The last shoot we did was in February out of Slidell, Louisiana. There we fished with a guide named Gary Taylor. Gary has a pretty cool gig where he has a 32’ ft Louisiana Skiff, which is a true Louisiana Bayou boat. On the back of the boat is a ramp-like trailer built into the back of it where he winches up his smaller Hell’s Bay skiff.

He runs across some really rough open waters of the Gulf with his big boat and he launches his little skiff when he gets to the remote sheltered waters of the fishing areas.

Arriving at a series of shorelines and ponds, we targeted large redfish that live in these places at this time of year. On the first day out, it was freezing cold and we struggled to catch anything. The second day we persisted and the fishing just opened up. Sight fishing only, we caught a bunch of fish including redfish on fly up to 20lbs and up to 35lb on spinning tackle.

For me, the lesson in all of this was that “if you don’t go then you don’t know”. Most fishermen would tend to stay home when the fishing is slow and the weather isn’t cooperating. But I found if you keep fishing and fish around the bad weather, a lot can happen in an afternoon.