May 2007
Fishing the Louisiana Marsh
I just returned from a trip to the Louisiana marsh with writer Charles Gaines. We were accompanied by photographer Squire Fox and his assistant Sully Sullivan.
When we arrived, the weather report was less than optimistic. The wind was blowing 20 plus miles per hour out of the East. High winds might create multiple problems for the area that we planned to fish: higher water levels and muddy conditions would make it difficult to sight fish, and the wind itself could increase the degree of difficulty for fly fishing substantially. In addition, we had planned to cross Lake Borgne, a large body of water that can get especially rough with a such a strong Easterly wind. Everyone besides me had flown in from distant destinations (I drove over from Alabama), so we thought we might need an alternate plan, at least for Day One.
It encouraged us to know Gary Taylor would be our guide, for he has dealt with this situation many times. Gary, a Heritage Endorsed Kayak Fishing Guide, is a native and has been fishing these waters for most of his life. He knows the marsh probably better than most people know their own backyard. In fact, the marsh is his backyard. Gary is very innovative to say the least and runs a really unique operation, equipped to deal with most of what Mother Nature deals him. He has a 31 foot Lafitte mother ship for crossing Lake Borgne in rough seas with a cabin to get in out of the weather. It is equipped with an 18 foot Hell’s Bay flats skiff that rides piggy back on the stern of his big boat. His kayaks are transported on the roof and in the cock pit of the big boat. After traveling to your fishing destination he can launch and retrieve the skiff in a matter of minutes. If you need to travel to an area that is a great distance from where the mother ship is anchored, his skiff is also rigged to transport kayaks on its deck.
When we met
Gary at his dock the next morning, he said that he had decided to
cross Lake Borgne and fish some areas that would be out of the wind
and would probably hold clearer water.
After
crossing Lake Borgne easily, we anchored in a sheltered bayou and
launched the kayaks. As Gary had predicted, we were able to access
small ponds and creeks in the kayaks that were both protected from
the wind and were also much clearer than the more open waters.
We started catching and releasing redfish almost immediately. Charles was amazed at how close we could approach these fish in the kayaks with out spooking them. We actually had redfish swim within a few feet of the kayaks and even underneath without spooking. I hooked one fish by dangling a fly in front of his face. I have always experienced that you can get closer to redfish in a kayak than you can by other means but these fish were in an area that has very little if any fishing pressure and seamed to accept kayaks as just another part of the environment.
The whole area is pristine and undisturbed. The birds and other wildlife are so abundant that you have to remind yourself to become unfocused on the fishing at times, to look around and enjoy the scenery. The solitude is broken occasionally by the call of a Clapper Rail or some other natural sound. It is an endless oasis of Needle Rush and Spartina Grass, dotted here and there with other tidal marsh plants. You see a maze of small creeks and bayous that intertwine through the marsh like veins that reach for miles and miles toward the horizon.
We fished two whole days without seeing another boat or person: just being in this quite peaceful world was good for the soul. It reminded us how important it is to protect our environment, critical to the survival of the multiple forms of life that coexist in this beautiful marsh. Marshes are the nursery grounds for our marine life, and we have to remember that we are just borrowing it from our children: we must do what we can to protect them.
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Jimbo's Cast Archive
April 2007 - Dollars and Sense
January 2007 - Kayak Flyfishing
December 2006 - Fly-fishing for False Albacore from a kayak
November 2006 - The Importance of a Kayak Fishing Guide
Sept/Oct 2006 - Jubilee
August 2006 - Outfitting Your Kayak for Fishing
July 2006 - Choosing a Fishing Kayak
June 2006 - Why I Started Fishing from a Kayak
May 2006 - Jimbo Meador, Angler Philosopher