BRETON SOUND MARINA
Hopedale, LA
March 4-6, 2004
Here is my report as I (Bo) am posting on RodnReel.com:
I met Bill Greene my long time bass fishing buddy and fellow fishing club member down at Breton Sound Marina to go after some specks and reds. We had a friendly wager to see who could catch the redfish with the most spots and who could catch the biggest speck.
THURSDAY, March 4: Picked up Bill at the launch and proceeded to fish some ponds south of BSM for redfish. No bites. Ran all the way to Four Horse Lake and was able to catch a few trout and some nice reds. One of the trout I caught weighed 3 lbs 8 ozs, and I was thinking that that would be hard to beat. In my mind I started dreaming of all the fishing tackle I was going to buy with Bill’s money when I won the wager. Not a bad day for the first day.
FRIDAY, March 5: Ran all the way from BSM to Grand Point Bay. It was EXTREMELY WINDY this day and Bill was more than a little concerned when we started crossing Lake Robin in my little 18' jon boat. It was a wet and rough ride to say the least. But several years ago we had one of the most memorable days fishing I've ever had fishing Grand Point Bay out of my old 14' jon boat. It was the same time of year and I've been waiting for the opportunity to return for years. A little rough water wasn't going to keep me away. When we arrived at Grand Point Bay we went to lee side of the bay and hugged the bank as close as possible. I have a foot controlled trolling motor and could not take my foot off the pedal. If I did the boat would drift 100 yards before you knew it. All we did was throw Swimmin' Images towards the middle of the bay. Once that lure hit the jet stream it took off and we were making the longest cast of our lives. Using this method we caught several two and three pound trout, and Bill was able to land a couple of four pounders, promptly ending the fishing tackle shopping spree I was planning with his money. We were also able to catch several reds. I had a 16 plus incher to the boat and he was covered in spots. In all the wind I was unable to land him--another shopping spree gone. But given the windy conditions I was impressed that we were able to put together such a respectable stringer.
SATURDAY, March 6: After making that long, wet, and rough run the day before we were determined to spend less time riding and more time fishing this day. Friday night we paid close attention to every word the weatherman said. A front was supposed to pass through the area and the forecast called for strong northwest winds. We had enough of windy conditions from the previous day so we made plans accordingly. We decided to fish Lena Lagoon early in the morning and at the first signs of wind we would fish a protected canal that Captain Barry was nice enough to tell me about. UNDER NO CONDITIONS WERE WE GOING TO MAKE SUCH A LONG RUN AGAIN. Well, the next morning we felt good because we had made such excellent plans to avoid the wind. As we pulled away from the camp Bill says, "Hey man, I forgot my bug net. Do you think I'll need it?" I said, "Hell no, no gnats are going to bother you in 20 MPH wind." So, just like we planned, we went to Lena Lagoon and were going to fish that as long as the winds allowed us. We arrived at Lena Lagoon only to find dead still waters. We started fishing and after one cast I felt this strange tingly sensation all in my scalp. (Not the herbal essence kind of tingly sensation either.) I look back and Bill and he is unable to fish because he is too busy swatting the air and scratching his head. I promptly covered myself in OFF. A few minutes later I looked down only to see my hand covered in black dots. Those little gnats were swimming in the OFF, shooting me the little gnat bird, and having a nice breakfast of my hand. This is when Bill says, "Man, we've got to get away from these gnats even if we have to run to Cuba".
This began the great Biloxi Marsh, Hopedale, Delacroix, Point a la Hache marsh tour. We ran all over the place trying to escape the gnats. I don't know what that weatherman was smoking, but something is wrong in the world if Martha Stewart is about to go to jail and that SOB is still walking the streets. People are going to get hurt if he keeps forecasting the weather. It was dead calm everywhere we went. We ran all over the place trying to escape the gnats and finally found some EAST wind that helped us. We were only able to catch a few fish. I kept telling Bill that the fish were just turned off because of the change in weather. "Those trout never bite when there are blue bird skies like this", I said. We remained determined and fished hard all over the place to no avail. Naturally, we arrived back at BSM to discover that the regulars had caught limits of specks right where Captain Barry told me to fish. Dooh! Bad ending to a good trip.
We started some Top Ten list on my fishing club's website (www.tmtanglers.com). One is for the biggest specks, and the other is for the redfish with the most spots. This trip sort of got these list started. It will be fun to cull the entries with trips in the future. Apparently Bill had fun catching those 4 lb specks because he called me today talking about selling his bass boat so that he can buy a bay boat. Finally, I wanted to publicly thank Rick and Mike at BSM for all the helpful advice. I am looking forward to my next trip!