January 6, 2014 Report.

I took out some fellows from Boston, Massachusetts this last weekend fishing for some Redfish. Neil and Mark took the last plane out of the airport up there last week before the airport shut down due to all the bad weather. They were scheduled to go out with me today, but I called them Friday and told them about all the heavy wind for this week, and we decided to go out Saturday. Good thing they were flexible with their schedule, because I sure would not have wanted to be out there today with the cold and wind.

We met at Cypress Cove Marina in Venice and headed down river to an area that was fishable, and most likely had some fish around. It had been before Christmas since I had been fishing, but I planned the trip just as I always do: go where the weather will permit you to go and start looking for the fish. With the Mississippi River stage rising to around 10 feet in New Orleans, the Redfish are hanging around the outside bays and beaches- not in the river. It will be that way until sometime in the Summer. We got to the area where I wanted to start fishing for big Redfish. We drifted a beach in four feet of water using Popping corks with soft plastics under them. It did not take me long to realize that these guys fished a good bit. They caught on to what my strategy was for fishing pretty quick. The problem was that we did not get a bite for a half an hour. It was dead low tide with murky water. I cranked up and moved to an area about four miles away to give it another try. About five minutes at our new spot Neil missed one, then hooked another one that he got to the boat. It weighed 22 pounds. Mark started hooking up as well and the fishing was on for the rest of the trip. Mark’s first Redfish ever went 22 pounds. Neil caught a monster Redfish weighing 38 pounds. They had three Redfish at 29 pounds. They boated about thirty Redfish and all but three were over 20 pounds. They probably missed 20 more Reds. I was not fishing. We were in three feet of muddy water. The Redfish can find your lure in muddy water. Glad we found the spot earlier instead of later. These guys had a good time.

Come on down and get in on some Redfish fishing. January and February are the toughest months to fish here because of these cold fronts, but its still good fishing. A tough day here is better than a good day in many other places.