Devin
Forum Replies Created
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Yes, that’s true. I forget what year it happened but IIRC marinas wanted to sell live bait year round. I had one marina tell me that they made something like $400,000/year cash selling live bait. Good for them, I hope they make a good living, but this is proof that the old saying “follow the money” goes both ways.
I think live bait could help unskilled anglers catch fish when they otherwise wouldn’t, but I think what it certainly does is get people out on the water who wouldn’t otherwise go fishing with that “insurance policy”. That definitely results in more fishing pressure.
And I never really pointed fingers at it because there are certain folk who sell live shrimp who absolutely raise a stink whenever I had, and at the end of the day I have to see these folks and maintain decent relationships with them. Some just cannot be satiated, some are keyboard commandos and some aren’t bothered by it all.
On another note, that’s awesome you found this. I love learning the history of inshore fishing in Louisiana. Even reading old books at the Slidell library that were published many years ago about fishing. You never know what you may come across, or what people have forgotten.
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Hey Bryan, welcome to the forum. Great to have you here, and thank you for posting an intro. Check my last report for Seabrook in Lake Pontchartrain, you may not need to drive all the way to Delacroix or Hopedale if the wind is right.
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“we fishing the rocks at the mouth in the river along with the rest of Venice it seemed”
There’s probably been a good deal of fish there, but I bet it plays out like any other community hole: gotta get there first.
“After a long long day we only caught the 3 trout. Sigh.”
I hate to hear that.
” I don’t even care that I didn’t hammer the trout.”
I have had the most brutal days there of running and not seeing a dang thing, getting stuck, getting unstuck, more empty water and I always leave there like “dang, what a day”.
“I caught some hammers and got to fish in areas I would’ve never dreamed of taking my 17 ft bass boat when I first bought it”
It’s the guy driving the boat, not the boat itself, that matters. Much respect.
“Or maybe they’re not totally there yet and will be soon.”
Water temp is still pretty warm, especially for freakin’ November. There was a great report out of the Long Rocks, so who knows?
Right now I am waiting for some parts to come in for my boat (alternator, etc.) and will be headed to Venice ASAP after those parts are installed. I just need to get down there or I am going to implode. As always, I’ll give a report when I do.
I do think it’s worth mentioning that when I fish 1st Spillway I fish just outside of it on the south side of the weir on the south side of the spillway going into the river. I’ve just done better there. Then, from there, I drift down and fish the rocks.
Venice may need to get colder. I just don’t know. I’ve heard that the guides are wrecking the trout down there, so the trout must be somewhere. But where? Well, I hope to help answer that question.
This was a great report. I appreciate you taking time to post it and keep us updated. Thank you so much!
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What you saw at the mouth of 1st Spillway was probably one of the weirs. I dunno. It’s just Venice and of course there’s things down there to snag. lol
I’d say Day 1 was a good start. You know where to try and where not to go.
“Next cast was a 20” hammer. Both under a cork. We couldn’t land anything else, so I headed north to the second spillway.”
Did you only fish a cork there? You didn’t jig the rocks at all? I’m sure you did!
“I made the run from the spillway, up Zin Zin, and into Williams Pass (West Bay Cut) with the route I posted in my planning post and it was safe.”
This is gold. Thank you so much!
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I’ve been checking this board non stop for an update from you. Okay, I’m gonna read it all and mull it over.
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Looks like some kind of defining border. Look at “Layers” in the left hand sidebar and see what you have checked.
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I honestly don’t listen to fishing podcasts or watch fishing Youtube (or YouTube in general). Most podcasts I listen to are of a totally different topic and after that I read books. In the last couple months I read Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter, Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham, The Hobbit, Fellowship of The Ring and am about to finish up Two Towers before starting the final book of that series.
I don’t listen to fishing podcasts because hardly any cover inshore fishing, the production quality is poor or, more often than not, it’s an echo chamber, predictable or something I already know. I really don’t want to hear someone talk about their favorite color or their “giant leap” to become a fishing guide with their flexible part-time job with benefits. So brave and stunning.
But, someone before mentioned the Tuna Town Talks podcast and while I think the host must be new-ish to Louisiana and that he can do a better job asking the hard questions, his heart is in the right place and he works hard for his content. He has great episodes, but one that really stands out in my mind is an episode with a marine biologist studying triple tail. It’s a fantastic episode, and even more so if you’re interested in TT. It was really interesting and fun to listen to.
Also, I saw @McLovin mention another one that seemed interesting:
Thinking along the lines of trophy trout fisheries, I was listening to the Cut and Retie podcast and they had an episode dedicated to people catching their first striped bass in the northeast. Overfishing had basically destroyed the striper population to the point that a moratorium was put in place. All these guys talked about how it was so unheard of to even catch a striper. Something several of them mentioned was how strong the weakfish population was during that time. Weakfish are extremely closely related to speckled trout and striped bass basically fill the same role as redfish once you get up around New Jersey.
I think that’s a good reason to listen to non-LA inshore podcasts, to gain fresh perspectives. I did so for years and just got burnt out on it. It can be hard sifting through hours of non-relevant information to find something that is.
I thought this would be a good thread for folks to chime in on, so I made it. That and maybe there’s something really good out there I’m not aware of.
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Yeah, whenever I think I need a new boat I just go look at prices and that instantly cures me. I hate that fishing has become so expensive!!
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Hopefully that storm fizzles out and the wind will be better. But as it stands right now, a lot of water is going to dump out on Sunday. I don’t care what the tide says, with all that east wind pushing water in then the wind turning around on Sunday out of the west, chances are that Sunday can be pretty epic.
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Okay, so you know, due to the current I was throwing a 1/2oz jig up against the rocks. IIRC it drops off to 8ft or deeper pretty quick.
“I have felt this way every time I’ve left there and I have yet to hammer anything there lol. Adventure is a hell of drug.”
I don’t know if/when you plan on going back but when you do we need to make certain you catch some damn fish down there. Let me get down there and run my stuff and figure it out. Or it may be better to just fish Lake P area until Venice cools off. I dunno, not without looking at it. But man, for you to get down there and run those routes (and catch some fish anyway) and not rip off your lower unit, I’d say you were pretty shit hot.
“That spot was where I landed those first two specks. It’s a great looking spot. I definitely want to pac man those rocks. I was so fired up at that point on day 1, I was ready to run and gun everywhere lol.”
I’ll probably Pac Man that thing in the next couple weeks or so. A lot of B-roll on the Captain Devin Fishing Youtube channel came from that spot, especially the Pac Man video.
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Todd Masson is a good dude. You really have to give him credit for making the pivot from writer/editor to video (YouTube), especially spending so long as an established writer.
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How did I forget to mention this one? Speckled Truth is the bee’s knees. The episode with Greg Stunz and Quentin Hall is amazing. I think it’s this one here.
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I talked a little bit about this issue with Tony from ASGA, as he is a Chesapeake striper angler, and they definitely have a problem up there. Overfishing is one, but their menhaden stock took a dump, too. I would say they have a multi-faceted problem.
1. More available forage than Texas or Florida and they have “more” big trout. I don’t think it’s a forage issue. After that, we had more redfish during the time before the Freshening when most of Louisiana’s top ten trout were caught.
2. Bass did not out compete specks and reds. What hurt specks and reds was the massive, totally unprecedented amount of river water that came down the pipe from 2011 to 2020. IIRC, it was worse than 1927, we just didn’t see the same infrastructure damage because we had levees and spillways in place. If prime spawning grounds for those inshore species is nuked with record amount of river water, then there will be no good spawns. If those fish are concentrated into places like The Wall and brought home in an ice chest, then they are dead.
3. Probably. It makes sense they get big by avoiding predation.
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“My perspective changed on how large of a fish another fish will eat when I saw the guy who found a dead 30″ trout with a 16″ mullet in its stomach lol.”
I’ve seen that picture, too! That was wild! Absolutely mind boggling!
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Well, you can’t make your own opinions based off your own observations, you have to repeat what the rest of the herd is saying. lol
