On the second day of the 2021 LHSAA High School Bass Fishing State Championship Samuel Rachal of Oak Hill High School fIshing Cypress Trees on open waters of Cross Lake in Shreveport, caught the biggest bass of the two day State Championship tournament. He was using a white/chArtreuse chatter bait. The bass weighed 7 lbs 12 ounces which enabled him to take the big bass honors.

The LHSAA was able to put on the States 1st ever high school bass fishing State Championship on Cross Lake located in the northwest corner of the state in Shreveport. Severe thunderstorm plagued the entire day with high wind and rain. But at the end of the fist day Noah Trant and Mark Trant from Calvary Baptist lead the field with 19 lbs of a 5 fish limit. Adam McDowell said, “It a great opportunity for the kids to get involved in their high school sports that would other wise not be able to compete in other sports!” After the first Day! The 2021 High School Bass Fishing Tournament is a 2 day event. Results can be found at the LHSAA websiste under High School Bass Fishing.

Please join us for the inaugural Blue Boot Rodeo Fishing Rodeo to be held at Sanddollar Marina and Tarpon Pavillion Friday, aug 12th an Saturday aug 13th. This is a family event that will feature inshore an offshore divisions. Along with plenty of family activities over 2 days. For $20 dollars there will live music, DJ Phrozen, food, ditty bags, life jackets for registered kids, awards, auction, The Aaron Foret Band will close out from 6-10pm at the Tarpon Pavillion. The purpose of the Blue Boot Fishing Rodeo is to help drive awareness for childhood drowning. Most people don?t realize that it is the number 1 preventable cause of death from injury, in children from the ages 1-4. Riley John Bourgeois memory will live on!

Many traditions take place on the opening day of the Grand Isle International Tarpon Rodeo. Like the opening ceremonies, kids crab races, the anticipation of the 1st Tarpon to make the weigh scales, and the camp life. Byron and Sandy Dufrene take camp life for the GIITR to the next step for family and friends. For the past 6 years, the band “Ryan Foret and the Tradition” have used their talents to entertain numerous family and friends. Dancing, camp cooking, and cold beverages kept party goers occupied for 3 plus hours on opening day. Hope everyone has a safe an enjoyable GIITR 2019!

Saltwater fishing around Grand Isle for the 4th of July weekend was great. The traditional fireworks show at Bridgeside Marina highlighted the weekend Saturday night. The event brought out a record crowd watching from the shore and from watercrafts. The fishing on Friday and Saturday produced bullreds and plenty speckle trout. Hunter McDonald, Madison Boyer caught bullreds on cut mullet Friday night. Saturday the crew of Hunter Mcdonald, Madison Boyer, Peyton Sailor, Matthew Boyer caught speckle trout ranging from 12 to 16 inches. Sunday we all enjoyed camp life frying trout & shrimp, and making homemade vanilla ice cream! It never rain but the heat kept most Island goers in the shade! Happy birthday America!

Spent the past weekend on Grand Isle enjoying camp life. We had caught some speckle trouts and used the carcasses to bait 2 crab traps. Set them out Saturday afternoon and left them overnite. Sunday around noon we picked them up. To our surprise, we had enough crabs for a boil. With a box of salt and 4 ounces of cayenne pepper, the crab boil was on. Hope to see ya on the Island!

On Monday, June 10th, the tide change occurred around 10 am to noon from Caminada pass to Four Bayous pass. With a .7 tide range. A light northeast wind made fishing the beach easy. At noon the bite started at the rocks in front of Da Fort and lasted most of the afternoon. Fishing by yourself doesn’t take long to put 25 trout in da boat. The Lemonhead Matrix was the hottest bait.

Grand isle hosted a concert on the beach after braving early morning bad weather. By the afternoon, crowds showed up. Everyone is having a great time, Kevin Belcher said. Dirty Water Blues kicked off the concert. Followed by Kerry Thibodeaux, Shorts in December, Contra flow, Mastet of ceremony D J Rhett.

VFW appreciation of Korean Veteran

Veterans of Foreign Wars, VFW, of Luling, Post 3750 has 2 main goals, 1. Assist the needs of veterans, & 2. Perform community services. According to Bobby Lovergne, Post Commander. Mr. Lawrence J. Olinde, of Bridge City was attending one of the monthly meetings and had a conversation with Junior Vice Commander, Perry Muller about going fishing. Mr. Olinde was a Korean War veteran in 1962 with the US ARMY as a Missile specialist 4th Class, 1st Missile Battalion, 33rd Artillery, 210 Missile group. Mr. Olinde worked on the Honest John Missile System. Stationed in Ansbach, Graffnier, and Berlin, Germany. He was released from the Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in 1964. “ I explained to Perry Muller, US retired Navy, I am 80 years old and my wife passed away several weeks ago. I just was sitting at home grieving. “Mr. Olinde explained to Commander Muller. Commander Muller offered to taking him fishing and occupy some down time. With the help of Randy “Peg” Vernor, a US Navy Vet, they setup some fishing trips with Mr. Olinde. On their 1st fishing trip to Lake Cataouatche they managed to catch 15 catfish. The largest weighing 44 pounds on rod-n-reel. Their 2nd trip they managed to catch redfish on the southern end of Lake Salvador.” We have given a lot of fish away and had some good fish fries. I can’t thank Randy and Perry enough for taking me fishing during this rough time in my life. Sitting around the house after losing my wife was rough. They both have helped me out. I‘ll continue to fish as long as I can!” Mr. Lawrence J. Olinde said.

We were on you way to Grand Isle with the boat in tow. I witnessed 2 vechicles on the side of the road, one had bearing problems and the other had a blown tire. Poor fishermen, their trips were ruined before they ever reach the water. Our trip turned out great catching plenty trout and bullreds. That afternoon, my son unhitched the trailer at the camp and drove off to visit friends at a near by camp. He forgot to unplug the lite connection an ripped out the wiring harness. We returned home and put the boat an trailer under the carport to work on the a new light system. While under the trailer I noticed the U Bolts holding the axle were about to give way due to corrosion. The leaf springs were also in bad condition. The trailer was 16 years old and had never had work done on it. Having the boat trailer under the carport, we changed the light system, upgraded the springs to a brand new 4 leaf spring, and changed the U Bolts. I couldn't imagine in the predawn hours having to work on a boat trailer on the side of the road. Fishermen, do yourself a favor an inspect your trailer. Here iare 10 general inspections for your trailer to check:

1. The lights and connection

2. Lug nuts

3. Tires for pressure, cracks, dry rot

4. Bearings and seals, put grease

5. U Bolts, springs, & Bolts

6. Safety chain and use it

7. Running boards and carpet

8. Fenders & frame, look for cracks

9. Rust spots, salt water accelerates rust

10. License plate and tag

Do a little preventive maintenance and save yourself some major headaches.

The bridge everyone uses to cross over to Grand Isle can be an amazing location to fish for bullreds. This time of year bullreds are starting to run threw the passes for their annual meeting with the females. But right now they are feeding on crabs, shrimp, mullet, and big poogies. We ridged our Penn 7000 on 7' rods with 85 lb braid, 2oz weight ahead of a barrel swivel, and a 20 inch leader with a #7 hook baited with a whole crab. Better known as a Carolina rig or live bait rig. Take the claws off the crab, break the points on each side off, and hook the crab from the bottom to top near the swimmer threw the crab.Cast the crab out down current in 15 - 20 feet of water and tighten the slack line. The best tide is an out goin tide. Best time is 1 hour before sunset to 1 hour after sunset. Members on our party barge took turns reeling in 36 inch bullreds July 4th weekend. 'These big fish will pull the rod out your hands if you are not careful.' Christine D'ARCANGELO commented. Beau Danos caught his 1st bullred this weekend. 'I thought he was going to pull me in the water. The fish was 40 inches long. Not bad for my 1st bullred.' Beau said.

Grand Isle during the summer means sand, sun, fishing, & fun. Add the GI 4th of July ATV celebration parade. Over 100 ATv's of all sort made up the parade. Red, white, & blue with the American Flag was the major theme. All that rode were cheering and throwing like a Mardi Gras parade. If you were not there, you missed a great time.

February 2018 will go down as the best bass fishing month on record in southeast Louisiana. In 2011, Kevin Van Dam, declared Lake Cataouatche as one of the best bass fisheries he had ever fished. 'Lake Cataouatche is the best lake I have ever fished. Please take care of it!' KVD said. I would say it to, if I had just won $1 million dollars an broke the Bassmasters Elite record for pounds caught for a four day tournament. But for the local bass fisherman, bass have turned on in the Lake cataouatche area. Find clear water in da tank ponds, West Canal, and the Louisiana Cypress Canal and success is just one cast away. Andreas Hackman found out on the last day of February. He fished the Zoom Bluegill Flash fluke and Houdini salty super fluke on a Texas rig with a # 4 hook & 1/8 ounce weight. Other action came on the Spro Black Jr. Frog. ' It was great afternoon limiting out.' Andreas Hackman commented! Any place I found an opening or hole between the bank an grass bed I would call it, a bass's house! I would throw my fluke on the edge the hole and pull it 2 feet and let it drop. Bump it 1-2-3 an let it drop. Sometimes I could feel the hit or see my line move. It was easy, just crank down an set the hook! Andreas Hackman said. When I hooked a bass, I would just say, I'm back in the house!

Fishing along Hwy1 to Grand Isle, the pond we were at was loaded with brown pelicans.
'While fishing, pelicans were flying and swimming all around us. I hooked a small red fish and was reeling it in as fast as I could. Pelicans flying and swimming attacked my small red. Before I could unhook the fish, a pelican had it in his mouth and I pulled it out his mouth. The pelicans were climbing on top each other to get to my small red fish. They were hungry. Through all the chaos, we managed to catch a few fish.' Jordan Guizzardi said.

Day 2 after a cold front and the temperature dropped into the low 40's an the wind changed directions to the southeast. We went back to the same Hwy 1 ponds and tried our luck. The small red fish were numerous and under size. Our best bait was the 1/4 ounce jighead baited with market shrimp. Throwing out and let the bait sit on the bottom with a very slow retreive worked the best. The wind was strong and steady out the southeast. Our best protection from the wind was our rain gear. Jordan Guizzardi and I had a great 2 days of bank fishing in January!

I am standing along Hwy 1 between the Fourchon and Grand Isle with Roscoe Lauve, Jordan Guzzardi, an myself catching red fish and specks rt now. We are using 1/4 oz sliver spoons, 1/4 oz jig head with a 2 inch chartreuse beetle, an the natural Voodo! It's the morning after a cold front. We are casting an retrieving working the bait slowly on the bottom. A great way to spend a Tuesday morning.

Hayden Theriot Killed an 11 point, nicknamed 'Mahooka', the buck scored 168 4/8 B&C in Tensas parish.

Hayden Theriot has an enthusiasm for the Louisiana outdoors. On any given day or weekend, Hayden can be found fishing or hunting somewhere in Louisiana. Deer Hunting in Tensas parish last week, he managed to harvest a mature 11 point buck. The buck scored 168 4/8 on the B&C.

Logan Martindale with an 11 point buck weighing 230 pounds plus from Tensas parish.

Logan Martindale is no stranger when it comes to hunting and fishing in the Louisiana great outdoors! On December 29th, while deer hunting on private land in Tensas parish, Logan pulled the trigger on his 2nd deer in 7 years in Tensas parish. 'A few friends had hunted the box stand and food plot I set up on with my tree climber. They had told me deer were crossing 250 yards away. I was about 15 feet up in a tree when 2 does crossed the shooting lane, 25 yards away. It was 35 degrees and cloudy when this big body deer stepped out where the does had passed. He had his nose to the ground and had love on his mind. He was only 25 yards when I let the 165 grain Remington Core-lokt find its mark. It's was a little after 5pm and it got dark fast. When my Dad showed up, he had my retriever 'Brie' and she blood trailed us right to the 11point. I was surprised she could blood trail. My dog is a 2 time Splash Dog jumping champion at the Louisiana sportsman show, she retrieves ducks, & now she can blood trail. After finding my deer I started shaking with excitement. The 11 point will score in the high 140s and weighed over 230 pounds.' Logan Martindale recalls.