Here’s the story: There weren’t many sleepy eyes at 4am in the Albertson’s parking lot as 16 fishermen and women gathered. We were headed way down the bayou south of Houma to Pointe Aux Chenes. After a quick meeting to go over driving directions and to hand out maps of our fishing location, we were rolling to this special piece of the Louisiana marsh.
A wide variety of fishing craft were on hand from Hobie Pro Anglers to Native Ultimates, Wilderness Systems Rides, NuCanoe Frontiers and many more. Part of our group headed against the incoming tide southward towards some tight interior type marsh. 
Pointe Aux Chenes is one of those spots that you can paddle less than 5 minutes before you are in prime fishing terrain. I headed north and and saw several other trip members doing the same.
I paddled out to a spot where I had noticed a small pond on a large marsh island. As I entered the pond, I was careful to be as quiet as possible. A few casts into my day I had a solid hit on the plastic cocahoe that I was throwing. The Redfish came to the top and shook his head hard. Then he took a strong run towards the middle of the pond. That’s when my line broke. ACK!!!! I hate it when I break off a fish. And my first fish of the day! 
I felt a lot better a few casts later when I connected with a beautiful 22 inch red that was staging near the bottom of a trenasse. After hooking 2 fish in the first ten minutes I was feeling pretty good that this was going to be an awesome day of fishing.
Unfortunately – the roll of catching fish didn’t continue. It was 3 hours before I got another bite. The tide had slowed to slack and the bite turned off. I decided to paddle around and see how everyone else was doing. I came across a couple that had caught a redfish on a marsh island and a speckled trout. Then I met up with some guys that had caught a number of Specs – but they were all small.
I saw Rex Judice and he had 1 nice redfish in the boat. We decided to head over and fish a rock wall area. I fished it a couple of casts and left it to Rex – who promptly hooked a very solid Redfish on the BUGGS lure he was throwing. The tide had begun to move again as I drifted a shoreline that seemed to funnel into a neighboring island. These funnels can create areas that reds like to hunt. Sure enough – I soon had another redfish on the line. I repeated this pattern in another area of the marsh on the way back to the launch and landed a 26.5″ redfish.
Around 3:30 the group re-gathered at the launch to trade stories and re-hydrate from the heat of the day. A great time was had by all!
-John Williams
To see more photos from this trip, click here!
