DELACROIX, La. - You know all those hot fishing spots you've always frequented? Well, contrary to what you may have been told, they are not closed because of the BP oil spill. In fact, the Delacroix Island guys have never stopped fishing down there. . .and they've been catching bragging-size hauls of both trout and redfish every day during the last 100 days.
I met up with Ron "Captain Ahab" Broadus Thursday morning just to bring you up to date on what's going to be biting this weekend at the island and where.
Ahab said to tell you that the most important things for you to remember are live shrimp, Kahle hook 28-inches under a popping cork, and the “island” locations in Black Bay--Lonesome, Snake, Stone, and all the others. He also suggests that you try those places Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But remember, the best action happens on a sunrise bite! So plan to get up early!
“Frank, if the fisherman can be there by the time the sun comes up—and I mean sitting on the water right where he’ll be fishing—all the better,” Broadus insisted. “Many of the trout you’re going to catch will be pretty nice keepers, I’m talking, maybe, in the 3 and 4 pound range. But there will be the juvies, too—the throwbacks that will make your catch illegal if you keep them. Just be sure you haul out the ruler and measure any trout you’re suspicious of.”
Ahab told me that “the island” (Delacroix) was blessed in so much as there was crude oil located only in a few isolated spots. Local fishermen, both sports and commercial, joined BP and provided what the oil company called “vessels of opportunity.” These were private boats, piloted by residents who always lived in the area and who knew the waterways like the back of their hands. Their task day after day was to head out to spot oil, determine where it had come from and where it was moving to, and then lay out boom to keep the floating crude contained.
“That’s the very reason that Delacroix, as well as Hopedale, Shell Beach, Golden Meadow, Venice, Grand Isle, Cocodrie, Dulac, Pointe ala Hache, Port Sulphur, Lake Borgne, and even Lake Pontchartrain, has suffered a significant shortage of fishing guides and charter captains these last few months,” Ahab explained. “All these guys who ordinarily would have had daily fishing charters out catching trout and reds instead were entrenched in the BP payroll program and were assigned to pull boom to protect their neighborhood waterways from the possibility of encroaching oil. It wasn’t fishing, the thing they know best, but it did provide a source of income for their families.
"Having told you that, though, Frank, you should know that boom assignments are beginning to wane now and it’s once again time for us—me and all of my fellow fishing guides—to get back to chasing trout and reds with our fishing clients. And that’s where our focus is shifting now, all of us, starting today—immediately.”
That brings up a good point I want to tell you about.
I know for a fact that Captain Ahab, for example, has a wide open calendar for August. Aside from one or two fishing trips on his schedule, there are no others booked solid, which means that if you always had a problem finding a guide available, you won’t have that problem now. Just give him a call at 504-914-6063 or 504-835-8398 and book your trip. I do recommend you NOT procrastinate though, because, as always, charterboat bookings fill fast. Especially Ahab’s!
So in the meantime, you now know where the easy trout and reds are coming from this weekend, so that’s where I’d be heading to Saturday morning before dawn if I were you. Next weekend, though, they may be biting hot and heavy somewhere else, like at Lafitte. So that’s where I’m taking my fishing team next Thursday. So you might want to add another location to your targeted “hotspot” destination. Check in with me then!
For now, though, tight lines and good times to ya!
Frank Davis