Sidebars
Treble hooks hold tight
Capt. Tommy Pellegrin uses slip corks because they make it so easy to cast.
He uses slip corks because they make it so easy to cast, even working over deep water.[…]
Sidebars
Inshore Fishing
Tippets
Early July should be great surf fishing for speckled trout. Try poppers starting at first light. An hour after the sun rises, switch to Clouser Minnows or other baitfish patterns. An intermediate or sink tip line will help get the fly down in the trough areas where the larger trout are feeding.[…]
Sidebars
Beating the barrier islands
When conditions are slick enough to allow you to work the beaches on the barrier islands, ice chests can quickly fill with solid trout throughout the summer.[…]
Sidebars
How to tie a uni knot stopper
Tying a uni knot stopper is easy and quick, once you get the steps down.[…]
Sidebars
Why sliding corks are best
After the early morning topwater action dies out, it’s pretty much a sure bet Capt. Tommy Pellegrin will turn to live shrimp.[…]
Sidebars
The bay is all about structure
If conditions rule out fishing the beaches — or if the bite just isn’t on — plenty of action awaits in Timbalier Bay.[…]
Bass Fishing
Hot topics
When planning your summer bass outing, keep these points in mind:[…]
Bass Fishing
Tips for Blind River summertime bass
• Look for places that bass go to eat. That’s where they congregate. Focus on sloughs and points without ruling out bank fishing.[…]
Crappie/Bream
Geared up and ready to go
With tackle stores full of a thousand sizes, shapes, styles and colors of crappie jigs and fishing equipment, you could spend days or weeks just trying to figure out what to fish with. Or you could just let Bobby Phillips tell you his favorite go-to gear, and copy this veteran guide’s success.[…]
Bass Fishing
Johnson’s Blind River bait calendar
Topwater frogs and Texas-rigged craws are “in season” on Blind River for Lyle Johnson from March to November. But he is quick to admit that the Texas craw is his mainstay lure. The clear water coming out of the sloughs draining into the river is what prompted his heavy use of the frog the day we fished.[…]
Crappie/Bream
The Ouachita’s long and winding path
There are more than 90 miles of Ouachita River between the Arkansas line and the Columbia Lock and Dam in Northeast Louisiana. The river lakes, bayous and cuts off the river are too numerous to mention. But the nice thing is that good access is available up and down the river, and prime fishing isn’t far away. […]
Bass Fishing
Don’t cook a record fish
“Get in the books.” That’s Lyle Johnson’s message to his fellow fishermen.
As chairman of the state’s Fish Records Program, he encourages people to enter their fish, even if it isn’t a No. 1.[…]
Crappie/Bream
What’s a “top”?
A top is simply a submerged brush top, the top of a bush or tree or a fallen tree with lots of submerged limbs. Tops sometimes lay where they fall, and other times current washes them onto sandbars or into river lakes.[…]
Bass Fishing
A ‘consumptive conservationist’
Lyle Johnson wears a lot of hats.
The Gonzales native is the long-serving president of the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association (LOWA), the state’s professional organization for outdoors writers and communicators.[…]
Crappie/Bream
How to catch your own grass shrimp
Leonard Kleinpeter stresses that a proper dip net is needed to effectively catch grass shrimp from their preferred habitat, dense beds of coontail and other aquatic plants. […]
Bass Fishing
Blind River: Pros and cons
Blind River is one of Southeast Louisiana’s secret spots. Located between the major population centers of urban and suburban New Orleans and Baton Rouge, it may be accessed from U.S. Highway 61, which parallels Interstate Highway 10.[…]