#27-Louisiana: Good Morning New Orleans

We had first come to Louisiana a couple states ago after Texas. We drove to New Orleans in the morning, and fished on lake Pontchartrain. We didn’t fish for long, due to extremely high winds, and then went sightseeing in the city. Neither of us had been to New Orleans before. We slept at a Bass Pro outside of Baton Rouge that night, as we didnt think it would be a good idea to spend the night in our car in New Orleans. We stopped by Superior Bait and Tackle and got some great advice on a spot to fish, down near Port Fourchon.

The next morning we got a call from Emmy winning news anchor Wild Bill Wood from Good Morning New Orleans. He told us he would love to do a nationally broadcasted story on us, but was away that week. Not wanting to pass up that opportunity, we decided to finish up the southern border and then head back to Louisiana the following week, so we fished the next day in Louisiana again just to see if we could get some trout but had no luck, and then that night we headed up to Mississipi and then on to Florida.

Now you are all caught up.

After finishing up in Florida, we drove up to Alabama, and stayed the night in Hattiesburg again with the Mcintires, which was only an hour north of our interview the next morning.

We drove down to the North shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and did our news piece with Wild Bill. He is certainly one of the more interesting people we’ve had the opportunity to meet on this trip, and it was super different from the typical cut and dry interviews we’re used to. Our segment aired on Christmas eve from the Big Easy.

After that, we drove down to Port Fourchon, the most Southern port in Louisiana - and fished in the bayous near the ocean. We needed to catch some Speckled Trout, which is the official saltwater fish of Louisiana. It isn't actually a trout, but rather a type of drum - but it has spots on it that resembles a Brook Trout. The first night we caught channel catfish on every cast, in salt water, which was very strange. We went to try another spot, and caught some White Trout (also not real trout), but no Speckled. After befriending a local fisherman who was there with us, he told us if we came back to the spot at five the next morning, we would almost certainly get on some specks.

So we packed it in for the night and showed up just after five the next morning. We set up our rods, using live shrimp under floats, and one by one cars came pulling in, until we had a good group of ten to fifteen fisherman of all ages around us. We fished from 5 am to around 3 in the afternoon when the bite died down. It was one of the best fishing days of the trip.

Along with two speckled trout over 12 inches, we caught fish on nearly every single cast, from Redfish, to White Trout and Sheepshead, and plenty of other species as well. That spot stands out as one of the best spots I have ever fished, and we hope to get back there someday. We drove three hours that night, and were lucky enough to be able to sleep in a bed in Hattiesburg again, super grateful for the Mcintire’s hospitality, as we had a 15 hour drive home coming up. We paid for our room and board with fresh fish - a favorite of Mr. Mcintire. The next morning we packed it up, and early the day after we were home, and the second leg was over.