Thread: 8/9/2024 Last Summer of 2024 Trip on Da Bayou

Austin’s last day of summer vacation was spent on Da Bayou Lacombe searching for and slaying the elusive Sacalait. A trip we made earlier this week was a bust but I wanted to show him how fast things change on the Northshore. One day it seems you can’t cast without catching a fish and the next you can’t buy a bite.
Well we caught our first 2 keepers within eye sight of the Main St launch so it WAS ON at least till the tide stopped moving. We ended up keeping 19 and Austin caught 16 of them. I simply had a bad day. Way to may snags on structure and I was too stubborn to change bait colors. Austin likes to try the rainbow when it comes to colors and I usually stick with match the hatch colors, like shad. Well he had 10 to my 1 when I noticed he was using a tiny maroon colored worm looking jig. I had bought them for fishing bream not sacalait. Well we continued to pitch into the small schools of Sacalait and Austin would get hit and I wouldn’t get a bite. By the time I got discussed enough to ask for a maroon worm jig the tide had stopped and they got lock jaw. I mean like turning off like a light, they stopped bitting. He ended with 16 to my 3 for total of 19. The only up side is I told him I’d clean my fish and he had to clean his. LOL.

It was a fitting last day of summer 2024 trip , before him starting high school. A summer which started off with a WEEK LONG Toledo Bend 8th grade graduation trip , thanks to Going Catching and included at least a couple of fishing trips each week all summer. He also spent some boat time with Cajun Ray. He even caught his personal best Sacalait , 15 1/2 inch, and his personal best large mouth, 8 lb & 24 1/2 inch, lunker. So to put a whooping on Paw Paw in closing out the summer was enough to put a big smile on his face.

Another Paw Paw adventure in the books.

Bon Temps!!

I could not wait when I was a young boy to be out of school. My mom’s brother was a commercial fisherman and he also trapped in the winter. He had 2 sons and they along with myself were taught fishing, trawling, trapping, skinning, and life lessons on the Bayou at Delicroux Island where my uncle and his family lived. I would live with them during every school break. My grand father lived there as well from time to time and taught us how fish for reds , speckled trout, flounder and sheep’s head.
I too can close my eyes and remember those sun rises and sun sets on that trawl boat. The smell of salt water, the chugging of a big diesel engine as we pulled the hugh trawl across the lakes. The thrill of not knowing what was in the trawl ball when we lifted it out the water was like Christmas morning but it would happed several times a day.

I regress…

Bon Temps!!