btoups

In my area of South Louisiana, we are lucky to have close areas of both freshwater and saltwater to fish. Many of the areas are also brackish with a mix of both species. Also, we love seafood down here and I usually keep a few smaller bass for the dinner table. Since we are a tidal fishery, our bass don't live very long or grow very big due to the competition with multiple saltwater fisheries and an always changing environment. The bass and freshwater fish population gets hit pretty hard when hurricanes and storm surge come through our area which seems to be every couple years. The hurricane a few weeks ago caused pretty massive fish kills in several freshwater areas from a combination of the saltwater intrusion from the storm surge and also the mixing/flushing of the water system causing low oxygenated water. The fishing pressure on bass and the keeping of bass doesn't have much of an impact in my area in my opinion. Plus they are pretty tasty. I don't keep bass every trip nor do I try to keep a limit of bass, but I do keep a few for dinner and for family members that enjoy them as well.

Pepsi? That is weird. Lol.

The non-summer months are my favorite time to fish. It gets so hot down here that fishing beyond the first couple of hours in the morning is just not fun anymore. The bass are much easier to catch and are more active in the cooler months.

Like mentioned above, if they are bass, I would suggest a very small swim bait if they will not bite anything else. I have come across schools of bass feeding on small shad or minnows and the only thing they would bite are tiny swim baits. I'm talking swim baits small enough to use for crappie fishing.

This is true. I know a guy from this area that has taken him fun fishing in the Venice, LA area. No cameras in the boat and he said that he acts just like we see when he's on camera.

Add me to the green pumpkin list. I just don't like it and haven't had much success with it.

I haven't been fishing due to the heat and humidity in South Louisiana. The older I get the less tolerant I am of heat. I can't wait for cold fronts to start rolling through.

I come from a family of commercial fisherman. Mainly shrimpers and oystermen. I've been fishing as far back as I can remember. Most of my fishing when I was a kid was with my grandmother. We would fish mostly from the land around their fishing camp and would keep whatever we caught that was edible. Mostly redfish, speckled trout, drum fish, etc. This was basic fishing with dead shrimp for bait. Every once in awhile, we would go freshwater fishing from the land in some canals around my grandparents home. This again was basic using either dead shrimp or worms for bait and simple equipment like cane poles or spinning gear. We would catch a few small green trout(bass) as my grandma called them. One day I got bored of fishing with worms and found a small rusty beetle spin in an old tackle box. I tied it on and cast it out and this small bass just crushed it. I remember feeling the hit from that bass even though it was probably close to 40 years ago. From that day on, I was hooked on bass fishing. I also figured out that I could get saltwater fish to also hit artificial lures, which changed how I fished to this day. I wouldn't catch as many fish as the people using bait, but to me feeling the hit on an artificial lure was worth it. I've been hooked ever since.

South Louisiana here and our biggest issue is saltwater intrusion and coastal erosion. It gets worse every year. We are losing marshlands at an alarming rate which causes saltwater to move further inshore, which ruins freshwater fishing areas. Not to mention this also increases the tidal surges from hurricanes since we no longer have the marsh buffers to reduce the storm surges.

MIne is a Shimano Conquest 50. I really don't like using it much because I don't want to scratch it. Lol.

Man this forum keeps costing me money. I just ordered one of the Gami 7000 boxes. Thanks for sharing the information.

I've been keeping a fishing log in Excel for years. I find it helps to go back and look at what areas produced at certain times of year and conditions. I keep this for fresh and saltwater fishing and I find that it has been helpful since I tend to forget things over time.

Happens to all of us, just some people won't post about it. Lol. I fished a local bass tournament this past Saturday and only caught one keeper bass and finished next to last place. The guy who won the tournament fished a canal that I had just come out of with the same bait that I was using and caught a 6lb bass. For me, it's all about learning and trying to get better every time out.

Got back home yesterday from our 2nd annual Mardi Gras Toledo Bend trip. Wasn't able to post daily reports since the cell service at the cabin we stayed in was weak and no wifi either. Arrived Friday evening and launched the boat Saturday morning at Holly Park Marine in Patroon Creek. Pretty much rained all day Saturday so we had to stay close to the cabin. We fished a couple of the creeks in Patroon and ended up with one keeper sized bass caught on a chatterbait under a dock and a few small bass. Forecast for Sunday was worse with thunderstorms in the area most of the day. We got out for an hour or so in the morning and another couple hours late afternoon. Stayed in Patroon in the morning and caught nothing. Water was chocolate milk. Ran to Lowe's Creek in the afternoon and the water was better and we found some bait schools, but only got a couple small bites. Plan for Monday was to run south from Patroon to Housen. I knew this was questionable with the strong NW winds forecasted. We started to make the run, but turned around pretty quick with the large waves in the main lake. Trailered the boat and launched at Jack's 944 launch mid morning. Water was much cleaner in this area and we caught over 20 bass with most being undersized. I think we had 3 keeper sized bass. Most caught on a small jerkbait and shad colored swim bait on an underspin hook. Tuesday we launched again at Holly Park and ran to the Blue Lake area. It was in the 30's in the morning with a blue bird sky. There were several boats fishing the area, but did not see much fish catching. We caught one decent sized bass in some buckbrush on a texas rigged speed craw. We had a couple more bites, but no catches. Ran south to Housen again and the water was super clear. With little wind and a blue bird sky, the only thing we could get them to bite on were wacky rigged senkos fished in the shady areas. We caught 3 or 4 keeper sized bass and 5 or 6 undersized bass. We saw boats running in every direction today, which usually means to me that no one is catching much and everyone is looking for fish. With the varying weather patterns we faced, I was glad that we were able to catch a few fish. No big fish success yet, but there's always next year. Thanks to everyone who contributes to this forum as it has been very helpful to me. It at least gives me an idea of where to start and what to look for since this is only the 3rd time I've been on the lake.

Is the name of the creek you mentioned Corsey Creek?