Wind From The East...

I think there is a saying (or there should be) that goes like this:

Wind From the East - Fish Bite Least
Wind From the West - Fish Bite Best

OK you get it

At least the east wind was light and manageable enough for crazy fishermen who will drive over an hour to throw tiny rubber glow-in-the-dark jigs out into the night to catch undersized fish so they can throw them all back.

The only thing missing from this bizarre scene is the plastic boat that the fisherman uses to position him in the optimum environment to catch the little fish.

"Be one with the fish"

It's bad enough that a grown man is acting like a 9-year-old but now he is beginning to affect others around him.

There are always occasions to meet new people on the pier and this night was no exception. The newest victim to pier fishing, Paul, arrived before I did. The only benefit to staying at the office late on a Friday is that hopefully the traffic is cleared out when you do finally leave.

I arrived about 9:30 and the east wind was apparently pushing the bait to somewhere else. There was very little action and the other two gents on the pier were fishing dead shrimp on the bottom. There had been reports of some big gaftop catfish caught earlier and the dead shrimp produced another one while we were there.

Long Whiskers


Big Slimy

These things fight like a stick and slime up your rig so bad that some folks just cut everything off and start over.

The one thing that is good about a hardhead or a gaftop is that they usually won't bite on artificial - not even a tiny rubber shad.

We were looking for the specks to come in and finally started catching some.

Fish Necktie


The Glow of The Lights

I'm becoming a big fan of speckled trout.

They look really cool under the lights and for their size they put up a good fight.

Dr. Huskins Performing Hook Extraction


Louisiana Legal


Speck Master

We were able to help improve our new pier buddy's fishing experience. After I caught the first two specks right out from under his nose with the tiny shad rig, I asked him is he had ever used one. He said no and was looking intently at the end of my line to see what kind of magic I was talking about.

I "just happened" to have an extra one in my shirt pocket that Tracy would probably have found later in the laundry and offered it up as a peace offering for coming over to his spot and catching his fish.

He tied it on to the end of his 20lb test mono but I figured that Zebco could cast it without fouling. Sure enough, he hooked up on the first cast. While we were there he caught several more and he and his son-in-law (the dead-shrimp-soaker) were still at when we left.

It's amazing to see a grown man transform into a kid again when he is catching fish.

Paul and I had a fish-off just before we called it a night. We moved down the seawall to the light in front of the Baptist Encampment and tried to see how many we could swing over the rail in 15 minutes.

Paul took an early lead but I finally started gaining ground. As the clock was ticking down I finally got a big hit that would have sent us into overtime (BONUS!) but alas, I fell prey to the quick head shake of a poorly hooked speck and couldn't land one by the buzzer.

Paul took top prize - he had to drive home, (we came in two cars) and I did get the consolation prize of another 20 minutes of fishing.

I may need to start charging him for my extra baby shad rigs from now on.

Expecially if he's going to beat at my own game.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you.....

Oh - by the way didn't you perform a long distance catch & release technique on few keepers?

Parting Shot