tailing tide: Shrimp Dust and Cosmic Rubble

A few months back, I was talking to a buddy of mine on the phone about how tough the albacore season had been this year. I must have remarked something like "the heck with the albies, lets go catch some reds in New Orleans this winter". I was half way joking when he replied, "it wouldn't take much to talk me into going". That's where he messed up.....I knew the seed had been planted, and with a little fertilizer, we'd soon be on our way to The Big Easy.

Fast forward a couple months, and I was picking up Jason from his house at 5am with boat in tow. We were taking a roll of the dice, as the weather men had been throwing out conflicting reports. A few hours into the drive we stopped at a fast food restaurant in Lumberton NC. We ran in, to grab a quick bite to eat. As we walked out I saw a car parked inches away from the back of my boat and ran out in a panic. The driver had driven right into my push pole and snapped it where it extended from the back of the boat. One of the most important pieces of equipment for the trip was gone, and we weren't even out of the state. After a few phone calls, a police report, and over an hour of wasted time, we were back on the road. I made a few phone calls and tracked down a buddy in Mississippi who graciously offered to lend me his push pole for the weekend. Around 10pm we rolled in to New Orleans, and made our way to my friends house. Dee Murphy greeted us as we pulled up. We unloaded the truck and crashed for the night.

Oh Snap

Early the next morning, the three of us jumped in my truck, and made our way south towards Hopedale. The fog was thick, and we kept our fingers crossed that we would see blue skies when it lifted. I backed the boat into the ramp at Breton Sound Marina, and from there we raced about twenty miles through a series of bayous until we popped out on the gulf side of the Biloxi Marsh. At this point, the fog was still really thick, so I poled up along the shoreline and Jason started blind casting. Not long into the first shoreline, Jason hooked up with his first redfish of the day.

We took turns poling and casting, while waiting for the fog to lift and give us a little sunshine. When the fog finally lifted, the winds began to pick up, but nothing to be too concerned with. The biggest problem was the water was pretty muddy, which made it hard for to spot any fish unless they were pushing water. Our plan was to locate some of the big drum that inhabit the outer marsh during the winter, but we never saw one. Maybe it was the wind, maybe the dirty water, maybe just bad luck...so we stuck with the smaller fish that were working along the shoreline. We finished the day up with a few reds, and the determination to change things up the next day. Later that night, we poured over google earth and chose a few new spots to try.

On day two, we dropped in at Hopedale and noticed the wind was already blowing 20+, so we made the call to fish the inside bayous for slot fish. We had high hopes of fishing the outer edges of the marsh for bull drum, but the wind would have made it miserable. We ran about ten miles through a series of canals, and started fishing a few ponds in the middle of the marsh. We fought to stay close to any edge where we could get out of the wind and make a cast. The water was muddy, but we started seeing fish right away. We took turns switching off casting to fish that were pushing, crawling and tailing. Along with the slot size reds, we picked up a few flounder.

We pulled out of Hopedale at dark, grabbed a couple crawfish po'boys and made our way to Mobile Alabama for the night. The following morning was spent crawling down the interstate in a downpour that left us unable to see past the hood of my truck. Fifteen hours later, we made it home for some much needed rest.

We started off with big fish in mind...but the trip proved to be a lot more than just chasing reds. We got plenty of Louisiana culture...from the fishing village of Hopedale, to a stroll down Bourbon Street, to a local restaurant with menu items like shrimp dust and cosmic rubble. All in all, an awesome trip. Many thanks to our host Dee for going above and beyond, to Dan for trusting me with his push pole, to Barret for the fishing locations, and to Bess and Michael for letting us crash in Mobile.