By Billy "Hawkeye" Decoteau
For the last fourteen-years several of my colleagues and I have been venturing down to Venice, Louisiana’s treasured estuary, spending three sunrise to sunset days enjoying the most outstanding largemouth bass and salt water fishing on earth! Yes, I said Venice, Louisiana the same location where the “BP Oil Spill’ occurred this year!
Obviously, we were extremely concerned, as was just about every America to what this disastrous contamination of natural crude oil’s effect would have on not only our piece of environmental paradise, but also to our guides and friends living within the Venice region.
Like a light switch being turned on and off our normally concrete plans seem to change daily. The media continuously would foretell the total destruction, contamination and cancer like disappearance of what once was a haven and breeding ground for feathered wildlife within the Marsh. The belly-up TV focused vision of this once thriving, living wild open aquarium where a brackish freshwater fishery, inhabited the same vegetation cover as their saltwater cousins, suddenly seemed totally out of focus.
“Out of Focus”, that is until we arrived! Our rendezvous location was the LightHouseLodge in Venice on Highway 23, just minutes away from the Venice Marina. (www.lighthouselodgevenice.com) Feasting on Crayfish Monica during dinner, we listened as Louisiana’s most respected and professional guide Ryan Lambert enlightened us to the actual environmental conditions framed with outstanding recent pictures and stories of Largemouth Bass to record breaking Yellow-Fin Tuna catches! (www.CajunFishingAdventures.com)
Envisioning Lambert’s slideshow, recalled a previous conversation I had with professional Bassmaster Elite Angler and Louisiana native Greg Hackney. (www.TheBassUniversity.com) Greg’s reference to the upcoming February 2011 Bassmaster Classic predicted fans would see some awesome size bass brought to the scales. “5-bass limits are not only going to be abundant, creel weights will keep the fans, “Hootin & Howler’n”, predicts Hackney.
Having been prepped for a positive adventure by Outdoor Life magazine Deputy Editor Jerry Bethge, (www.OutdoorLife.com) I decided to don Jimmie Cricket’s advice and “Eliminate the Negative and Accentuate the Positive”! So, once again I called Louisiana’s 9-Time Bassmaster Classic Qualifier Greg Hackney for a list of patterns, formatted around a variety of aquatic vegetation. Hackney’s patterns for the Louisiana Marsh seemed simple enough, “Concentrate on any moving water, especially within cuts and pockets, keep an eye open for feeding birds, baitfish activity on the surface, and do not overlook the matted vegetation!”
Armed with the excitement of a Brittany Spaniel pup on its first hunt, I realized I needed some unique ammunition for the Louisiana Marsh this year. “Now remember, you can make a cast land a 5 lb largemouth and your next cast may produce a redfish, a flounder, a speckled trout or even a Shark,” were the never-ending echoing whispering words of Greg Hackney!
The realization of needing quality line to land those toothy saltwater species, indeed required baits that not only attained inherited durability, authentic realistic natural forage characteristics, yet resembled the huge forage population to entice both freshwater and saltwater species! The answer was simple……………..I turned to the worlds leading manufacture of musky, saltwater and freshwater bass baits…….…Reaction Strike. Logging unto www.ReactionStrike.com allowed me the ability to cross reference specific baits targeting every form of vegetation cover and structure change I would encounter within the crystal clear tidal waters of Louisiana’s marsh.
My Marsh Arsenal consisted of 5-Denali Rosewood Shadow freshwater Casting Rods (www.DenaliRods.com); Mark Tyler’s Multipurpose 7’4”, Michael Murphy’s 6’8” Topwater/Jerkbait, 6’10” Frog, 7’ Swimbait and a 7’6” Cranking rod. My Denali Frog rod’s reel was spooled with 85 lb green Castaic Warrior Braid tied directly to Reaction Strike’s EWG 1/8oz 5/0 hook impaled in their Leopard color Naked Toad. While, my Denali Cranking rod’s reel consisted of Seaguar 12lb Abraz-X Fluorocarbon, a perfect match for Reaction Strikes Revolution Crankbaits, Murphy’s Rosewood Topwater/Jerkbait rod was paired with Seaguar 10lb InvisX Fluorocarbon, Reaction Strike Dog XW Rattling-110, and XRM-80 suspending jerkbaits. Utilizing a Seaguar Knot (www.Seaguar.com) between Castaic Warrior Braid and my Seaguar Fluorocarbon leader, on both my Mark Tyler and Denali Swimbait rod, allowed me the versatility for working a variety of Reaction Strike soft-plastic baits, such as Mullet Jr, Fathead Jr and the Bass Harasser.
Cruising through the narrow channels within the marsh is an experience I recommend for every angler! Entering Delta Duck a backwater brackish tidal pond, Hackney, Bethge, and Lambert’s vision of what Venice Louisiana’s Marsh actually looked like became a reality. Paired with my good friend famed outdoor writer and North American Fisherman television host Dr. Hal Schramm, we marveled at the rich lush green vegetation, showcasing flowering blossoms, rooted in crystal clear water populated with more baitfish than imaginable.
Without hesitation we began making cast-after-cast, as the music of a thousand feather friends filled the air, and schools of leaping mullets entertained us. Dr. Schramm targeted red fish with a beetle spin. As for me I had one goal in mind, (The same goal for the last thirteen years!) to land more than one or two largemouth bass!
Making long cast over the matted vegetation, Castaic’s Warrior Braided lines soft subtle qualities allowed for quieter longer casts. While, it’s sensitive inherit zero-stretch 100% Spectra Fiber telegraphed every minute movement of my weighted Naked Toad. Lines within the surface of the matted vegetation painted a series of casts, and alternating retrieve speeds finally produced a vicious reaction strike exploding through the heavy matted surface. Several more missed strikes, a tail-walking 3lb largemouth throwing my Naked Toad, and the quick release of several fourteen-inch deep green colored largemouth’s, was just the beginning to what would become our most productive Marsh Madness Trip ever!
Pond jumping our way to the mouth of the Mississippi River, running an out going tide our techniques called for deep diving and lipless crankbaits on points of dredged channels for bull reds, burning soft plastic swimbaits and beetle-spin rigged Mullet Jr.’s through scattered sections of emergent grass produced schooling redfish, spectacle trout with an occasional largemouth bass.
Just as Greg Hackney predicted moving water was the key! However, windy conditions can create similar scenarios, during these times we concentrated exclusively on any wind blown point, bank, cut, pocket and especially the matted vegetation. Pitching Reaction Strike Black Chartreuse tail Mullet Jr.’s on leadhead jigs coated with BioEdge Shrimp attractant from a wand applicator proved to be extremely successful when the schooling bite stopped. Everything from Hardheads (Catfish) to Flounder and of course Red Fish devoured these BioEdge Shrimp coated treats! (www.BioEdgeFishing.com)
My final day of our annual Marsh Madness Trip consisted of running the same productive tide pattern. Searching for that elusive lunker largemouth bass never crossed my path! However, as our tidal run brought us to the mouth of the Mississippi, an intriguing sea wall of wooden pilings beckon the call of a Reaction Strike Mullet Jr. Working my ¼ oz Beetle Spin Mullet Jr. on my Denali Crankbait rod with 12 lb Seaguar Fluorocarbon, I felt an ever so slight tick. As my bait became to move sideways I set the hook! And, for the next twenty-three minutes I battled the largest Black Drum I have landed to date, just under 40 lbs!!!
While many of my colleagues ventured off shore for Yellow Fin Tuna, others continued to enjoy an enormous amount of quality red fish, spectacle trout, flounder and of course largemouth bass along the grass laden edges of the marsh. Table talk at dinner revealed everyone agreed this was our most productive trip ever! As for crude oil, the only oil we witnessed was that upon our salads during dinner!
Northwood’s Sporting Journal
Office: 1.207.732.4880
www.sportingjournal.com
Column: Best Bass’n
January 2011 Issue
Billy “Hawkeye” Decoteau is an outdoor journalist with a strong passion for pursuing the Black Bass. His activities include covering and photographing professional bass trails, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New England Director for USA Bassin Tournament Trails, as well as emceeing The Bass University or benefit tournaments such as Maine’s Annual May Special Olympics Benefit Tournament. Bill may also be found on the water filming his television show The Bass Bureau…………Where the Road Meets the Water or in the classroom at many of the regional sportsmen shows holding bass seminars, and sharing winning techniques utilized by some of the nationals’ top-bass pros.
