Saturday was the start of National Safe Boating Week: “Wear it” is the catch-phrase, words that the National Safe Boating Council is pushing around the country this week. For us in Louisiana, that’s missing the point. Being in a boat is a year-round proposition here. Our climes here mean fishing, … Continue reading →

Happy Mother’s Day. Much of what we enjoy in the outdoors is directly related to our mothers, maybe more than any of us know. Statistics abound tracking the dramatic decline in our country’s number of hunters to the rapid increase of single-parent families. Yes, there are other … Continue reading →

Making a move, even proposing a move, like the one Thursday during the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission’s meeting likely will spark national attention for weeks and months. Yes, the commission approved a Notice of Intent to institute a 2013 recreational red snapper season in state waters. OK, so the … Continue reading →

Maybe it’s because most folks around me are older that the term “bucket list” has become part of more and more conversations. Maybe it’s because more guys my age took time to take in Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson starring in the movie “The Bucket List,” that they decided to make their personal … Continue reading →

Lots of us older folks grew up with our parents’ adage an almost constant in our ears: Politely stated, it’s “The road to ruin is paved with good intentions.” It’s a saying we should repeat weekly beginning just about the time every spring when our State Legislature convenes. And it can be applied … Continue reading →

How much more can you stand to read about the tussle between recreational red snapper fishermen and federal fisheries managers will be sorely tested in the coming weeks and months. Fact is that recreational anglers, especially the folks who venture from Louisiana ports and marinas, finally are angry enough to launch a push … Continue reading →

Too bad during the week before Easter so much pent-up frustration throughout our state’s offshore fishing community was vented in such a way as to cast a pall over this glorious day. Sure, the ever-building anger over increasingly lower red snapper seasons and daily limits was bound to boil over. It was coming: … Continue reading →

After all the bad weather that blew through here in the past 36 hours, the weekend’s big question is where do we go from here. You can rule out rain-affected river systems, the still-connected oxbows off the still-rising Mississippi River and the high and still rising Atchafalaya Basin. The good news is that the sunny conditions … Continue reading →

Maybe it’s too early to state without reservation that a dire prediction made 25 years ago is coming true. Remember when redfish became a hot-button issue in the late 1980s? There was that incident when a purse-seine vessel’s nets broke and thousands of redfish littered state waters east of the Mississippi River. Continue reading →

Next week’s spring equinox always brings changes, and it looks like our part of the world is celebrating the event ahead of most of the rest of the country. True, the freshwater action for most bass and sac-a-lait fishermen took a tumble this weekend on a miserable combination of strong east winds, rain-swollen rivers and hard rises … Continue reading →

Yep, bad news comes in threes. This time last week, the news spread across Baton Rouge that John Barton Sr. and Ronnie Hoover had passed away. News like that is never good, especially when its followed by news that Percy Daigle had joined them in the great hunting and fishing paradise in the sky. Mr. … Continue reading →

No matter how many times you hear Lena Horne sing Stormy Weather, you’ll never hear six verses. But after five straight storm-ruled weekends, south Louisiana fishermen have that many. And because rain is predicted to start Thursday, and possibly linger into Monday, this weekend could be the worst of this young year. A “weak cold front” … Continue reading →

After watching Chris Lane blister the Bassmaster Classic field for three days last week on the Red River just south of Shreveport, there’s a need to beg forgiveness from several old-time bass fishermen for a 30-year-old mistake. It’s about the introduction of Florida-strain bass into Louisiana waters. When first proposed … Continue reading →

Thank goodness there are only three more weekends left in the season of winter, which, during the past four weekends, appears to come to south Louisiana only for weekend visits. Yep, for the fourth consecutive weekend, a “strong” cold front will hit the southern parishes and bring dramatically different conditions for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s south winds … Continue reading →

SHREVEPORT — Looking around this fabled northwest Louisiana city and the always-running-red Red River and it leads to wonder just how extra good fishing could be in our Sportsman’s Paradise if we dedicated more resources to this sport. While the fishing world knows about the piscatorial pleasures awaiting anyone … Continue reading →

Another Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Hearts and flowers, candy and dinner and even had a friend’s wife (his name will never be divulged here) Facebook-ed that he fixed dinner and watched a Katherine Hepburn movie (believe it was “Springtime”) with her and how much she adored her hubbie for taking … Continue reading →

By Joe Macaluso

It’s rare when so many folks who weren’t born here nor raised on the unbounded pleasures of bountiful hunting and fishing in Louisiana will commit themselves to saving our state. That rare instance comes this week in Washington, D.C. Their focus is “Vanishing Paradise,” an initiative by the National and … Continue reading →

Wind and more wind and another cold front coming in by Friday morning will dictate more of what we can and can’t do in the coming days. The current cold-front cycle for past four weekends leaves the best fishing days — at least the calmest days — for Mondays-Wednesdays. Despite 15-25 knot winds and rising … Continue reading →

The strong north winds will force us to change tactics much more than colder temperatures in the next days. Remember, we’ve had consecutive weekends of strong east winds that swelled water in every nook and cranny of our coastal marches. The east winds even sent Lake Pontchartrain water levels up nearly two feet. With gale warnings … Continue reading →

Another weekend of strong east winds means trips to protected areas. Except for cutting off the offshore action, that’s not all bad. Speckled trout are moving into the marshes to join the giant numbers of redfish and an increasing number of flounder and small black drum cruising into canals, bayous and inland bays and lakes. Bass … Continue reading →

There’s always a price to pay for this first taste of comfortable, fall weather and we’re going to pay for it this weekend. The front that’s brought us cool mornings, warm afternoons and clear skies through Saturday will strengthen its high-pressure grip over south Louisiana and bring extra-strong easterly winds and rough nearshore and offshore conditions through … Continue reading →

What’s a fisherman to do? Tropical Storm Lee left so much water that folks along major bayous and rivers from Pierre Part east to Madisonville continue to be able to catch fish in their backyards — on their backyard lawns. We should see lower water levels by the weekend: The Atchafalaya Spillway, up to more than … Continue reading →

If you’ve had trouble locating and catching speckled trout lately, blame it on the stretch of westerly winds and the muddy water those winds shoved into the Central Coast’s barrier islands. No such problems this week, not with the north winds that calmed waters since late Saturday and the run of south and southeast winds predicted for … Continue reading →

Conditions are setting up for the perfect summertime weekend. The only downer is the heat. Other than that, light winds and seas, a push from next Saturdayￕs full moon, and extra-strong tides could be the trick to shake speckled trout and other saltwater species out of the recent winds and seas problems brought by Tropical Storm Don and … Continue reading →

Sac-a-lait is the name of the game, or at least the big slabs being hauled from at least a dozen area waterways were the talk around the Capital City earlier this week. And with the Atchafalaya Spillway getting down to fishable levels, bass will join their sunfish cousins atop the “can’t-miss” list. When explosions like that … Continue reading →

Though some would like to keep it a secret, word is spreading fast about the explosion in action in the Atchafalaya Spillway. With Atchafalaya River levels falling below flood stage on all but Morgan City’s gauge, we can plan for what should be top-shelf bass, sac-a-lait, bream and catfish trips into the basin. On the saltwater … Continue reading →

There’s no secret about the effects of a full moon on coastal fishing, especially during what is “summer” - May through September - in Louisiana. Friday’s full moon means higher, stronger tides. These higher tides are going to hold for a couple of days before decreasing to weak levels by the middle of next week. Common … Continue reading →

The threat of thunderstorms is about the only downer for the coming weekend. Otherwise, the action has been lightning fast for the early risers. Dawn-busters own the action in freshwater and along the coast. That’s because the mid-morning sun is so hot that bass, sac-a-lait, trout and redfish are leaving the shallows for cooler, deeper water … Continue reading →

Best tip of the week - go fishing. Action abounds in freshwater and saltwater. Weather Mexico’s tropical storm is pushing groundswells into nearshore and offshore waters. Other than that, expect variable 5-10 knot winds and 1-3 foot seas along and off the coast through the Fourth of July weekend. The still-high Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers … Continue reading →