Devin
Forum Replies Created
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Kicking this back to the top for whenever the River comes up in January. Or just go fish it now. lol
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Kicking this back to the top for Winter ’25/’26
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Kicking this to the top for winter ’25/’26.
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You’re right on time. With this last front it looks like it will finally stabilize around 54 degrees (water temp). I find it hard to believe that we had to wait until friggin mid December, but here we are.
So the winter fishing is really just now going to kick off. If it’s as good as it has been with the warmer water temps…
Of course I would say this, but I’d go to think the River would become that much better.
But also, hopefully the Biloxi Marsh, dead end canals, Delacroix, Hopedale, Chalmette, Lake Friggin’ Decade, etc. all turn on even more.
Man, am I itching for a legit Decade reports!!
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Ha ha ha ha ha! That’s awesome. I love the motivation!
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If you could only choose between the two, go with Yamaha. I’ve all three brands in one capacity or another and Yamaha/Suzuki needed the least maintenance. Good luck!
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You’ve been consistently on the fish in your kayak. That’s pretty amazing. Once it gets colder and the river comes up a little, I bet trout are going to pile into YCB.
Great report, thanks for posting!
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“I let you guess what happened there.”
Yeah, I’ve done that before. LOL
Great report, thanks for posting!
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Trout move out to spawn, slot reds do not. Slot reds are found in very low salinity or straight fresh water year round. During winter we catch specks in straight fresh water. They go where the food is, and there’s more food in and around the River than anywhere else. It’s not even close.
Of course, straight chocolate milk river water is a no-go for trout. But it isn’t chocolate milk in the River right now. It’s trout green and there is not a place in Louisiana where it’s more trout green than the River.
If people want to believe that salinity has anything to do with trout outside of the spawn…well….great. That means more fish for you and me. Well, just you. LOL
But I shall live vicariously through your exploits!
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I’d love to see the kayak side of LAFB Elite come to life. Please do this!
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Oh that’s pretty cool, I haven’t seen that before! It is an experimental product, but still neat. It makes sense the river would come up in January. Hopefully it goes down sooner in ’26. Like in April. That would be splendid.
But, even if/when the river does come up…well, great. Then that means you don’t have to fish it anymore. Follow the fish into the marsh, like at the beginning of this year.
Can’t wait to see the fishing reports!
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+1 on Suzuki!!
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“Just hard to fathom conditions that far up the river (and I mean in Empire/Buras) would support both trout and redfish”
They 1,000% do. It sounds like you’re in the camp of “specks and reds need saltwater all the time”. Many Louisianans (especially from St. Tammany, Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes) who are not experienced in the River think this, and they are horribly wrong.
Great. More trout for me and you. That’s all I’m going to say about that because I have absolutely beat this subject to death here, here, here and here. Not to mention the book published earlier this year (check Chapter One) or the YouTube videos (like this one, this one, this one and this one) where I am literally catching limits of nice trout in either clear-green river water or dirty brown river water (like in PLH last year).
I have caught redfish/speckled trout in the river at Empire and Buras. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
Empire/Buras is easy. Everyone knows that. You will see umpteen guides fishing both locations.
What I’m talking about (might wanna sit down for this lol) is fishing the river for speckled trout and redfish at Mardi Gras Pass, an additional sixteen miles upriver.
If one can find them, then you’d be the only guy who knows (or at least one of a handful). It would be worth the effort and risk of not-catching in order to learn “where they ain’t”. It will be like finding a needle in the haystack because there’s a lotta ledge and rip rap those fish could be on. But, if you find them….
And because they’re so close in, this is the time of year to get at them with a smaller boat. Totally doable. I think your idea of fishing PLH is brilliant. There are tons of planning posts here you can build off of, mostly from last year.
Good luck!
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“and the brackish marsh adjacent where fish like to feed.”
We catch them in the river. Surely you are not suggesting that speckled trout and need saltwater need saltwater to feed in? Not in the dead of December.
“say south of Joshua’s Marina?”
No. In the river.
“as fisherman in a smaller boat the thought of fishing in the river just scares me straight.”
This is a legitimate concern. I’ve navigated my 15ft flatboat in the river without a problem. It’s just like anywhere else: you gotta make your wind calls. At least in the river you have more protection, provided the wind isn’t blowing straight down the long axis of it.
“I have been thinking about returning to Beschel though and finding the edge of that outflow, last time it was in the appropriately named Battle Ground Bay.”
I think that’s a great idea. It paid off for me last year when the river came up, but there’s no reason not to try it now.
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Last year I had launched out of Beshel’s to run down the river to Buras and caught trout there. I have searched for trout outside of Mardi Gras Pass and never found them, but they have to be there somewhere.
Redfish, too. They gotta be somewhere.
