Florabama

Had the French pirate, Jean Lafitte not agreed (in exchange for a full pardon)to come to the aidof Andrew Jackson atthe battle of New Orleans, we wouldall besinging God Save the Queen instead of The Star Spangled Banner.But Lafitte earned his pardon. He and hisband ofpirateskilled hundreds of Red Coats in the swamps of the Mississippi River Delta to turn the tide for the good guys.

RedCoats are hard to come by these days, and probably illegal to shoot, so Spearfisher, myself and my brother-in-law, headed to the town that carriesLafitte's name, to hunt for Redfish. Lafitte (the town) lies in the middle of the Mississippi River Delta west of the river -- about a four and a half hour drive from Pensacola.Here's a link to Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...p;t=h&z=12

We stayed in a fish camp/marina and fished with CaptainTodd Dufour. This was our second year, but we plan to make this trip an annual tradition.

We fished again this year with Capt. Todd Dufour.

http://www.members.cox.net/tmdufour/index.html

He's part of a group of guides that work out of Harbour Marina at Lafitte.

http://www.teamlafitteharbor.com/med...post_08_04.pdf

They are all excellent guides that'll put you on fish,but we're partial to Toddfor reasons that will be plain by the end of this post.

We drove overSaturdaymorning and by the afternoon had gotten settled into our "deluxe" cabin (it probably wouldn't get a halfstar rating, but that just adds to the charm of the place).

Mardi Gras never ends in this part of the world, andThe Krewe of Alla was wrapping up their one day fishing tournament. Theywere in full party mode with a bandblaring just a few feet from our front door. That didn't bother us too much untilthey hadn't shut up by about 6 p.m.They soon called it a wrap and we threw some steaks on the grill and washed them back with some cold beer.

We were at the dock at 6 a.m. and Todd was already there and ready to go.He takes each trip as a personal challenge. He simply won't allow you tocomebackto the dock withoutfish even if that means scolding you a little for not being as serious as he is.

A few minutes later and we were flying across the deltain Todd's newRanger Bay boat with a 225Yammy 4 stroker.



Watching the sun rise over the water never gets old no matter where you're fishing. I'm always reminded of the majesty ofGod at a moment like this.



Soon Todd put us on Redfish, but we were not quite ready. We were slowto cast and off target but still managed acouple of hook ups but lost them due to over anxiousness. Toddscolded usa little for not being ready. He said we would only get a few seconds to get on them before they moved off and if we were goofing off we might come home without fish. That was when we realized that Todd was more serious aboutfishing than we were. We shaped up andgotready for the next try, and as the day wore on we started putting more and more nice redfish in the box.

Going back up into the Louisiana marsh is like going back in time. Gators and Bald Eagles are not uncommon sights.





Bymid-afternoon we still lackedabout 4 fish for our 20 redfish limit (5 per person counting the guide). Todd got a phone call from one of his guide buddies telling him there were schooling reds in Lake Salvador. Todd threw the hammer down andwe took off at 50 mph over the water. At that speed itwas still a 20 minute boat ride thatate up a lot of gas, but that's how serious Todd wasabout getting us our limit.

We hit Lake Salvadorand the other guide pulled up along side of us and began telling us stories of massive schools of reds. They had four peopleon their boatand had gotten their 25 fish limit in a few minutes, then proceeded to catch and release dozens of reds. They took off for the house and we started looking for the school. We were all alone on the lake.

Soon, we saw what we were looking for--a giant school of reds churning up the water.



We crep up on them and started casting.



They were like piranhas. Within a few minutes we had our four fish and then started to catch and release.



Some were small rat-reds,



but many were good sized



After catching and releasing another 2 or 3 dozen fish, we were exhausted and headed back to the dock with ourlimit.In Louisiana, you can keep 1 redfish over the 27" slot and 4 in the slot for a 5 fish per person limit. We each had our overslot red andour limit ofslot reds plus 5 more to count for Todd.

Back at the dock, over a couple of cold beers,we couldn't stop talking aboutthe action.



We went to dinner at one of two local resturants in Lafitte -- Buotte's. You would think a place surrounded bytrout and redfish would serve one or the other, but they didn't and the shrimpwas not very good. Next time we're bringing our fish cooker andcooking some of our catch right at our cabin.

The next day, we were at the dock at 5:30. Todd was again already therebut we surprised him a little by being so early. He wasn't quite ready to go, but he knew we were serious about getting going. We decided to try for trout since we had worked onnothing but reds the previousday.

Todd took us to some grass flatsand soon we were all catching specks. They were small, but lots of fun to catch. We threw back most of them, but put a few keepers in the box. By mid-morningwe had about 30 specks, but no reds.

Todd again put the hammer down and back to the lake we went. We met the other guide who had given us the tip yesterday. They were looking for the lake reds too but hadn't found them today. This got me worried. I didn't relish the thought of having to admit that wedidn't get a single red on our second day. After a long 30 minutes ofcrisscrossing the lake, Todd said, "I think I see them."

I couldn't see anything -- certainly nothing like thesurface action we had seen the day before.

"Where?" I asked Todd. He said sometimes the school is deep but the water's only6 or 8 feet in the middle. The school will move the surface of the water just by swimming along. You have to know what you're looking for, but the water will move a little differently when a school of reds are swimming along a few feet below.

Sure enough, within a fewminutes we we back on the school. This time, they had notcome to the surface, but Todd had found them and we each hooked up on the first cast. Within ten minutes, we had our 20 redfish limit and for the next hour and a half, we caught and released redfish untilmy hands were too sore to reel.



Back at the dock, we again had our limit of reds plus 30 nice specks to go with them. It was a trip we'll be talking aboutfor a long time to come.

holy Spear-it

Great report Rich. Sounds like alot of fun.

GONU

Definitely sounds cool! great report.

spearfisher

that was the most fun I've ever had inshore fishing. We literally caught fish until we couldn't lift our arms any more. If you want to catch fish like you have never caught before give Todd a call. He is an amazing guide that will put you on the fish big time.

FishingMedic

Man.....sound like a dream trip :bowdown:bowdown

mdrobe2

Great report with plenty of pics and a well thought out narration. I would have freaked if I saw a school of reds like that- I would have wanted to jump overboard and rassle one! Sounds like you guys had a similar experience to what we had in LA- awesome fishery and great folks. Can't believe you had a bad meal though. Typically cajuns can cook!

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