Columns
Materials of opportunity
Don Lawler of Shreveport is a man on a mission. His mission? To scour craft stores, dollar stores, hardware stores for materials to use for his next great fly.[…]
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Ask Captain Paul
The Circle Rigs
I was wondering the coordinates for the circle rigs out of Belle pass. This is a group of rigs in a circle with numerous artificial reefs made up of old oil rigs and military APC’s. I believe it is approximately 30 miles due south of the pass?[…]
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Live fast; die young
If ever a motto could be used to describe a fish, this one describes the dolphin, the riotously-colored, hyperkinetic, blue-water fish that Hawaiians aptly call mahi-mahi, which translates out as “strong-strong.”[…]
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Killer new crossbows
In this day and age, the archery industry — like many others — has become extremely competitive and overcrowded, with new manufacturers constantly entering the marketplace.[…]
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Public access to tidal waters in jeopardy
Louisiana’s beloved fishing areas are known worldwide as the Sportsman’s Paradise.[…]
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Don’t mess with this cook!
Sheri Birk of Southern Exposure Inland Fishing Charters shares her recipes for Crab Cakes with Dill Remoulade and Crawfish Étouffée.[…]
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Check the boat before going afloat
Whether your particular brand of good time boating involves fishing, skiing, riding personal watercrafts or simply cruising down the river, proper preparation and planning are crucial to boating safely. […]
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Ground proving buck age
We began a general discussion of this topic in the recent February, 2017 installment of Happy Trails. Let’s now go a little further and expand the discussion. Ground proving bucks means harvesting bucks that you believe meet your minimum goals, collecting their lower jaw bones for “tooth replacement/wear” age estimates, then comparing the earlier “live on-the-hoof” eyeball age estimate with the jawbone indicated age for confirmation or clarification.[…]
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Fishing is not always about catching
Louisiana experienced a mild winter and the inshore fishing never really slowed down. However, there are always those couple of days around a front where the fishing slows for a while.[…]
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The Cooyon Croaker
Zach Dubois, 24, has a highly successful sac-a-lait grub on the market and recently introduced the Cooyon Croaker, a plastic frog sure to appeal to bass fishermen wherever bass eat frogs.[…]
Columns
The madness of March is over
The madness that happens during the month of March began when the soothsayer told Caesar to beware the Ides of March. Julius did not listen and paid the price for ignoring it.[…]
Apex Predator
Apex Predator: Noodling for giant alligator snapping turtles – in a pirogue
My buddy and I once saw some holes in a steep bank during a low-water period that looked great for noodling catfish. So before the summer months arrived when I went spearfishing for cats, I decided to try some noodles near the holes. […]
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A contested matter
Later this month, the Coastal Conservation Association’s summer-long STAR tournament kicks off in Louisiana. Once again, there’s a fly fishing division. Awards will go to the anglers weighing in the heaviest speckled trout in the East and West Divisions.[…]
Ask Captain Paul
Tides in Louisiana
I regularly get questions about the time and range of the tides in Louisiana coastal marshes. Many of the inquiries are about the time of the published tides from various sources listed as compared to the actual times that the high and low tides occur, and how are they determined.[…]
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Croakers: blue-collar gamefish
Let’s face it; there’s nothing glamorous about croakers.
Some of the other members of its family have a lot more pizzazz — a redfish is more powerful than a locomotive; a speckled trout is faster than a speeding bullet. […]
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Get things stabilized
A stabilizer’s purpose is to help an archer hold steadier on target before releasing the arrow, and to reduce rotation (torque) during the shot cycle. […]