always something tugging at the end of the ...

There is always that transition period after the crappie have spawned. They simply become hard to find. They scatter form the bedding areas and tend to move to deeper areas or out chasing baitfish. In any case it becomes more difficult to locate and catch them. You can still catch fish, but the target area is different. Then they get back to that summertime or pre spawn pattern. The fish are found in the usual places such as points, grass beds, and on cover such as fallen trees. It is just a waiting game. One day hard to catch and the next they show up in bunches. Today was a day they showed up in bunches. Mother nature flipped the crappie switch and for me and Tim Dusenbery, it was a fantastic bite. Good luck fishing. Hope to see ya on the water.

It happens to everyone who fishes. No matter where or what you are doing, nothing seems to work. The fish just aren't cooperating. But that being said, someone somewhere has figured out where and what they want. Have been on both sides of this fishing dilemma. The one thing I have learned from this, is that if you have many tricks aka "one thousand lures",and ways to fish them, something is bound to work. The thought of "that will never work" concept should be tossed out. This happened on a recent outing. Was tossing a cork and jig while double spider rigging as I usually do, looking for those elusive panfish. This works well for two reasons; it catches those shallow fish and also the ones staging off the bank. However, on this day the bite was very slow. While trolling down the canal, I ran across a bass fisherman who said fishing was slow, but did see a guy tossing a beetle spin catching some nice sacs. So as they say "momma didn't raise no fool"...

Put down the crappie poles today and went to my other favorite type of fishing, redfish and speckled trout. Today didn't disappoint either. Perfect light southeast winds and clear water meant one thing, big redfish and trout. Hit the big reds schooling in the Boudreaux area. Noah Wells and I had a blast catching bull reds on light tackle, sight fishing. Was a catch and release type of day, although a few of those big specs weren't so lucky. Nothing better than fresh fish for supper. Ya gotta love south Louisiana where no matter what your taste in fishing is, there is always something to catch. One day big crappie , bass, and gills, and the next bull reds and big yellow mouth trout, all within 20 miles or less of each other. There is no place like it. Tackle of choice today was a 2500 series spinning reel, 7ft medium light action spinning rod with 12lb braid and a 20lb mono leader attached. The mirrodine m17/27 was wearing them out ..Good luck fishing. Hope to see ya on the wat...