LAFITTE, La. – For the most part, redfishing in southern Louisiana means venturing into clear, shallow, backwater ponds that redfish call home.
But over the last several weeks, professional redfish anglers have been tapping into a different kind of redfish pattern – a deep-water bite along the Mississippi River.
According to several anglers who fish the area frequently, the Mississippi River has been quite low and clear this summer, and that has changed the playing field somewhat. Instead of avoiding the usual muddy, roiling waters of the Mighty Mississippi by going way back into ponds, anglers have been able to fish right in the river itself.
“The Mississippi is the lifeblood of this whole system,” said Billy Wallbaum of Shreveport, La., who, along with team partner Anthony Randazzo of Belle Chase, La., won the Redfish Cup tournament last week by fishing right off the main river.
“When the river gets low and clear, the reds tend to move towards it and bunch up in big schools around structure,” he noted. “Sometimes that bite can be better than the pond bite because anglers are able to cull through so many fish in a day to find the perfect slot reds.
“But the problem is, those big schools will move in a heartbeat. One day there is a thousand redfish under your boat, and the next day the herd has moved on to another location to feed somewhere else. Pond fish, by nature, are a lot more stationary.”
Wallbaum-Randazzo experienced this phenomenon during the Redfish Cup event last week when they caught hundreds of redfish from one spot along the river.
Throughout practice for the FLW Redfish Series, many teams sampled the spot and confirmed that the number of redfish in the area was truly mind-boggling.
But by the start of FLW Redfish Series event Thursday, those fish were gone. At least a dozen teams gave the hot spot a try Thursday without a bite.
Meanwhile, other anglers probing deep water along the river found success on day one of the Redfish Series.
The team of Blair Wiggins and Tadd Vandemark, currently in second with 15-15, identified the key components of Randazzo and Wallbaum’s honeyhole, went in search of something similar and struck pay dirt.
“Their spot had several key features,” Wiggins said. “Clear, green water, deep structure and plenty of bait. Tadd took those clues and went looking. He found an area that’s very similar to it. The only difference is our deep structure is wood, not rock, but it’s working.”
Another team fishing deep is the team of James France and Gene Lessman, both of Texas, currently in 15th with 14-14 after an 8-ounce dead-fish penalty.
Interestingly, France-Lessman are actually sight-fishing to depths of 10 feet. The team has located a steep rock bank where they can see fish roaming up and down the structure.
“Believe me, the way we’re fishing is not normal for here,” France said. “Normally you can’t see down 5 inches where we’re fishing, but now you can see the bottom in 10 feet.”
“Our boat is out in about 15 feet of water, and we can see everything that swims down this bank,” Lessman said. “When we see a redfish come moseying down the rocks, we just pitch a bait out to it, and it eats – it’s so much fun.”
Though most of the top five teams caught their fish in ponds yesterday, a majority of them say they’ve got a deep spot or two on the river they are checking periodically to make sure the mother lode has not pulled up.
The day-two weigh-in of the FLW Redfish Series Western event out of Lafitte begins at 3 p.m. CDT at Lafitte Harbor Marina.
Friday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:41
Temperature at takeoff: 71 degrees
Water temperature: 85 degrees
Expected high temperature: 91 degrees
Wind: light and variable
Tides: high – 11:31 a.m.; low – 6:16 p.m.
Day’s outlook: sunny and warm