FISH  n  CHICKS

2 ladies from Connecticut get in on some awesome redfishing. Laura and Gio had a fantastic day sightcasting to fish after fish on what turned out to be one of the most picture perfect weather and fish days in a long time. It had been blowing very hard for the previous month. After running a half hour to get to where I start fishing, Laura turned around and asked "When are we going to start fishing?" I said "How about right over there." It only took her about 3 minutes to hook up on the first redfish of many. She replied afterwards that she would gladly have run for an hour if she knew the fishing was going to be like this. Little did she know, we would be in fish all day long. Everyone of the 19 fish they caught were sightcasted to in skinny water. They saw the whole thing.
During the course of the day, I moved from spot to spot and I idled back into a slew where I saw a big fish crawling down on the right side, way ahead of us. I pointed the fish out to Laura and in disbelief she said "that's a stump." Well as we got closer that stump started moving. It turned out to be about a 30-35lb fish we think. We'll never know, because after Laura hooked him he took off down the middle and got into her backing. I quickly started up the engine to catch up to him, but he got behind a brush pile and spit the fly.
At the end of the day Laura said "that was the best freakin day of guided fishing she had ever been on." She plans on coming back next year with her dad to try and catch that big one that got away.

         Tight Lines...Capt. Barrett

2 Guys from Wilmington, NC 

They came down with high expections having heard of the Land of the Giants and were looking to get into some big fish. Up until their 3 days of fishing with me last weekend(Nov 2-4), the wind had been blowing very hard for a solid month day and night just about . Conditions were tough as you would expect. The water was chocolate milk and it was very tough to hold the boat in any kind of position to get a shot on any fish we did see.and it was just as tough for the casters to make any kind of decent cast at anything. Those that made the decision to go out quickly found out it was no picnic. But I must say  everybody braved it out and we all gave it our best shot.
Enought about that, the fisrt day I decided to take them to Myrtle Grove on the West side of the river as the water tends to be less dirty with the grass over there. It was indeed fairly clear, but the fish had lock jaw with another passing front and we only managed to hook up on 5 redfish. Still not bad. The next two days I decided to go back to Hopedale on the east side as the wind had started to lighten up some. The next 2 days were real good. We water was still mirky, but we found plenty of fish and they had tons of opportunities at some quality fish. Included are a few pictures. The black drum was 47lbs and they caught a 34lb red. To say the least, they were not disappointed in the fishing experience and plan to come back again.

                       Tight Lines.......Capt. Barrett 
 
 

      AWESOME DECEMBER
 

Fishing in December for some of those big redfish was fantastic. It's one of the best months to do it. January can still have some great fishing too. So pick up the phone and call to book a trip of a lifetime. 
I fished Capt. Amanda Swisher, a well known stripper guide on the East coast, and she caught the biggest fish she said she had caught on a fly rod. She said that she is definitely going to come back. Walker Parrott, a freshwater guide in NC, also caught the biggest fish on fly he had ever caught, 30lber. His cousin, Will Parrott, also caught a nice fish.                Then there was John Bickford from Texas with his nephew, Capt Brett, a saltwater guide from Florida.     So as you can plainly see, you need to get down here and help us catch one of these fish. It could be you in my next picture.

                                        Capt. Barrett Brown
 
 

During Mother's Day weekend, I had two guys from Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Imagine Florida guys coming over to Louisiana to go redfishing! The two anglers were Pat Cervone and Jimmie Polley who are long time fishing buddies. Both were very experienced fishermen who have fished all over and boated many fish. They also brought all their own gear from fly to spin, along with tackle boxes full of assorted flies and lures. Pat also is an accomplished photographer, having many of his pictures printed in magazines. He brought along a satchel full of camera equipment just in case we had any photo opportunities.
I knew as a guide, I had my work cut out for me. In one of Pat's earlier e-mails, he had made two requests. The first was that he was an early riser and therefore wanted to get started really early. Secondly, he saw that we had casting platforms on the front of our boats and asked that we remove them if we could because he didn't like them. Fortunately, I had no problem with either of these requests.
We have had one of the windiest springs I can remember so we fished out of Myrtle Grove. It blew all of March and April. Hopedale, unlike Myrtle Grove, doesn't have any grass and consequently muddies up when it blows all day and night. It was still blowing when Pat and Jimmie got here. But we did not let the wind deter us. Being the good fishermen that we were, we got out there and covered a lot of water, tried different baits, and managed to wind up with two excellent days. The only down side was that we didn't get to fly fish as much as we wanted to because of the wind. The grass in Myrtle Grove keeps the water crystal clear, but makes it very hard to get to the fish. You practically have to be a surgeon to get the bait to the fish where they can see it with all of the grass around them and then get them out before they get all grassed up and break you off. In spite of all of that, they hooked 40 fish and boated 33 in two days of fishing with me. Not too bad! Pat and Jimmie worked together great, and I had a super time "playing off" their fishing buddy banter. Pat ended up catching a beautiful 13lb red on his fly rod with one of my spoon flies. It was also only fitting that Pat caught this redfish on his Abel Super 8 reel with the redfish patterned finish.What a big beautiful fish for Myrtle Grove! Spoons are still the fly of choice in Myrtle Grove with all of the grass. We also fished with gold Johnson spoons, jerk baits and a super mullet bait from DOA that Pat had only one of. 
About a week after they left, it finally stopped blowing and we have started to have some nice calm balmy days. Actually, the humidity was not too bad for the first week or two. I am looking forward to Hopedale finally clearing up so we can get back to sight casting over there. Check out some of Pat's pictures included. 

                                                                     Capt. Barrett Brown 
 
 
 
 

 Fishing in The Land of Giants
 

2/17/04 

Fishing is beginning to heat up again. Conway Bowman of San Diego caught a world record with me on JANUARY 14, 2004. 41.65 lb to view fish go to the trophy section on front page. 10 Days earlier Bob Stafford of  San Diego caught 
a State Record 37.79 lb Redfish. Shown Below is Tony Kirk of Dallas Texas with 4th in State @ 32#. Tim Aid of Covington La with State Record Black drum 57# and yours truly. 
Yesterday Chris Lohme of Norman Oklahoma caught 8 fish the biggest 34# and only 2 under 20# for a total weight of 168#. Chris is a beginner and only started fly fishing 6 months ago. He should have had 8-10 more fish but he got tired fighting the sea battle. 

On my day off I go fishing for my customers and I'm happy to do it.
12/28/03  Check the weather for this day. It was blowing and no sun. 

Captain Gregg Arnold 
504-237-6742 
 
 

E-Z Fly Guide Service 245 Glenwood Dr. Metairie, LA 70005 (504) 908-3474 Capt. Barrett (504) 237-6742 Capt. Gregg   (504) 833-1384 Fax fish@e-zfly.com