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Taking it all in Stride!
 Keith Lusher
It’s hard to believe that a virus which came all the way from China has found it’s way to our little section of paradise here in Southeast Louisiana. It often seems that we are in a world of our own as opposed to the rest of the country. While we may have varying opinions about the actual severity of Covid-19, the financial effects that have touched business owners are undeniable. While most of the affects are unequivocally negative, there are some bright spots to the added time that people have in their schedules.
Angie Stewart and her husband David own Lake Catherine Island Marina on Chef Mentuer Hwy. They’ve been running the marina for 6 years and Angie says she has never seen so many people accessing the marina. “We are seeing tons of boats launching to go fishing, especially families, lot’s of moms and dad’s with their children,” Stewart says.  Boats leave the marina one after the other during the morning hours
Across the Lake Pontchartrain basin, boat launches are seeing an increase in activity because of the added time in folks schedules.
Not only are families taking to the water. Angie says from what she is seeing it looks as if camping is gaining popularity as well. “We are currently clearing out new dry slips because all of our spaces are rented.” While more people are taking to the water. Fishing in the Lake Catherine area should be getting even better with the closing of the Bonne Carre Spillway. While news of a spillway opening used to make headlines for anglers in the area, Angie says the area is changing to adapt with every year that goes by. “It’s becoming the norm for us. We’re seeing more and more bass being caught. Also we’ve never seen more boats bringing back catfish in their ice boxes.” she says. With the diversity of fish being caught Stewart says by far the best fish to target in the area has been redfish. “The redfish are everywhere! Alligator point, the ICW, and Lake Catherine, everyday people are bringing back easy limits,” says Angie. Irish Bayou Reds With the redfish bite is improving, Kareem Long and his family wanted to get in on the action. They launched their kayaks where highway 11 meets Interstate 10. Kareem says that there were a lot of people fishing on the bridge so they decided to head the opposite way. They arrived to their first spot at 1:30 p.m. and started catching fish within a half hour. Kareem and his son caught 4 redfish each but says his wife, Crystal, was the star of the show. “She caught over 20 reds by herself,” he says. Unfortunately the redfish were all small and they came back with only 1 keeper each. They caught all the redfish on market shrimp and Gulp Shrimp under a cork. “It wasn’t a good catch-to-keep ratio but it was definitely a fun day and we had better than expected results,” Long says.  Lauren with her personal best redfish
Personal Bests
James Hall of Slidell and his girlfriend Lauren made a trip to Lake Borgne in search of speckled trout but found a lot of dirty water. After looking around for a while he located an area with clean water. “I found a shoreline where the wind was combining with the incoming tide,” he says. The couple was fishing with Lemonhead Matrix. “We tried a lot of colors but the only thing working was the Lemonhead,” Hall says. Lauren caught 2 redfish approximately 30 inches and James caught 1 that was 40 inches which was a personal best for both of them. “That thing had to be over 50 pounds as I could barely hold it off the ground,” James says.  Labostrie with his Bayou Lacombe "Tank"
Bayou Lacombe Tanks Corey Labostrie fishes Bayou Lacombe for bass almost every day. He says the majority of fish he catches at under 2 pounds. On his latest trip however, he managed 2 fish, which he calls “tanks,” over 3 pounds. His heaviest fish was caught on a Z-Man StreakZ in “The Deal” color on a 2/0 weedless hook. “I stood up in my canoe and threw my bait towards the shoreline in a pot of water where the lily pads didn't quite reach the shoreline. I twitched the bait two times and that tank dusted my bait!” Corey set the hook but still had a challenge ahead of him as there was a lot of vegetation to pull the big bass through. “I had six feet of lily pads to get him through and I wasn't sure if I was going to land him so I laid the hammer and crank down and forced him through the lily pads,” Labostrie says. |
 Keith Lusher
I created NFR.com in the spring of 2012. Since then it has helped link Northshore fishermen to valuable information and has filled the void of absent information on the web about fishing on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Northshore Fishing Report has morphed into a brand name and can be found not only on the web, but on radio and newspaper. As NFR grows I will continue to work hard at keeping NFR local focusing on local anglers, reports, seminars, and fishing tournaments in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parish. I hope you enjoy the website and If you have any questions please email me at: Keith@NorthshoreFishingReport.com
Look for the Northshore Fishing Report publication every Thursday in The Slidell Independent Weekly Newspaper!
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