Louisiana Fly Fishing Trip Info

Traditionally, fishing involves a lot of casting and covering water. If you cover enough water, you will eventually put your fly/lure/bait in front of a hungry fish and he will bite. Sight fishing is a bit of a departure from that and is more akin to hunting than fishing. When sight fishing, one quietly moves through the water actively looking for and stalking fish.

Once a fish is spotted, the fly/lure is presented to the fish with an accurate cast, hopefully resulting in an eat. Redfish make a great sight fishing quarry due to their preference for prowling shallow water environments and reveal themselves in a variety of exciting ways. They can “Tail”, which happens when they tip down to feed off the bottom and their caudal fin breaks the surface of the water - a clear sign of a happily feeding fish. They can “Crawl”, navigating water so shallow that their backs and dorsal fins can clearly be seen above the surface as they swim along. Some less obvious signs of the presence of redfish include “Pushes”, a bull-nosed wake steadily proceeding down the shoreline, as well as “Busting Bait”, when the water erupts along a shoreline as some poor shrimp transitions to the spirit world.

My personal favorite however, begins during the late summer and lasts into the early winter, when massive Bull Reds school up. These schools can readily be identified as dozens of fish boil the water in a feeding frenzy, breaching the surface chasing shrimp and attracting flocks of diving birds overhead. It is very common to double and even triple up while fishing these schools.