South Louisiana Flyfishing, July 21-27, 2024

Did another flyfishing trip with my buddy Hamilton Bell.

On Sunday morning, I set out from Saint Louis, MO, travelled south into Arkansas, crossed the river into Memphis, Tennesee, then we met up in Horn Lake, Mississippi.  From there we rode together to the first destination of our trip, which was about an hour south of New Orleans, Louisiana.  I'd never been to MS or LA before.

We spent 2 full days at this spot.  They were sunny, warm, and very humid.  Lots of sweating.  Hamilton brought his boat.  We used it to fish the marsh for Redfish and whatnot.  We also fished from it under dock lights in the evening. We sometimes got off the water during the middle part of the day and fished either urban creeks in New Orleans, or brackish ditches/creeks near where we were staying.

Under the dock lights at night, we caught Spotted Seatrout, Sand Seatrout, and Gafftopsail Catfish.

Spotted Seatrout

Sand Seatrout

Sand Seatrout

Gafftopsail Catfish

In the marsh and main channel during the day, I caught Hardhead Catfish, Gafftopsail Catfish, Ladyfish, Redfish, Atlantic Croaker, and a large Black Drum.

Hardhead Catfish

Ladyfish

Redfish

Spotted Seatrout

Redfish

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.