Sightcasting and Popping for Louisiana Marsh Redfish

The Louisiana Delta offers legendary inshore fishing opportunities. The Cajun Fishing Adventures lodge in Buras, about 15 miles north of Venice, offers a great launch spot for fishing an enormous variety of bays and creeks, both salty and nearly fresh. Summertime redfishing here means sightcasting for keeper drum or popping corks and artificial lures for bulls.

For three days of hardcore casting — and dodging the ever-marching August rainstorms — I joined a group of fishing writers and industry reps for Z-Man, Skeeter, Huk, LiveTarget, 13Fishing, and Power-Pole. Using the lodge as our home base, thanks to its owner Ryan Lambert as our host, we fanned out in half a dozen shallow-water boats. The groups returned at the end of each day with sometimes-amusing stories of success, some truly tinged with a little Cajun magic.

The night before our first day on the water, Jose Chavez from 13Fishing rigged up dozens of Omen Green and Fate Green spin and baitcasting outfits. The company makes rods for saltwater and freshwater fishing.

A box full of realism: LiveTarget lures in many shapes and sizes, including mullet, menhaden, shrimp and sardine. This particular selection was compiled for my home waters of south coastal Georgia, but I used several of the baits on the Delta.

Capt. C.A. Richardson, creator of Flats Class TV and a charter captain based in Tampa, Florida, prepares to release a slot-sized red as one of the many ubiquitous summer squalls lurks in the background. Richardson travels to Buras every summer to run charters sightcasting for reds in the normally clear waters of this region's creeks and bays. With his Hell's Bay flats skiff, he can pole in significantly skinnier water than most bay boats.

During our first-day trip, Richardson's eyes were constantly on the weather radar as he deftly dodged the storm cells and led Z-Man president Jonathan Zucker and I to double-digit redfish releases. We were rigged up with Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ on Trout Eye Jigheads.

Richardson poled through small creeks, and we looked for reds along the roseau cane shorelines and in the mats of vegetation just off the banks. Besides reds, we saw dozens of gar fish of all sizes.

Z-Man's Jonathan Zucker with an impressive marsh red that ate a DieZel MinnowZ in a color called "The Deal."

Richardson keeps a rigged rod tucked into his belt behind his back. He poles quietly through the shallows, and when he sees a redfish that neither of his anglers can get a lead on, he casts to the fish. Cast ahead of the fish and then bump the bait a few times, and the rest is redfish history.

We couldn't quite tell if these cows were just cooling off in the creek or if they were contemplating swimming across. In any case, it was an odd site during a fishing trip.

Our second morning, Capt. Cody Obiol pointed his boat to an open bay where birds dived feverishly on small menhaden. Again, we were greeted with a mixture of sunshine and storm cells.

While birds dived into the water's surface, redfish slammed the menhaden schools from below, which created significant oily slicks. With the trolling motor down, we started casting to the slicks and ripping our cork rigs back toward us. The cup-faced corks — trailed by a Z-Man MinnowZ — create white bubble trails that bull reds can't resist.

Capt. Cody Obiol hooks the first bull red of the morning.

Passing rain showers did nothing to dampen the bite.

Zucker (left) and Obiol admire the first bull red of the day. Although Louisiana waters host abundant bull drum as well as many other spectacular species, one never knows whether the bite will stay on, or whether storm conditions might require a quick exit. Moral: Exult over every fish!

Guessing a redfish's weight can be tricky. One with a fairly large head and shoulders — like this one caught by Huk's Chris Ellis — can weigh more than its length seems to suggest.

When the bull red bite waned, Obiol took us north to some smaller creeks to sightcast keeper reds, like this bright bronze beauty that came home with us for supper.

On our final day of fishing, Capt. Jude Montet took me and Zucker back to the open bay east of Buras to hunt more redfish slicks. Before we were chased back to the dock by storms, we doubled up on this pair of bulls.