Hey man I'm sorry. I was fishing today too. Launch in the back of big Alabama. Once you launch head north about 2 miles I guess and the bayou will bend hard to the right, but right before the turn there is a cut on the left. Fish that entire area. You won't have a problem catching them

Is that legal? If so I can make a killing! And I'm pretty sure they spawn between Jan-Mar, I know its real early compared to bass and sacs

I've been fishing this place for years, and no matter the water color, there are plenty of choupique to be caught. The area that they are focussed in the most right now is stained and cloudy, which would tell me the oxygen level should be fine as we have discussed. You have great points as far as finding the correct species of fish, but the case here is the choupique population is extremely high throughout the bayou. I just wanted to put a report out there in order to attract people to the choupique bite that they have going on down there, its crazy! I am no expert, but I would imagine this could have some negative effect towards the future population of game fish. I know for a fact, that the amount of sacalait that we have been pulling out of there has been minimal since this 'population boom' of choupique thats been in progress for the past couple of years. I just would like see what would happen if a good group of fisherman get out there and start taking choupique out of there. Would you be interested in making a trip? I'd really like to see what you'd have to say after seeing this.

I agree with that and I usually do move to another area. I have to think though, with that many choupique and as aggressive as they are, they have to be diminishing the gamefishes' populations, dont you think? They are literally every where in there. You see them coming to the top, catch one nearly every throw, and they aren't only in the black stagnant looking water. They are throughout the bayou and the water is gorgeous in there, very clear and greenish in places.

So choupique hunters, go catch them!!! Use braided line though, suckers will cut right through anything else if you aren't careful.

I don't want them entirely out of the ecosystem. I'm just saying I'd like to try to get as many as we can out in order to make more room for bass and other more sought after gamefish.

Its weird though, I remember when I was much younger we could go and have a fun day catching a couple choupique here and there. Then for a period of time about 4-6 years ago, it seemed like choupique died off. Then all of sudden about 3-4 years ago, they rebounded and they are EVERYWHERE! You could seriously catch 50-60 of these fish a day in there and most average 4-6lbs.

If anyone wants some choupique, I'll gladly keep them to give away!

My suggestion is to put different lines on your rods. If all you are doing is trout fishing with these rods, I'd suggest anything but braid. You will end up loosing more fish with braid because it doesn't have any stretch and it will tear a specs mouth. Other strings also makes the fight of a fish a little more fun, because the other ones have stretch so it makes the fish feel a little bigger every time. Anyway, this is what I think you need to know about the different strings.

Braid- Floats. Super Sensitive, absolutely zero stretch. In my opinion should be more a bass fishermans string, because of its strength and rigidness. It will cut through vegetation and pull down trees, its tough and you will never pop off on a fish, unless rubbed on the side of some sharp surface like barnacles. BTW tree trunks don't have a chance at breaking it. Its good for topwater lures because it floats and makes walking the dog easy since it has zero stretch. Its also good for bottom fishing, because of its sensitivity, now remember this is more for the bass guys, who may be throwing that topwater or jig in or next too extremely heavy cover. Its also a very good string to have when fishing a popping cork. My reason is it takes the work away from your wrist, since it has no stretch, its very easy to pop the cork and makes it easy to set the hook at long distances. B4raid does have good castability.

Mono- Also floats, not nearly as sensitive as braid or flourocarbon, does have a good amount of stretch. First off the reason this string is not as sensitive is 1, it has a lot of stretch, but 2 and this is something a lot of ppl over look, IT FLOATS, so when your fishing that bottom lure 30-40ft from the boat, your 'tight line' has some slack in it from the line floating under the water, so you will miss a lot of bites. Just imagine your bait on the bottom then an arc in your line from it floating under the water, then at the waters surface it straightens up going to your rodtip. I think some of the best applications for this string is, shallow running baits and topwaters for trout. My reason for that is because trout have such soft mouths, the stretch of the string helps prevent rippage and since the string floats it helps keep your topwater on the surface. It takes a little more whip in your rod to work topwaters, but I haven't found it a problem. I don't really advise fishing lighter baits on the bottom with this string, since it floats and because of the stretch. This is probably the stretchiest line.

Flourocarbon- Sinks rapidly, has a fair amount of stretch but more sensitive than mono. Also pretty rigid and harder string. The big difference in this string is it sinks, and does it fast. If you plan on throwing a chugbug or skitterwalk with this string, you can forget about it. It will sink your topwater plugs, making them extremely tough to work especially if you like a stop and go kind of technique. But its sinking rate, increases it sensitivity. I think its because instead of your string floating underwater, this strings goes in a straight line from your rod tip to your bait, giving you a better feeling of what your bait is doing. This string is excellent when fishing baits on the bottom, since it sinks it helps get your bait to the bottom and helps keep it there even on windier days or days with a lot of current. So if you are throwing corkies or suspending baits in the wind, this string would be your ticket at keeping it from floating along the surface of the water. This string is also pretty rigid, not as rigid as braid of course, but more rigid than mono. I've pulled bass 5lbs+ out of heavy cover that I didn't think I'd have a chance at doing without braid. The string did fray a little but a quick retie and I was good to go. I like flourocarbon when fishing trout, because it has great sensitivity and you don't need to have a leader when fishing with this string since its tough. Lately I've been stringing up most of my reels with PLINE Halo or any other 100% flourocarbon string.

One thing I didn't mention in my review is the clarity of the strings. In clear water, you definitely do not want braid, you can look at it and its obviously not invisible, its not fooling anybody, even when you get the lower strength lines. You can tell me whatever you want, but when it comes to fishing trout in the cool clear water, trout definitely see this line and prevent them from biting. I've experienced this in Big Lake every year, the flourocarbon always has outfished braid in there. Flourocarbon is by far the most invisible line, its a pretty close match to mono though. I think the thing that always lead me to flourocarbon during those cold months when the water is cold&crystal clear and the trout are on their slow bite when you have to throw 1/16oz leadhead is that flourocarbon will outcast the mono and give you better sensitivity, because of its weight.

Hope this helps lol I have too much time on my hands...

That is a good point, I was going along the same route as redfish, but redfish are much bigger with more meat. For some reason 10 just sounds like too many, maybe just go with 8 like they have in Chicot. I just feel like 10 would attract extremely large crowds making it unpleasant to fish.

I like JBs first comment. If the 14' minimum would be released, we would have everyone and their momma out there raping the fisheries. So releasing the minimum.. bad idea IMO. Turning the 14' minimum to a 12' minimum is just as bad!

What I think would be a perfect beginning stage to dropping the minimum all together would be a slot range. I cant say what the best one would be, but I'd like to see it somewhere from 13'-16' with a maximum of 5 per person. This would still attract many fisherman to the area at first, because of all of the 12-13' fish, but would keep many of the larger fish in the system because how often do you catch 14' fish for your first five fish? Experienced fisherman definitely can, but we all know the majority of fisherman or your average fisherman. Then as the hype wears off, consider dropping the slot.

Right now though one thing we need to worry about as fisherman is the invasion of Asian Carp. I don't know what kind of damage they can do, but since opening Morganza they are EVERYWHERE in the area I fish.

Thanks Capt, I've been looking for a good durable saltwater reel for a good price and I've been throwing curados which have been doing just fine especially when it comes to throwing into the wind, but they are a little on the pricey side for me. I'm definitely going to go get me an Orra. I have a Revo STX from 7 years ago and that thing cast smooth as hell, but i've only brought it to freshwater and it doesnt cast against the wind very good.

nice fish! What kind of reel your throwing there and how is it holding to that salt water?

Hey man nice catch. I'm pretty sure you know this since you were able to catch fish in Chicot, but theres a slot on bass over there. Can't keep in between 14-17' and you can only have 4 over I think. Just wanted to let you know, those bass look pretty close to 14'

Once again nice fish. My dad went yesterday with not nearly the luck that you had lol

Does your friend Troy let you give out his contact information. I'd like to do business with him. Beautiful fish man! Probably close to the best I've ever seen on matching colors

Here ya go little body, just take some corn

Exactly, it hurt the kids feelings and by that it also affects yours. Your doing a good thing by bringing those kids out and teaching them the correct manners and also how to enjoy something so innocent and fun. Keep it up! I can't wait to have one of my own! Good to see that theres still some good people out there. Tight lines buddy

One time while idling up to a spot a man probably 250-300 yards away was yelling at us that he had a gun and he was going to shoot us if we got any closer. He was anchor by a known underwater island, and I wasn't even heading his way. At first my boat thought he had mistaken us for one of his friends and he was joking, that was until he pulled a gun out, or what looked like a gun.

I've been fishing since I was very young, and have never seen so many discourteous fisherman until I started saltwater fishing roughly 7-8 years ago. I've noticed that most saltwater guys are not nearily as polite as freshwater guys. Its not often, I find fish and be left alone. Once I've had a guy RUN INTO my boat with his trolling motor in vermilion bay, some jack@$$ in a big 24ft yellow skeeter. I've also had a 13 year boy in the boat with me and we were tearing up the trout alone in a spot, before long there were 5 boats within my casting range! I had to cast behind the other boats to get to where I was catching fish, then they'd be pissed at me for reeling in fish on the side of their boats. Sad thing is some of these ways are getting passed to freshwater guys and they are staying in the hole while passing you, causing your boat to take in water or they'll idle but pass 10ft on the side of your boat to see what your fishing with. When I was younger I was taught right, and that was when passing a fellow fisherman, you get as close to the opposite bank and slow idle and idle a little pass him not to mess up his bank. But do you think anyone else shows that kind of respect?! It isn't often! You have to prepare yourself to be able to deal with a lot of rich A-holes when going into saltwater, because most don't know how to find fish on their own. They are out with binoculars trying to see what YOU are catching, instead of fishing for themselves. Now not everyone is like that but the vast majority is.

I really think that we need to start chopping off limbs for stealing stuff, then we'd hope that dumb@$$es still something of ours.

What did you catch those huge white trout on? I'd love to catch some like that next time i go out? Also where can you usually find them that big? How deep of water normally?

You are exactly right.

I don't know what game warder told you it wasn't affected, but obviously he didn't have a clue what he was saying.

Also I heard last time Morganza opened up, you couldn't even get to the Big Alabama road or landing. If they were to open Morganza it would definitely improve the fishing at both Little and Big Alabama if it was to flood as it did in 1973

I wouldn't say it was that big though. Probably a 5lber. Its hard to tell though, cuz i don't really know how big that guy is, but judging by his hand and size of fishes mouth I'd say it'd even be smaller than a 5 and guess a SOLID 4.5-5lbs.

I've caught probably 100 fish over 4lbs and usually I'm close to being able to put my fist in there mouth. 5lbs definitely fit my fist.

Gorgeous colors on that fish though.