A few weeks ago, a friend and fellow angler approached me with pictures of an interesting fish he had caught on a stream near his home north of Baton Rouge. He knew some friends and I tended to target the more obscure species locally and thought his discovery might be of interest.
To the best of my knowledge, the fish in his images all appeared to be creek chub. Fairly common further north, the species is relatively unheard of here in Louisiana. Even within streams in the same watershed, I had only ever found striped and blacktail shiners.
Intrigued, and wanting to confirm his find, another angler and I made the hour trek to this tiny trickle of water.
What greeted us, was a largely dry creek bed. Still, we made the drive and decided to work our way upstream.
Lots of other critters were out in force including this cottonmouth, but we failed to find much in the way of fish until we came to a small (~2' deep) pool formed downstream of a fallen log. There we finally began to catch fish.
First up were the ever aggressive bluegill. Though none extended beyond 3" in length.
These were followed by a string of striped shiners. One of my favorite targets in these small, sandy streams.
Then, finally, we found what we were looking for as our first chub of the day came to hand. Admittedly, not much to celebrate in most places, it was an exciting find here in southeast Louisiana.
Adding a few more and a small bass shortly thereafter, we decided it was time to explore elsewhere in hopes of finding more water.
Returning to a favorite river crossing a few miles away, the effects of the recent drought in Louisiana was evident. The broad, sandy bayou was only inches deep with the exception of a single hole midstream. Perhaps 4' deep in the middle and no more than 10' x 10' in size, the pocket held a surprising number of fish.
What appeared to be a white bass flashed at my fly on my initial cast, and, as my eyes focused, I realized that roughly 50-100 catfish between 8-12" in length held on the bottom. It was by definition fish in a barrel. However, I still failed at more than a few short strikes.
My fishing partner fared slightly better, however, as he hooked into a number of the White Bass that flashed below.
Eventually calling it quits, we took one last detour to where this bayou enters the Mississippi.
Only a small channel remained as a mud flat normally beneath the Mississippi's waters now stretched the length of a football field. A beautiful site to see, it was also a further reminder of how of little water the state has seen this year.
Chris