If At First You Don’t Succeed

The great fishing duo of Goosie Guice and Lyle Johnson headed out to cash in on the catfishing bonanza of the Mississippi River levee kind. After hearing about all those big cats and the many fish being caught we figured that filming a show for Ascension Outdoors, seen exclusively on Eatel channel 4 would be a cinch.

Goosie bought some chicken livers and night crawlers while I stopped by Folse’s Seafood and picked up some fresh shrimp. Jay Folse threw in about a pound of live crawfish so we could try peeled tails also. We even brought a cast net to try and catch some shad while fishing. With this type of gourmet menu we figured nothing could go wrong. Not!!

We fished for six hours in 6 or 7 locations in the Geismar area and the only thing we caught for our efforts was a nasty eel that weighed about a pound. We did run across two Ellis brothers and their grandkids that had two catfish that weighed about 5 and 10 pounds along with a really nice eastern striper.

At least one thing could be salvaged; after the trip was over I peeled the remainder of very big shrimp and crawfish tails. This would not be the first time in my fishing career that all I had to eat after a tough day on the water was the bait.

But following my own advice from last week, the opportunity to make some lemonade came along. I brought that peeled bait to my lot on the Diversion Canal and tried them once more after the grass got cut.

It was a hard decision to risk all this peeled and ready to cook seafood while trying to catch something else to eat. You know some shrimp and crawfish tails in hand is better that fish in the creek.

All that Mississippi River water that raised the levels of lakes Ponchatrain and Maurepas has the water about a foot high in the Amite\/Blind River basin while the color is beautiful.

I set out a couple of rods that are thrown out toward the middle of the canal; one with and the other with crawfish. Then out came the trusty cane pole to catch some panfish around the pier. This one is a very slim version with plenty of action and about 6 feet of string attached to the end.

On the business end of the line is a Tru-Turn Bleeding Bait red bream hook with a small piece of luscious mudbug tail that I could have been frying. Like I said the water level is up so I tried my fortune in the boat slip and caught a really big bluegill in about 30 seconds.

Quickly putting my bait back in the water resulted in hooking on to a catfish that weighed about two pounds that I couldn’t lift up with the possibility of breaking that 10# test Stren line or the cane pole. The net was over head, out of reach and the big cat finally came unhooked.

After getting the landing net in place the game was on! The next bite in that shallow water had my cane pole bent in two. A 10 or 12# gaspergou (Freshwater Drum) had swallowed that piece of crawfish no bigger that a blueberry and the fight was on. Surely the string or the skinny pole would break; possibly the hook would straighten out. To my surprise, I brought the bruiser to the net and released it.

With all my tackle in tact, another piece of crawfish tail went on that seemingly indestructible hook and back in the water. After catching a couple of nice catfish on the rods out in the middle and another bluegill, the scene repeated itself.

A seven pound goo was the next victim of my lightweight outfit. Surely something would break this time. But again after holding on for dear life and about a two minute standoff, the brute came to the net. After releasing that fish I examined my Tru-Turn hook and Stren line and it was A-OK.

Two more bluegills fell for the crawfish then I set the hook after another bite and landed a 3 ½ pound catfish on the cane pole. I felt like those commercial fishermen that used to land big tuna fish on an oversized cane pole!

I headed home with four catfish, four bluegills and still plenty of bait. Guess what I had for supper; fried shrimp, fried crawfish tails, fillet catfish and pan fried bluegill on the bone. Where else but Louisiana could this happen! So until next time have fun in the outdoors, be safe and may God bless you!!