It is not really Spring yet, being the end of Feb, but
the fish think it is along the Mississippi Delta fifty
miles south of New Orleans. I ventured over that way
from my Florida home because the weather was going to
be perfect and I actually had a floor to sleep on. The
aftermath of Katrina has left little in the way of rooms
down that way. Rich Waldner,
fishwithrich.com a guide friend has a house almost
habitable while he works on it and lives in a FEMA trailer
beside it. With the walls up and carpets in, camping is allowed.
I fished two days, the first with another guide, Brian
Carter of voodoocharters.com.
Rich was monitoring the carpet install on day one so
I would have a floor to sleep on. The skies were clear,
wind less than 15 knots and tides favorable to give us
a fine view of the fish. Off we pressed in anticipation
of a winter day chasing big reds on the flats near the ocean
behind what is left of the town of Port Sulfur.
The water was especially clear this day and the water
warmer than usual for winter. It was about 72 degrees,
also warm for February. The day started with a thirteen
pound redfish and a fifteen pounder followed in a couple
of minutes. I was using a ten-weight rod because of the
wind and would be happy I stuck with that. Five or six
reds in the eight to ten pound range followed in the next
two hours but I missed on a couple of monster reds that
just showed up for a scant look at the boat. I could not
get the fly "just right" and they did not see it or got
spooked at a second cast.
We got nearer deep water and the size of the fish increased
and big black drum came into play. The first one of them
I got was well above twenty pounds as was the second. That
was enough of these fish as they are not the prizes the huge
reds are. Along came two black drums that could not be
ignored so I hooked a monster that made the ten-weight a
nice tool to have. While I was fighting this guy and barely
moving him off the bottom, spring showed up. Around the
boat appeared jacks, big ones. They are spring fish and
when they pop up you never miss a chance to hook one. I
was engaged and could have broken the big drum off but wanted
to get him in. Brian tried to get me to hand him the black
drum pole so I could cast to the jacks. I kept my fight and
insisted he toss at the jacks circling the boat. He tied on
a popper and first cast was hooked to a fish which started
its' run toward Cuba. The drum and jack were offsetting the
rotation of the boat as they fought. I finally got the black
monster to roll over and signal it wanted to come up. It
was nearly fifty pounds and I was going to have to have some
help. When I asked Brian to help with the net so I would not
break a rod, he announced the saying of the day: "we have a
situation here." He held his fish off and dipped the net to
get the head of my fish in it. I then dropped my pole and
took over the landing by grabbing the tail so the head would
keep in the net while Brian went back to trying to stop his
fish. I did get the Boga out to weigh mine; it came in at
44 pounds.
Just before I was going to ask Brian to take another break
to snap a picture more jacks were coming by the boat. I
shoved the monster over the side and made sure he recovered
and then tried the crab fly on my line on the jacks. They
were only mildly interested so I sat down and put on a popper
too. First cast in front of four of them and one cast set
off a gang fight over my lure. I was then hooked and mine
joined Brian's in pulling the boat across the lake. Sometimes
they pulled opposite and stopped all rotation and sometimes
they were side by side and almost had us on a plane. Brian
got his up under the boat and the "situation" got reinstated.
There were jacks all around us still and I contemplated making
a real situation by having Brian hold both of the rods now
hooked to fish and letting me toss at yet another jack. We
both decided that, although notable, that would be somewhat
piggish. I held the net to get the nose of the fish in and
he grabbled the tail to pull it in the boat. Brian revived
that one and sat back resting while I tugged endlessly on mine.
I thought it was mighty big but it was really about the same
size as the first one. My fight was enhanced by the fact that
in the "gang" fight this fish got hooked on the anal fin.
That gave this mighty fighting fish even more power than if
it were hooked on the tail. It took all of fifteen minutes
to get this 24-pound fish in. When this one was under control
and documented on film Brian and I both hooked up again. The
pods of these fish just kept on coming. This time Brian got
hurried and the fish was a little green. Mine got off when
I got it near the leader length away which was a nice touch.
Brian's ten-weight rod cracked once and then a half minute
later broke. He grabbed the leader and landed the fish by
hand but he was out of the fight.
I hooked and landed one more and lost another after a long
fight. They were still floating by when Brian noted my lack
of excitement at hooking another. If I had thought about
it I would have broken the hook off the popper and kept
on working. The surface strikes were fantastic but
another fight was not what I was after. Four "jack
pulling" contests was a new record for me. When we
looked at a clock again we figured out that about three
hours had been spent playing with these jacks. Spring
really had arrived.
Our last flat was with a failing sun and some clouds making
it difficult to see the fish. Two monster reds showed up
but when we positioned for a shot they disappeared and saw
us before we could get an unannounced shot at them. One
last one popped up right in front of the boat and took off
towards the rear of the boat. I threw out in front of him
as he went into the glare for me up front but Brian had a
prime seat for the show. He said the act went like this;
"The big fish just stopped when your fly hit the water and
he almost did a back flip to eat it." I had the eight-weight
in my hand now as the wind was down some and the fish ran
off a hundred feet of line and just into the backing.
This ended up being a 26-pound beauty but after all the
jacks this was a very comfortable fight. It was over in
a few minutes and the fish set free into the setting sun.
On the ride in we marveled at the day. With the fish
Brian caught, jacks and a black drum or two and the
one sheepshead I got we had over three hundred pounds
of fish in the boat. A hundred each of redfish, black
drum and jack cravelle, plus a five-pound sheepshead.
Day two was not a repeat of the first but three of us
landed about 20-25 nice reds and one 40-pound black drum.
If the jacks had showed up we might have had even a better
one the last day. Perhaps spring was over already? I
just think we did not get in the area the jacks were
roaming. Brian was not on the boat and that may have
been a factor.
There is little fishing pressure down there yet and
few are out taking the crabs and shrimp as most of
those boats are gone along with the houses and
fishermen. My guess is this is going to be a banner
year for fish to feed and grow. The fishermen who
find a way to get on the water may have the best ever.
The guides who are able to fish and find rooms for
their guests will be some the first down that way to
get outside money back into the area. Don't miss the
chance if you can make it work. Either Rich or Brian
can make it happen and they have more guides to draw
from. They can find them if you cannot. ~ Capt Scud Yates/ Mar 2006/ scudyates@cox.net
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