December in the Bayou

Captain John Macmurry searching for redfish Photo: Frogwater Productions

December Redfish trip with Capt. John MacMurray

In December, I was lucky enough to be invited to Louisiana for a redfish trip. I've ever been before, but it’s always been on my bucket list. I hate saying “bucket list” because it insinuates that one trip down will do, which is not the case. I'll make my way back to this area yearly.

I left Jackson Hole on an early morning flight, landed in Denver, and met up with A.J. Swensky for the last flight heading into New Orleans.  Aj and I landed around 2 pm in New Orleans, grabbed our bags, and met up with John Macmurry. We jumped in John's Sprinter van, throwing our gear on his bed, and headed towards his new winter home in Port Sulphur, Louisiana. On the way down, we grabbed some groceries for the week. Nothing unique, just substance, water, PB&J, cookies, chips, and a couple of frozen pizzas. John recommended that we grab some groceries before. Resources were thin the further south you drove from New Orleans. After an hour of driving, we arrived at our accommodation, Delta Marina. The Delta marina is a small marina with the cheapest cabins around.  The cabins were raised on stilts to avoid flooding from big storms. We dropped our gear and headed to the Ponderosa Bar and Grill for dinner 15 steps from our cabin. After a gut-busting meal, I don’t recommend we set up a few rods and prepare for the next day. John wanted to get out early to catch the incoming tide scheduled for the following day.

Louisiana Marsh Photo: Frogwater Productions

Day 1 We all met in the cabin around 5:15 am, grabbed breakfast and started collecting gear. Beautiful morning light surrounded the marina with sunny skies and low winds predicted for the day, keeping the vibe going to the ramp. We motored out for the first time into the thick of the marsh. All I can see is PVC and bamboo poles everywhere. It’s my first time fishing Louisiana, so I’ve never seen it for myself, but I’ve heard stories of all the debris from the oil rigs and oyster/crab fishermen. The amount is hard to explain until you see it. At points, we were weaving between PVC poles and crab traps at full speed as we made our way closer to the Gulf.

We stopped at the first spot and saw tails working the bank. A school of smaller redfish was working the bank. Excited to start our trip, we started working in the school. My first mistake was focusing on the school of tailing redfish because one of the biggest bull redfish we saw that week snuck up to the boat as we concentrated on the smaller tailing redfish. I missed the shot because I was distracted by the tailing fish. I learned a valuable lesson: look into the deeper water and keep your vision fixated close to the boat to allow for quick shots. We finished up the day with a ton of smaller redfish. We saw great bulls and had some shots, but I was unsuccessful. Our big redfish that day topped out around +15lbs. It was my best redfish since I’ve fished in the South Carolina area a few times, but it's not comparable. I knew they grow much larger in this area, and we had a reasonable possibility of upgrading over the next 3 days.

Black Drum Photo: frog water productions

Day 2

NOAA forecast was scheduled to be about the same as the day before. There are a few more clouds in the morning but low winds and a little less tidal change. We headed to a completely different part of the marsh. Aj wanted to film some tailing fish; John recommended we fish the backcountry in the morning and promised if winds stayed light enough, we could sneak out closer to the gulf side of the marsh in the afternoon while the sun was favorable. Seeing is everything in saltwater fishing, and this style is no different. We weaved our way back to these endless channels to a few bays loaded with small schools of redfish. We fished some during this session but not much, allowing A.J. to film off the boat's bow and balancing his camera on the Yeti box. John and I yelled out every fish we saw with their tails in the air. In hopes of helping, Aj was able to find it in the camera lens. It was a fun session, watching fish be fish and not disturbing them with a fly. You can learn a lot by observing. I’m a big believer in that.

We were lucky, but the winds seemed to stay low. John wanted to run the boat to a few bays that border the gulf side. Aj and I had our fill-in small tailing fish and were ready to hunt some bull redfish. We quickly ran out of the backcountry while conditions allowed us to do so. Weather conditions stayed constant, allowing us to fish the outer bays most of the afternoon. The fish in these outer bays are dramatically bigger but travel in pairs or singles. Making it more of a challenge, which I enjoyed so much more than throwing into schools of smaller redfish. Most shots were close to the boat. The 10-20ft range seemed like it was the sweet spot. Mainly due to the sight of vision you had in this range. These fish are not spooky, and anglers can sometimes take multiple close-range shots at the same fish. We landed a few smaller Redfish in the morning and a few bull redfish in the afternoon, Solid Day by Captain John MacMurray.

Photo :Frogwater Productions

Day 3

We woke up early; NOAA forecasted winds out of the west that day. John wanted to use the delta marina to position us in a part of the marsh that the west winds could favor. Winds were brutal in predicting where the clear or clean water would be—making it a touch easier to see these bull redfish moving in the 2-3ft of water. The first zone we fished that day differed from any spots we fished the two days prior. We were fishing on a more rigid bottom made of oysters, allowing us to see further out than we had been able to in the marsh. We saw a few bull reds in the first bay. I came tight on a nice one but lost him on the first run.. This morning was more challenging than the past few mornings. We saw big bull reds, but they were few and far between. We planned to head to a different part of the marsh. When we hit something hard with the prop as we jumped upped on the plane and navigated through the channels. John killed the motor and raised the prop. We hit a crab trap, and the wire was wound around the prop. We all scrambled, looking for pliers and wire cutters and making worse-case plans. As John looked through his tools, I started trying to wind off the wire by hand. I could pull on the wire several times, and it came right off. A sigh of relief went around the boat. This is enviable and is always a possibility in these parts. This place has an incredible amount of debris in the water. After winding wire off John's prop, we checked out a large bay that seemed empty of life. Since we didn’t see fish, John wanted to check out a bay we had previously fished. We started to pole into the bay; the water was dirty and shallow. We decided to bail and head toward the ramp, hoping to find a clear water spot. I spotted what I thought was a Bull redfish in the muddy water about 10 feet from the boat. Through a cast, I watched this bull red rising and inhaling the fly in disbelief. It was an epic eat followed by a hard fight. We landed our biggest bull redfish, which was in the 25-lb range.

Bull Redfish Photo: Frog water Productions

Day 4

John was saving his best spots for last. First thing in the morning, we explored a few islands outside the marsh on the gulf coast side. In the first bay, we saw nothing, just a few giant Gar that were not interested in the fly. I was surprised to see Gar that close to the gulf. Usually, Gar is a marsh fish looking for fresh water. We quickly bailed the first spot and headed to another bay that we saw across the way. From a distance, we could see Smaller redfish tailing and chasing bait in the back corner of the bay. As a group, we decided to work around this bay. John and I dropped AJ off at a hard-bottomed point to film a few shots out of the boat. We saw just a few fish, not many, so we started to work back toward AJ to pick him up. Aj was being eaten alive by Ociums. As we poled our way back towards the point Aj was standing on, we found a 5ft garr feeding on the bottom.

Gar on the fly

I threw a short cast at it more for just casting practice. I stripped in close to its face, and we watched it eat the fly. I set the hook about as hard as possible, and the fish started peeling out. I looked back at John in awe. I remember asking John what we would do with this. After a few runs and dogging us around the net, John could sneak its head in the net and grab the Gar by the tail. We decided to bring it in the boat for a photo. It was a terrible idea; these fish smell like death. I almost threw away my favorite Westbank Anglers hoodie due to the amount of slime. Once we got the fish in the boat, it went wild as we wrestled it around on the boat floor. Breaking rods and creating unneeded chaos. I never need to catch Garr again—one and done for me.

Aj’s first Bull Redfish

The rest of the day was the best fishing we had all week. We looked in different bays and saw fish everywhere in the size class we wanted to see. Bull redfish and an endless amount of smaller ones. Aj was focused on filming most of the trip; I encouraged him to take advantage of our last day and best day on the water. I jumped on the bow with my rod, sat down to relax, and smoked a cigarette for relief from Ociums. Moments later, Aj hooks up with his first redfish, a true dandy in the mimid-20 range in shallow water, after a few photos and high fives. A informs us about the first redfish Aj has ever landed. Congrats, Aj, that’s a hell of a way to start!

Photo: Frogwater Productions

Day 5

Aj and I flight weren’t scheduled to leave until 2 pm that afternoon. Aj needed to get some work done in the morning. So John and I decided to go out for a morning of fishing. What else are we going to do? We took off from the cabin early and started to motor out into the Marsh. The weather was supposed to be clear, but that was not the case. We had thick cloud cover and zero vision, harsh conditions for sight fishing. We saw a few fish, but the time you saw them, they saw you. We switched to another bay, hoping the lighting would be slightly better, but that wasn’t the case.

After about an hour in the next bay, we decided to call it due to bad lighting and limited time due to the afternoon flight. We started to motor back to the ramp when, all of a sudden, the boat died. We were out of gas, Shit! The gauge was reading there were four gallons left, but that wasn’t the case. We quickly scrambled, thinking of whether we could pole our way back to the ramp in time for my flight or if I would spend another night in Louisiana. We ended up poling to a private shrimp boat complex. John and I tied the boat off, and he took off on foot to grab a gas can from his Sprinter van. I waited for about 40 minutes, wondering if I was going to miss the flight. Every minute that went by, I thought there might be a change in plan. When John got back, we filled his boat up and started traveling as quickly as possible, loading the skiff, throwing gear, and packing luggage in the van asap. I Changed my clothes and broke down rods in the back of the Sprinter van as we drove through New Orleans. Aj and I made it to our flight just by the skin of our teeth, with minutes to spar. It was a chaotic morning, one we will never forget, and a story that will always be told with a smile. I can not wait to return to this area and make it an annual trip. It’s a short window but well worth the payoff if weather conditions .

Photo: Frogwater Productions

There are a few things I will do differently.

Fantastic food in these parts.

I would recommend staying at an Airbnb or a woodland plantation. It's slightly more expensive than the Delta Mariana, but the accommodations are better. We ate most of the dinner at the black oyster bar and Grill. This place had excellent service and even better food. I highly recommend the black oyster bar and Grill. One of the nights, John took us to the woodland plantation to check out their bar in a beautiful old church building. We walked in, and the room smelled incredible from the 5-course meal they prepared for the guests in the back. I really wanted to dine here, but unfortunately, this trip was not within my budget. But I will be back next year and plan on booking a dinner reservation to experience the culinary cuisine.

Gear

You do not need much. I brought 8wt-10wt rods, but I thought the 10wt was overkill. Next time, I will only bring 8wt and 9wt rods.

I brought some sealed-drag Orvis Mirage reels for reels. I wouldn't say the reel is crazy important, but if you're fishing there in the late fall or winter months, make sure it's sealed-drag, has 30 lb backing, and has the Scientific Anglers cold-water redfish line.

Fly Lines & Leaders.

Scientific Anglers Cold water redfish lines 8wt-10wts

The leader was an easy 7ft-8ft 40lb fluorocarbon.

Flies

Plantation crabs 1/0 2/0

po boys ( black and purple 1/0-3/0

redfish crack 1/0 2/0