When my brother-in-law Bob Statton called and told me that he, his son Cody and my brother Eddy were meeting down by Buras, Louisiana, to go redfishing and asked if I wanted to go, I jumped at the chance. I hadn’t redfished in a year or two. Not only are they a blast to catch, but I love blackened redfish. Plus, if we hit it right, October can be a great time to catch big bulls.
I’d been archery elk and deer hunting but gladly knocked off to fit in this trip. Before long, I was flying into New Orleans and meeting up with my brother. We normally fish with Clint Stewart or RJ Messimer. Clint had called and warned us that the weather would be tough and we might want to wait a week, so Bob did. I had some more deer hunts lined up all the way to the 2017 Minnesota Governor’s Deer Opener on Nov. 2, and my brother said he was going no matter what, so I stuck with it.
I was soon landing in New Orleans and Eddy picked me up. Normally, our first stop is Salvos, where we order a pile of crawdads. However, they were closed so we grabbed my license and headed south. Which speaking of, I think the state of Louisiana is smart on how they handle their fees. If you use a guide, the license cost is minimal. They know that us outdoorsmen will pour a lot of money into the economy when we come down and their decision greatly encourages us to fish there.
Bob has been staying lately at J-Bar Fishing Lodge. We stopped by there first and then went to indulge on Cajun food and then hit the sack. The next morning, we jumped up and met up with RJ, who was sitting at the dock, chomping at the bit and ready to hit it. I like fishing with guides who are excited. I don’t want to say that there were Gale-like conditions, but it was blowing, which kept us from crossing over to RJ’s hot spots.
On this trip, I took a variety of Mister Twister plastics. Their 4-inch Black/Chartreuse colored tails proved to be the hot one for the trip. As usual with good fishing trips, I’ll mix up the sequence, but I was using plastics and Eddy was mostly using a top water plug, with pretty good results. He was twitching it super slow to make it effective.
RJ had to hustle hard with the strong winds to keep us in position and did the best possible, but it was tough on him. The day finally came to a close and we headed back to the dock to clean fish. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I talked to Jeff about life in general and then hit the sack. Jeff runs a great camp. It has a friendly environment and he is a good host.
The next morning, we hit it hard again but it was really tough fishing. We caught one or two bulls, 10 or so reds, a couple of stingrays and some catfish and a flounder or two.
Sometimes, I don’t think you boys in Louisiana have a clue how blessed you are to live there. Walk out and look at your license plates for a reminder and you’ll see the “Sportsman’s Paradise” slogan.
Wow, coming in from Idaho, it’s a monumental change. We have maybe 15 inches of rainfall per year. This summer, the forest fires were horrible. For weeks on end, you couldn’t hardly see a mile due to the smoke. Breathing was tough. Football games were being cancelled, advisories were out to stay inside.
Fredy and Brian with Ammoland Shooting Sports News had come out this summer and we caught a bush plane back into the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area and got dropped off. My lungs felt scorched from backpacking to our camp spot and the pilot could barely see the dirt runway on top of the mountain to pick us up on the last day.
Meanwhile, compared to Louisiana, there’s water and fish of all species everywhere! The first morning, we had more rain dumped on us than I’ve seen in months. There’s in-shore fishing, off-shore fishing (who doesn’t love yellow fin tuna) and all manner of hunting opportunities.
Well, our trip soon drew to a close. We loaded up and headed to the airport. I rubbed my eyes and was soon back in the Sahara Desert. Was that much water a mirage? Did I actually see it or was it just a dream? I don’t know but I know the redfish we caught were for real. In fact, I’m going to blacken some tonight for dinner tonight.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.
