Black Drum
In the roadside ditches/creeks, I caught Redfish, Ladyfish, Gulf Killifish, Spotted Gar, and Atlantic Croaker: | Redfish |
| Gulf Killifish (above and below) |
Ladyfish above, Spotted Gar below: Atlantic Croakers (both) below:
In the freshwater urban creeks in New Orleans, I caught Rio Grande Cichlids, Green Sunfish, Bluegill, and Largemouth Bass. The 4 pics below are Rio Grande Cichlids. They are native to Texas, but not native to Louisiana.
We next made our way to the west side of Calcasieu Lake, about 30 miles east of the Texas border. On the way, we made a small detour to try for Bantam Sunfish. We didn't catch any, but I did catch several Hybrid Sunfish and Warmouth. Below is a Warmouth:
It was here that I saw a couple large Golden Orb Weaver spiders. Beautiful! One accidentally ended up on my rod. I eased it onto a small tree branch. Some of its web was stuck to my flyfishing rod. As I removed it, I was suprised at how spongy and very strong it was!
Over the next few days, my main goal was to catch an Alligator Gar. Any size. I have caught the other 4 U.S. gar species on fly (Spotted, Shortnose, Longnose, and Florida), and Alligator Gar would be the 5th and final one. We fished creeks, ditches, channels. Brackish or salty. I caught more Redfish, Black Drum, Ladyfish, a Spotted Gar...even crabs! Finally, after missing/losing well over a dozen small Alligator Gar, I finally landed one! Goal accomplished! Spotted Gar (above) Accidentally foul-hooked a number of (striped?) mullet (below)
Redfish (above) puppy Black Drum (below) Redfish (above and below)
Alligator Gar!
Good trip! Saw many herons, egrets, bitterns, pelicans, osprey, marsh hens, seagulls, etc. Also many crabs, toads, frogs, Mediterranean Geckos, shrimp, as well as some sort of whales/porpoises and alligators. Mediterranean Gecko (above and below)
Shrimp:
Blue Crab:
The trip home was fairly smooth. Back thru 5 states. We went from Lafayette, to Baton Rouge, north of New Orleans, and thru Jackson, Mississippi. After arriving back at my car, we went our separate ways home. I drove from Horn Lake, Mississippi, then thru Memphis, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and then on back to St Louis, Missouri.
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