My First Louisiana Redfish Trip
Back in the 1960's, when my mother left Cuba at 6 years of age, she was sent to live with a relative in Eunice Louisiana. Being that my mother is the one responsible for my fishing addiction, I have always wanted to go fish Louisiana.
For some odd reason, my travels have never led me that way, until now.
We loaded up the truck and left Miami Wednesday afternoon at around 4pm and made it to camp at about 4am; it took us about 13 hours, with the time zone change. We got checked in, unloaded our gear and hit the water, with little to no sleep. It was a weird day, partially 'cause the lack of sleep, (probably mostly) but it was overcast with high winds, and cold temps. We checked out an area near camp and saw a bunch of small reds and managed one little fish, about 18”. We started to look around some more but went back in for lunch. After a gourmet meal that consisted of microwave pizza and energy drinks, we got back on the water and ventured a little further; we got into some better fishing. Way up the creeks, fishing mud banks, we caught a few more reds; with one being 27” and another 30”.
We called it a day, due to exhaustion and came back to camp. I was on the phone on the balcony and spotted some reds tailing in the marsh behind camp, so I went down and caught three more, but those were very little.
Day 2: Did some more exploring, this time specifically trying to target big fish. We took what we saw from Day 1 and tried to figure out where, and how to find the big fish.
The following morning, we woke up to similar conditions; cold, windy, and overcast. We decided to go get breakfast and figure out a game plan. We decided to try out a different area completely, so we went back to camp to grab the skiff and head northward. But when we got back to camp, it was super sunny, as the clouds had moved to the north, so we made the call and decided to fish near camp again.
The winds were even harder this day (20-30mph) but we had great vis. We get out there and find some nice big schools of bulls. My buddy Damian got one, then I️ picked one off myself, but our other buddy lost three big bulls. We came across about 7 schools of big fish tailing.
We ended the day with 2 bulls that posed for photos, and lost 3 others, and landed a couple small guys.
Day 3: We Have the MEAT!
We took what we learned from the first two days, came up with a game plan and now it was time to execute it, and that we did!
First up, Ramiro was ready to get redemption for the day before. Within minutes, we find a big school of fish tailing like it's their last meal. Ram get's up, first cast comes tight!
Immediate redemption, get's this big fish to his hands and then we were off!
School after school, double up, triple up, big fish tailing so hard!
After a couple hours of nonstop action, we decided to run offshore in search of big jacks. We came tight on two huge jacks, but they busted us off, one after a crazy run, and the other broke me off boat-side.
Damian was fighting a big fish and some porpoise showed up, so he tried horsing it in on the 9wt and it snapped the rod in half, but he still managed to get the fish in.
I was blown away by the fishery Louisiana has to offer. So much life, so much bait, and so many redfish! The folks were incredibly friendly, and the food was great. We are going to be doing this trip every year, and to be honest I might be heading back up before the end of season!
Here are a few more photos!
Until next time!
-Eric Estrada