Surf Fishing in Cajun Country

I love living in Louisiana. While at times I miss the smallmouth and pike up north, the variety of fresh and saltwater fishing in this Sportsman’s Paradise is fantastic. Of course, with all the variety, I must admit, I was a bit skeptical when my buddies suggested we go surf fishing down in South Louisiana. Not that I am lazy, but I think of surf fishing as being a lot of work down here- actually, it’s a lot of work everywhere. It involves a lot of walking, moving, wading out into the surf and mighty casts to get the bait where it needs to be. I needed a day of fun and relaxation, and as I said, I was not overly enthused at the proposal.

One buddy had heard about a “great spot”- Elmers Island. This is a Wildlife Management Area located about 2 miles west of Grand Isle, LA. You need to purchase an entry permit to enter a wildlife management area in Louisiana. They are well worth the investment and can be purchased online by clicking here .

The first thing I noticed was that the Elmers Island WMA had a free shuttle service to shuttle you to your favorite fishing spot on the beach. Things were already looking up! The driver gives you their cell number so you can contact them when you are finished so they can come get you. Not bad! The service does have its regular hours and it does not run all year long, so for hours and months of operation click here .

We arrived right before dawn and found the shuttle ready. We gave the driver a tip and asked to be driven to a spot where fish have been caught recently. So far, life was good. This efficiency allowed us to get our lines in the water before dawn.  It was not difficult to know where to cast since the speckled trout were jumping out of the water in a feeding frenzy. So far, so good.

Here’s where it gets tricky. A word of caution, there are sharks in these waters. You will hook into them using the swimbaits you are using for the trout. They will also bite the trout in half while you are reeling it in. This is not the place to hook a stringer to your belt loop while you walk around in the surf! Enough said on being cautious.

For a while we caught smaller speckled trout on most of our casts.  I was using a ¼ oz jig head tipped with a gold-colored Mojo Tackle twists.  I caught several trout using this presentation, but I was missing a lot of bites. I decided to walk back to the shore and tie on a different presentation. I decided to go with the Flashin’ Assassin 1/8th oz jig head with the 2 3/4-

inch Mojo Tackle paddle tail in the glass minnow color. This is a smaller lure than what I was using, and I saw the difference immediately since I caught a trout on my first cast. The fish I caught were larger as the sun rose higher in the sky. The problem was we were also hooking bigger fish that snapped the line. I had a sneaking suspicion these were sharks.

As in other areas of the country, sharks move into shallow water looking for food during the hottest parts of the year. One of my buddies had recently moved to bayou country from Little Rock, Arkansas.  I didn’t realize he had tied a stringer to his beltloop. He walked up to us while we were taking a break on shore taking a break and showed us his morning catch. Several of his trout had been bitten in half. “Seems McGruff the Crime Dog took a bite out of your stringer!” I exclaimed. While explaining to my freshwater friend how he never should keep fish in a stringer while wading saltwater, I might have mentioned he was lucky one of those bites was not out of his leg! Not that they would attack a human, it’s just that when feeding so close, you never know what they are going to bite!

Another friend, Micah Frazier, joined us while we were admiring the shark’s handy work. Ironically, without even noticing the chomped stringer fish, he asked us if we thought there were sharks in the area. I told him that there were definitely sharks in shallow, showing him the half-eaten specks. He told me that he had brought some frozen bait, and he was itching to try out his shark rod. He quickly baited a bottom rig and waded into the surf. With a mighty cast his bait was in the water. No sooner had he placed the rod into a sand spike, his line tightened, and the rod bent over.

“I have a bite!” Micah exclaimed. He picked up the rod and began reeling. It took several minutes, and I stood on the beach and watched the black tip shark jump again and again. Another buddy, Matt Heartsill, waded out to help bring the beast in. He grabbed the long leader and brought it close, then grabbed the shark at the base of its tail. I am not offering this as a “how to” on handling sharks, but he did manage to drag it in without getting bit by the thrashing fish. Micah removed the hook, and we snapped some pictures before releasing it. If you ever thought catching a good-sized shark in the surf would be fun, well you were right, it was a thrill for both Micah and those of us watching the “show”.

We caught a lot of fish that day, including some big enough for us to fillet and eat that had not been shark sushi. As I mentioned, this WMA has the benefit of a shuttle which you can call when you finish working the area. After a long day of wading, walking, casting and reeling it was nice not to have to carry all our equipment back to the truck.

I must admit, the whole experience was a lot more fun than I had envisioned. If you are looking for a late summer adventure, try Elmer’s Island. It has miles of beautiful, sandy beaches, some great fishing, and best of all, you don’t have to walk for miles to get to an uncrowded spot. Not down in Louisiana? Anywhere there is a good beach with some structure in the surf courtesy of mother nature, get your line wet, and maybe even set one out rigged for Mack the Shark- the one who shows them pearly whites!

Equipment Used: Unlike fishing the rougher water of the mid-Atlantic region for big striped bass or

bruising blues, in South Louisiana, fishing the surf for specks or redfish does not require real heavy gear. Here’s what I used (not for the sharks):

• Razr Rodz 7 ft Medium Razr Rodz website

• Jigs: Red 1/8th oz Flashin Assassin jigs Flashin Assassin website

• Soft Plastics: Mojo Tackle Twist color clear with gold flake. Mojo Tackle website

Mojo Tackle 2 ¾ inch paddle tail color glass minnow.

Jay Angel is the host of a weekly podcast- Let's Talk Fishing- interviewing the industry's biggest stars and brightest innovators. Jay loves to focus on southern inshore fishing as well as the freshwater scene. You can find the LIVE weekly podcasts and previous episodes on the Lets Talk Fishing Facebook page. Jay is an outdoor writer and lifelong angler with professional guiding experience. He has been writing, blogging and spreading the word about his passion since 1997 in many of your favorite fishing periodicals. Jay is an Illinois native who now makes his home in the Sportsman's Paradise of Louisiana.