12/21/2004
By: Bo
Here is my report as posted on www.rodnreel.com:
At 4:00 on Monday I was watching the weather and decided to take off work and scoot down to Breton Sound Marina and fish for a couple of days. The next morning I got up early and drove all the way down. When I got there I consulted with Captain Glenn and Captain Barry and told them that I was planning to go to Lake Amadee. I have never been there but have read about it here on rodnreel.com and in Louisiana Sportsman. They confirmed that that was a good plan. The water was extremely low and Captain Glenn was even nice enough to view the map with me and point out a dangerous area of Hopedale Lagoon that should be avoided.
Sometime after 9:00 I finally got on the water and made my way over to Hopedale Lagoon and hit a redfish hole I know of around Lake Ameda. That stop was successful and I was able to catch 5 reds in a short time. I kept four and let the big one go to make babies. Ready to chase specks I headed over to Dudenheffer’s canal as I have done several times before. This time I grounded out bad and had to push pole off. I had no idea it was that shallow over there. I have an 18’ flat with a 90 and it generally takes shallow water really well. As I was pushpoling off the hump a beautiful Pathfinder comes by and runs right over the hump without incident. I guess it was a tunnel hull. Regardless, it was a beautiful boat and ran surprisingly shallow without problems. You notice these things when you are pushpoling your boat off the bottom.
I just don’t have the guts to open up and run in water I’m not familiar with. So I basically ended up idling all the way to Lake Amadee. I was trenching my way through the mud a good portion of the time.
When I finally got there I just started working a bank and it was on. I anchored off a point and proceeded to wear them out. By 2:30 I had my limit of specks.
Back at the Marina I was cleaning fish at their excellent fish cleaning station. While I was doing this my fishing buddy happened to check the cam at www.bretonsoundmarina.com and took some screenshots of me cleaning fish. Pretty cool. (http://www.tmtanglers.com/Pictures/just_for_fun/2004/Hopedale_Double/Bo's%20redfishing.doc)
That night I stayed in “the seagull” and watched the weatherman talk of the harsh weather that would be arriving on Wednesday. At 4:30 my alarm woke me up and it was pouring down rain and was very windy. I thought to myself that the front had already arrived and decided to sleep in. No point in going out to fish in that.
At 8:00 I awoke to hear birds chirping, light wind, and no rain. Damn! The rain at 4:30 must have just been a thundershower and I shouldn’t have changed my plans. Oh well, what’s done is done. So I drank several cups of coffee, loaded up the car and was just about to leave when Captain Glenn drove by. He said that he thought I still had enough time to go. “Why not? You are already here.” That was all the prompting I needed. I went straight over to the boat hoist and got ready to go. I told Glenn that my goal was to take a photo a 5 lb speck.
I looked at my watch as I was going through the no wake zone. 10:00 AM. The water was much higher today and I was able to run to Lake Amadee without incident.
It was here that I proceeded to catch have the best day of speckled trout fishing that I have ever had. I wore them out. My fishing club is named TMTanglers. The TMT stands for TOO MUCH TACKLE. If you have ever seen my tacklebox you will know where the name comes from. Well, I had the chance to experiment with every type of lure I had in the box and they all worked on this particular day. I just think fishing the front end of that massive front was the optimal time to fish. The fishing was ridiculously good and it was the best day I’ve ever had.
I did not catch a 5 lber. The biggest I caught was 3lbs 6oz and was caught on a topwater lure during a brief period where the wind subsided to a manageable level. All fish were released to fight again another day. Yes, I am sure that a certain percentage died because that is just the way it works. But I used the boga grip and tried to release them in good shape.
I then drove through the front back to Mississippi. The wife was gone visiting her family and it was nice to walk through the house in boots without being yelled at for tracking stuff in the house. I proceeded to cook redfish on the half shell. The house was light on supplies and I ended up having left over salad and cornbread as sides. But hey, when you are bacheloring it you make the best of what it available. I used what would normally be considered too much garlic. But with the wife gone there is no such thing as “too much garlic”. I watched the Blues Brothers while I ate my meal. I had never noticed that Elwood spent the first part of the movie carrying around a can cheesewiz. It is amazing the things you notice when things are right in your head after a good fishing trip.
I would now like to offer my two cents on the discussion surrounding caring for Louisiana’s fishery—it’s best natural resource.
In response to the “meatbucket” mentality comments I must admit that I have observed this myself. As an outsider (not from Louisiana) it is fascinating to me to observe how different things are down there. Take Breton Sound Marina for instance. On any given day there you will see flats boat guides come in who have taken fly fisherman out that fish with barbless hooks all day long. A day where a couple of reds are caught in this manner can be considered a success. Many of these clients immediately release the fish and treat every single red with an amount of respect that can only be described as reverence.
I wonder how many of those fish are eaten by guys like me who are fishing after them. And then there are much worse extremes than me out there, which cannot be discussed in the fishing reports section without Mike editing my post. There are definitely different extremes out there sharing the same resource and it brings up interesting issues. For whatever it is worth I do think that the situation is improving from every angle. Guys like me are now fishing catch & release days just for the chance of taking a picture of a sow speck. That is a sign that things are improving and people actually value the resource.
I agree that laws that are not enforceable are worthless. It is unbelievable that I pay $90 for a fishing license and then hear horror stories of enforcement agents being understaffed, underpaid, and under-equipped. I wish I was registered to vote in Louisiana so that I could write my legislator.
In regards to changing size limits. This is a subject I have thought about quite a bit and even called a biologist in Baton Rouge to discuss the matter a few months ago. I am sorry that I do not remember the gentlemen’s name. But he explained to me that if you raised the size limit a greater percentage of female specks would be harvested. Apparently female specks grow much faster than male specks. For example, a two year old female speck can grow to over 14’’ in two years but a male speck would be less than 14’’. Therefore raising the size limit would remove more female specks than males, which is bad.
I asked how come other states can have higher limits and unfortunately I do not remember his response. This would be a great topic for a journalist to research and translate into English for the rest of us.
That’s my two cents for whatever it is worth. Tight Lines.
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