NOLA Redfish 2017

The Biloxi Marsh is well known for huge red drum or redfish, and this trip was no exception! 

However, fishing during the winter, and really anytime, weather is quite a gamble, in the Louisiana Marsh.  

You hope for 3 good days, in a one-week trip!

Well....we ended up with 1 and 1/2 days of low winds and clear skies, which are required for sight fishing the big bull reds in shallow water.  However, wind can stir the mud and reduce water clarity to a few inches, which is exactly what happened to our group of 6 guys fishing out of Hopedale and Delacroix.

Fortunately, we were in the hands of long time NOLA guide, 

Gregg Arnold, so we were still hopeful we would find fish.

With poor visibility we were forced to "blind cast" to likely areas, or where we could see clouds of mud from fleeing reds; and although this type of fishing is not the sight fishing we hoped for, it was what the weather dictated, and I felt very fortunate to catch this nice 24 lb. redfish....the first fish in 4 days, and the only fish we hooked, this day.  

Finally, after three cold, windy, cloudy days, the weather opened up and we were blessed with clear skies and calm conditions.  Unfortunately, the water was still muddy, so we resorted to blind casting, again. 

Our guide, Preston Harden (www.bucktailguideservice.com), 

worked hard, and was able to find an area that had fish and my partner and I were soon tight to big redfish!

This 25 lb. bronze back was our first visitor...

...and then another beautiful redfish-25 lbs.

 32 lb. Redfish...

The largest red caught by our group!

Bull-et Fly

This trip was the second trip to NOLA, fishing the Bull-et Fly.       (I wanted to confirm my previous success before making this fly a standard offering on my website www.gurglersonline.com.)  
Two of my fishing partners fished this fly exclusively, as well, and both reported several big fish, as well as a number of smaller reds.  

The Bull-et fly provides a fat head, that pushes water, heavy eyes to get down fast, and creates a very strong profile-important features when fishing dirty water. 

The 60 deg. jig hook proved, once again, its significance on these redfish!

My partner, Danny, and I scored a double which turned out to be about the only fish we were able to actually see, before casting.

I should also mention the 3rd guide, for our group.  Jeff Arnold proved very effective for our group, also finding fish in tough conditions.

www.arnoldsguideservice.com

One highlight to the trip was finding a pod of 20-25 gar that were cruising in a small cove.  We had several good shots at these curious fish, some over 5ft. long, but could not interest them in our offerings. 

I want to thank our host and hostess, Gregg Arnold, and his wife Nancy, for the great hospitality and food.

I also want to thank Doug, Dana, Dave, Jim, Rick, and Danny, for making this tough trip a great time.

I hope we can do it again, soon!

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