Keith Lusher
Most of us in South Louisiana are familiar with the term “Cast and Blast.” It’s a title given to describe a hunting trip in which fishing is also involved. Luke O’Neal of Mandeville and his friends, Devin Ricks and Cole Morerre, made a hunting trip recently where he had to remind himself of the old wise saying “from pain will come pleasure.” Their day started at 3:00 a.m. It was a cold, raw morning that offered no encouragement as they prepared for the trip. “The alarm went off at 3:30 in the morning and we loaded the truck in the cold drizzle,” O’Neal says. After they prepared the truck they headed down Chef Highway from Slidell into Chalmette where they transferred the hunting equipment into the boat. “We stepped out at the launch and reluctantly loaded the flat boat with all our gear and headed out in the dark mist,” He says. They arrived at their duck blind with 15 minutes to spare before legal shooting time. After setting up in the blind and getting situated the ducks started flying in and suddenly the air didn’t seem as cold and wet as it did just a few minutes ago. “The birds started coming in immediately! I missed a lightening teal right off the bat. After getting that bad shot out of the way, I knocked down the next bird that landed in the decoys,” he says. The whole morning was non-stop action and the friends constantly watched ducks fly overhead. “There were birds flying steady all morning until 9:00 a.m. We ended up knocking down 18, but lost a few after taking our eyes off them for a few seconds while we paddled to retrieve them. We also had a couple of them burry themselves in the marsh before we could get to them,” Luke says. The team decided to call it quits and ended the morning a few teal short of a 3-man limit.
Luke O'Neal, Devin Ricks, Cole Morrere
They drove back to the truck and removed their hunting equipment from the boat as they contemplated heading back out to do a little fishing. “We were back at the truck by 10:00 a.m. and soaked up the heater inside while is rained for about 30 minutes. The truck thermometer temperature was holding at a whopping 40 degrees with a stiff North wind,” Luke says. When the rain slacked off they headed dow the ICW to what locals refer to as the “Great Wall of Chalmette.” The cold dreary day had it’s affect on the number of boats at the popular fishing structure. "We didn’t see another boat for at least an hour. Thats the fewest amount of boats I’ve seen in that area in a long time,” he says. The friends poked around and finally hit the mother load. It was a deep drop-off next to a shallow flat. The water temperate ranged from 50 degrees to 55 degrees. Luke says they were tight-lining Matrix Shad and the bite was not subtle. “These fish were hungry! We caught them very steady until we had a limit of 75 in the ice chest,” O’Neal says. They headed back the launch and were driving home by 3:00 p.m. There trip was the epitome of a successful blast and cast. One that Luke and most sportsman dream about. It’s this kind of day that memories are made of and Luke adds “Today was a day I'll never forget.”
