Fly Fishing Louisiana Redfish: “The Land Of Giants”

Posted under fly fishing news, fly fishing reports by Will Benson

12hrs. That’s how long it takes to drive from New Orleans to Naples towing a flats skiff; and it’s not nearly enough time to remember all the great fish we caught in the marsh. Dave and I laughed and theorized about setting the hook, what color they liked best, where the next coolest spot is, and how awful the drive was at the end of the day back to Luling… Find that on the map. Travis, god bless him, has a reason to live an hour an a half from the dock. It’s because any number of docks can be reached within that drive. No shit! And being on the Redfish Tour means you have to know everything there is to know about Southern Louisiana from Slidell to Morgan City. I have to admit, the drive absolutely killed me, but I learned more about fishing and where the next level is in the last month, than I have in the last 2 years of guiding. In only a Cajun view of the world it all makes sense. And that’s the point I’m trying to get at. Louisiana is just different. It’s still a part of the United States as we depend on it heavily for oil, seafood and other goods, but the mindset is 1/2 American 1/2 French 1/2 Black and 1/2 Southern. Everything is on a different clock down here. You really have to let go in order to get by. And that’s typically un-American. Everywhere you look you see the absurd. Mardi Gras is the epitome of this. It’s the party to end all parties, and no one can escape it– excess in every direction. And we were all about it! Especially the freakishly enormous redfish that inhale Mardi Gras colored flies.

I believe it’s one of the coolest things in saltwater fly fishing. I tell people, ” if you want to experience what fishing would have been like 200 years ago, this is it.” It’s simply ridiculous! It’s redfishing to end all redfishing, it’s not just good, it’s a bite away from too much, stuffed, intoxicated. But the history of the redfish in this part of the world is an interesting one. Only years ago the redfish in this part of the world were almost wiped out by chef Paul Prudhomme’s blackened redfish recipe. The Pogie fisherman would net them by the hundreds of thousands. When the state finally put a size and bag limit on the fish and the federal government made it illegal to possess a redfish in federal waters the population made a resounding comeback and today they are thriving. Today the area is flush with schools of redfish of all sizes. In the summer when the fish come into certain bays as the larger schools move with the bait, it’s possible to see thousands of fish a day. There are many theories about the redfish’s population resurgence and what exactly is happening with this fishery, but from what I have seen over the years of fishing here and talking to the commercial fisherman and other local anglers, is that what we’re witnessing may be the cataclysmic collapse of the fishery as the marsh washes into the Gulf. Vital sediment is not making it way down the Mississippi River and the fresh water that the government does let flow down into the marsh is simply too little too late. The marsh is being eaten by the sea and in the process all the critters that live in it are being consumed by the redfish. The marsh’s erosion is creating an environment in which the redfish are perfectly suited. We’ve all herd the statistics about how much land is being lost but my favorite is “a football field every 38 minutes.” It’s really scary to think that it took 6,000 years to build the Louisiana peninsula and it’s taken 60 to destroy it. Damning the river, altering the delta’s natural flooding cycle and the open contracts the state of Louisiana gave the oil companies in 1938 to cut through the marsh to run pipelines are the reasons it’s eroding. And after Katrina when overnight destruction intensified the awareness of the loss we consider fishing spots in places like Port Sulfur and Empire that have been simply wiped off the map. The captains there are starting to see a decline in the fishing as the habitat disappears. There just aren’t as many places to fish as there used to be.

We know it’s coming. It’s just matter of time–last call. Unless we do something about the larger situation the marsh will eventually fall into the sea. For that reason I feel really lucky to have the opportunity to experience the marsh. It’s a wild and beautiful place. And as far as sight fishing with a fly rod… It’s Mardi Gras baby! Getch ya sum well ya cann! ‘Cause when the police come down Bourbon, it’s all over.
Louisiana Fishing contacts: Greg Arnold www.fishingthelandofgiants.com , Uptown Angler www.uptownangler.com .

We will be making an appearance for the second half of the Fly Fishing Film Tour with brand new footage from our trip. So check out dates at www.aegmedia.com and enjoy the show.