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Oysters, Crabs & Redfish Son! Oh…Now you living on the bayou!
Posted under fly fishing reports by Will Benson
too many cameras
When oyster is king, Bozo’s the mayor, and Redfish look like big fat pumpkins, you know you’ve arrived at the End Of The World. The marsh of southern Louisiana is essentially foreign. A place lost in time. Slowly it’s sinking into the Gulf. As the people await an uncertain future time idles down the bayou. On a clear quiet night in the marsh you can hear coyotes howling as they work together at night to chase down deer and boar. It’s an eerie reminder that the land itself is being eaten by the ocean. “This the marsh Son…ain’t no otha place like it nowhere.” The terrain is immense, with corners that are hidden and hard to find. Mostly because they’re right next to you. Its natural bounty is incredibly rich, and its residents big and happy. At least when the sun shines and the daytime temperatures climb above 55 degrees. Winter is big bull redfish season in Louisiana and Dave and I have been chasing the ideal conditions between fronts looking for the opportunity to land seriously big Redfish sight fishing with a fly. Although we’ve had shots at giants, we have yet to crack the 35 pound mark with a really big fish. Right now we’re getting a front every 3-5 days. The 48 hours leading up to the front usually see the winds go east then die. Depending upon when the front pushes through we might get a day, day and a half if we’re lucky. But when it goes off it’s a freekshow! You might have to wait out clouds or bitter windy days but it’s all worth it when your arms hurt after pulling on monsters. The crew at Maverick has loaned me a HPX-T to use this year which opened up so many places I wouldn’t think of going to before. Tom Bie from the Drake just dropped in for a couple of days to check out some of the footage Dave and I are assembling for the upcoming Fly Fishing Film Tour. He of course got to catch a few fish while he was in town but not before complaining about how cold it was. He got to experience 35mph winds and 45 degree temps. Pretty cold for flats fishing. So he decided to go home to Denver and show up at a very important meeting…Bad decision. The weather broke and Bear said he knew a spot. And when Bear tells you he knows a spot and wants to show you…you go. But Tom would have been one photographer too many today as we fished alongside Tim Romano, and Roy Tanami of Field and Stream. Bear captured the record for most cameras on board at a time and we caught the crap out of redfish Son!
My arms are sore and my fingers tired of typing. Dave is telling me to just be done with it, but I’m pumped! Maybe I’ll tie an even bigger fly and see if I can get them to eat it off the surface tomorrow.
W