well to start off, I ASSumed 
I could get cell ph reception to do a live hunt. Unfortunately my POS Cingular phone got ZERO reception and no roaming in the marsh ... what a bummer
here's the extent and recap with some pics of the trip. When i was in high school (mid 80's) , i hunted/fished the Buras, Port Sulphur, and Venice areas often since my friend's dad had a camp in the marsh.
I was excited to go on this bowfishing trip, yet knew it would bring back some good & bad memories since I hadn't been there in over 23 yrs. The good .... fishing is still better than ever . The Bad ... ALOT of the marsh was lost due to Katrina and it still looks like hardly anything has been done in 4 yrs since THE hurricane. Here is a picture of the Volunteer Fire Dept bldg when driving up to the boat launch .... unbelievable ... The emergency medical center right behind the FD is 100x's worse and is just a shell of bricks and open window / door frames ... like a ghost town
i could post several more pics yet it is so depressing as it almost looks 3rd world with bldgs just sitting there rotting away as if the Hurricane hit yesterday
Anyway, I met Kevin (Woody) and his 2 nephews at a Chevron Gas station in PS. We introduce ourselves to Capt Rodney Boudreaux and Capt Josh Galt who are the owners of Deep Delta Tours / Cajun Air Bowfishing out of Belle Chase, LA. link... http://www.deepdeltatours.com/index.asp
These dudes don't play around when it comes to airboats and bowfishing !!! They have a fleet of 5 monster airboats that can easily fish up to six people off the front deck ! This was the boat we went out on , as they just purchased 2 exactly alike at $60K each !!!
The engine(s) is a 502 cu inch beast that pushes a full load and crew over 60 mph . 23 halogen lights that light up 40+ feet around the boat when stalking fish. 9 guys can ride comfortably in these boats.
All you have to do is show up and bring drinks/snacks.... they have top of the line bowfishing bows/reels ready to go.... I saw a couple of Brownings and the other 30+ bows were Mathews fully decked out (both L and R handed).
We fished from about 9:00 pm til 12:30 am ..... covering alot of marsh which looked like this (day time pic to give you an idea of what we fished)
We actually fished for a little over 2 hrs, and the other hour was spent trying to find the fish in the small bays and estuaries. The tide was VERY LOW as we were fishing in water from 1" deep to less than 12" deep. To make matters worse and more difficult, the wind blew hard all day yesterday, and the water was "chocolate milk" brown. You could only see the fish if they were right on top or perhaps 2-3 inches below the surface.
We spent alot of time trying to chase the redfish swirls and ripples while cornering them in the marsh pockets. I shot 7 reds and a sheephead , and know I shot over 100 arrows .. The action was fast , furious, and slow at times due to the poor water conditions. Three days earlier the water was crystal clear , as I guess that's how fishing goes (just like hunting
and mother nature )
We ended up with 18 reds , 1 gar, and the s/head. Fish ranged approx. from 2 1/2 lbs to 5 lbs. The limit is 5 redfish per person . We missed a bunch of really nice redfish and a 3-4 foot garfish . Between the boat moving, current moving, fish moving, and muddy water, it was more difficult than I had envisioned. We should have easily limited out (20 fish) as we missed alot of easy "close to the boat" shots.
It was a 3 1/2 hr drive for me 1-way as I got home around 6 am. Kevin and his nephews are still in N.O. and plan to hit Prejean's tomorrow on the way back to H-town.
When I got home to check my other pics, somehow my 10 yr old Sony camera had the flash turned off as my pics of fishing never came out
. Kevin and his nephew took some video and additional pics as they will have to post them up.
On a positive note, I never got bit by 1 mosquito the entire time.... to windy I suppose. I did end up saving this pic of the ice chest with fish in it
I think our eyes are "squinted" and look chinese from riding in the airboat all night
Finally, the craziest thing I'll remember from this trip.... we were probably 8-10 miles out in the marsh in the middle of no where and we see a freakin' coyote swimming in the shallow bay area and then gets to the marsh grass and hauls butt. Ain't no telling how this coyote got out to the marsh grass islands so far from solid ground near the shore.
thx for the read and wish I had more "action" pics to share.
IMO , well worth the $$$ spent .... if you love bowfishing and want to do alot of shooting , this is a trip to consider. As noted above , on a very difficult condition night, we should have limited out after an hour of shooting.
the drive is 3hr 15min from Lafayette , probably closer to 6hr 30min from H-town if you don't take to many pit stops
I could get cell ph reception to do a live hunt. Unfortunately my POS Cingular phone got ZERO reception and no roaming in the marsh ... what a bummer here's the extent and recap with some pics of the trip. When i was in high school (mid 80's) , i hunted/fished the Buras, Port Sulphur, and Venice areas often since my friend's dad had a camp in the marsh.
I was excited to go on this bowfishing trip, yet knew it would bring back some good & bad memories since I hadn't been there in over 23 yrs. The good .... fishing is still better than ever . The Bad ... ALOT of the marsh was lost due to Katrina and it still looks like hardly anything has been done in 4 yrs since THE hurricane. Here is a picture of the Volunteer Fire Dept bldg when driving up to the boat launch .... unbelievable ... The emergency medical center right behind the FD is 100x's worse and is just a shell of bricks and open window / door frames ... like a ghost town
i could post several more pics yet it is so depressing as it almost looks 3rd world with bldgs just sitting there rotting away as if the Hurricane hit yesterday
Anyway, I met Kevin (Woody) and his 2 nephews at a Chevron Gas station in PS. We introduce ourselves to Capt Rodney Boudreaux and Capt Josh Galt who are the owners of Deep Delta Tours / Cajun Air Bowfishing out of Belle Chase, LA. link... http://www.deepdeltatours.com/index.asp
These dudes don't play around when it comes to airboats and bowfishing !!! They have a fleet of 5 monster airboats that can easily fish up to six people off the front deck ! This was the boat we went out on , as they just purchased 2 exactly alike at $60K each !!!
The engine(s) is a 502 cu inch beast that pushes a full load and crew over 60 mph . 23 halogen lights that light up 40+ feet around the boat when stalking fish. 9 guys can ride comfortably in these boats.All you have to do is show up and bring drinks/snacks.... they have top of the line bowfishing bows/reels ready to go.... I saw a couple of Brownings and the other 30+ bows were Mathews fully decked out (both L and R handed).
We fished from about 9:00 pm til 12:30 am ..... covering alot of marsh which looked like this (day time pic to give you an idea of what we fished)
We actually fished for a little over 2 hrs, and the other hour was spent trying to find the fish in the small bays and estuaries. The tide was VERY LOW as we were fishing in water from 1" deep to less than 12" deep. To make matters worse and more difficult, the wind blew hard all day yesterday, and the water was "chocolate milk" brown. You could only see the fish if they were right on top or perhaps 2-3 inches below the surface.
We spent alot of time trying to chase the redfish swirls and ripples while cornering them in the marsh pockets. I shot 7 reds and a sheephead , and know I shot over 100 arrows .. The action was fast , furious, and slow at times due to the poor water conditions. Three days earlier the water was crystal clear , as I guess that's how fishing goes (just like hunting
and mother nature ) We ended up with 18 reds , 1 gar, and the s/head. Fish ranged approx. from 2 1/2 lbs to 5 lbs. The limit is 5 redfish per person . We missed a bunch of really nice redfish and a 3-4 foot garfish . Between the boat moving, current moving, fish moving, and muddy water, it was more difficult than I had envisioned. We should have easily limited out (20 fish) as we missed alot of easy "close to the boat" shots.
It was a 3 1/2 hr drive for me 1-way as I got home around 6 am. Kevin and his nephews are still in N.O. and plan to hit Prejean's tomorrow on the way back to H-town.
When I got home to check my other pics, somehow my 10 yr old Sony camera had the flash turned off as my pics of fishing never came out
. Kevin and his nephew took some video and additional pics as they will have to post them up.On a positive note, I never got bit by 1 mosquito the entire time.... to windy I suppose. I did end up saving this pic of the ice chest with fish in it
I think our eyes are "squinted" and look chinese from riding in the airboat all night
Finally, the craziest thing I'll remember from this trip.... we were probably 8-10 miles out in the marsh in the middle of no where and we see a freakin' coyote
swimming in the shallow bay area and then gets to the marsh grass and hauls butt. Ain't no telling how this coyote got out to the marsh grass islands so far from solid ground near the shore.thx for the read and wish I had more "action" pics to share.
IMO , well worth the $$$ spent .... if you love bowfishing and want to do alot of shooting , this is a trip to consider. As noted above , on a very difficult condition night, we should have limited out after an hour of shooting.
the drive is 3hr 15min from Lafayette , probably closer to 6hr 30min from H-town if you don't take to many pit stops
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