December 5, 2013 Report.

The Mississippi River stage, down here at Venice, has jumped up about a foot and the water color has turned from clear green to a brownish murky color, and the water temperature has dropped to around 56 degrees. What does that mean? I am not exactly sure. It’s just an observation. We are still catching fish in the river, but as everything gets colder the bite in the river will slow down, and eventually the Redfish and the Speckled Trout will all be in the outside waters surrounding the river. The colder water temperature has also brought some foggy conditions at times. The Venice area can be one of the foggiest places you will ever be around between December and May. This week I had one of my clients ask me if the fish bite in the fog. I said “yes, but we have to get to the fish-alive.” I have my Garmin gps and my Furuno radar, but even so your chances of running aground or worse, running into something, goes way up when you cannot see what is ahead of you. You don’t want to go out in it to start your day, but if the fog moves in on you during your trip you need your electronics to get you back to the dock.

The big “Bull” Redfish have not disappointed us here lately. I had Neil and Hulen Ford come fishing with me this last weekend. They are from Texas, and they fish with me several times a year. They want to catch those big Redfish, and the weather conditions allowed us to fish one of the areas that has been holding some big Reds lately. We had to work for them, but they were there. We caught 20 plus fish each day. The largest was 29 pounds. None of them were under 18 pounds. We did not catch huge numbers of fish, but it was steady. We also missed just as many fish as we boated, so the action was not bad. We were using a soft plastic on a lead head under a popping cork. The big Redfish wore Hulen out the first two days, so on the third day they wanted to target smaller fish in the river, so we set up in an area where some Speckled Trout usually are. Due to murky water conditions we used lead heads tipped with frozen shrimp. It worked. We caught about 50 Specks, four Sheepshead, one fresh water catfish, four hardhead catfish, two slot Redfish, two under sized Redfish that we released, and Hulen caught a 22 pound Redfish that decided to come by. We never moved the boat. Just what the doctor ordered. They had to catch a flight, so we went in early. We left the fish biting.

These guys said they had a great time. They said the food was great at the Fish On Venice Lodge. They enjoyed the football games in the evening. They are coming back in February for some winter Redfishing in Venice.

Call now to book your next fishing trip. Come discover the Redfish Fishing capital of the world : Venice , Louisiana!