Redfish in Louisiana Marshes?

[Colorado Cajun]

Does anyone have any experience flyfishing for Red's in Louisiana? I'm wondering what the best flies / colors are for around June.

I grew up catching them on spinning gear with live bait. I'm going back in June to visit and I plan on flyfishing for them.

Mitch

 

[BigCliff]

I've never fished for Reds in cajun country, but you'll probably be well served by Clouser Minnows, or maybe some darker flies if the water is murky. Most all of these would be good options http://www.theflyshop.com/fly27.htm though I would skip the ones with _/0 as the size, as they're intended for surf fishing in the NE. You'll prolly have some people swear to you that "spoon flies" are the ticket for redfish, but they have some problems. They tend to spin like a Tom Brady pass during the cast, doing truly awful things to your leader. They also can be quite noisy when they hit the water, possibly spookying that Red you stealthily sneaked up on. I think you're best off using larger and darker/brighter versions of established bonefish flies.

 

[Fish Bones]

Cliff is correct with his list of dissadvantages of the spoon flies. However, my guys that fish out of Dulac, LA will not go down there unless they have a box full of spoon flies in gold and red. They love those things and they catch a lot of reds with them. I suppose sometimes you must weigh the pros and cons and make your own call.

 

[Colorado Cajun]

Thanks for the info guys. I know where Dulac is. Where I grew up and where I'm going is east of there, Leeville, Just north of Grand Isle. What ever flies work in Dulac, they will work there. I grew up spin fishing for Red's but I never flyfished until I moved to Colorado. The rule was the bigger the minnow, the bigger the red. Now, I'll take a fly rod any day over a spinning rod. I have some stuff I have been playing around with on the bench including some spoons. I'll take a picture of what I tied and post it soon.
Thanks again,
Mitch

 

[BigCliff]

On the bigger the minnow, bigger the red idea, try to not let that make you think that you need to throw flies the size of a bratwurst. One of the great things about fly fishing for reds is the fact that you can drop a small fly right in front of their nose in 8" of water and not scare the hell out of them. Lots of reds are caught on flies the size of a tater tot.

 

[Colorado Cajun]

Right on! I had bought a box of Salt Water hooks which were 1/0. I had started tieing clousers on them and some other patterns. I had figured that I was only going to be able to fish for 2 maybe 3 days while I'm there so I wasn't going to get carried away on buying saltwater hooks because of the price. Then I realized that I wasn't really being rational thinking that way and going there with a bunch of 1/0 flys could cost me not to catch any fish or few if any. So I started tieing smaller stuff on fresh water hooks. I figured since I'm only going to be there for maybe 3 days on the water, the fresh water hooks won't matter as far as the fly lasting, plus if I pop one off, it will rust out and relieve the fish much sooner then the saltwater hook.

 

[BigCliff]

You're exactly right about the hooks working fine until they hit the salt water and for multiple hours after. Also right about them rusting out of a fish quicker if you break one off. I think bronze hooks dissolve in a saltwater fish in about 2-4 days, compared to 2 weeks for a stainless hook. One thing though, if you put a saltwater-wet fly back into a box with bronze hooked flies in there, close it up, and leave it overnight, you'll have a bunch of rust even on the flies that didn't get wet. A good freshwater rinse and leaving it sitting out opened up overnight will prevent that.---------------------------------------------------------- I usually throw size 4 flies for redfish. ------------------------ Those 1/0 SS hooks will work fine for freshwater bass or pike flies, btw.

 

[Colorado Cajun]

Here are a few pics of some of the salt water flies I tied. The big popper was a kit I bought where you tie on the tail then epoxy the it together.

Well! Maybe not. Cliff, I'm clicking on the "Insert Image" icon and nothing is happening. Any ideas?

 

[BigCliff]

There's this guy known as fshfanatic AKA "Mike" that fixes those sort of problems. It seems he has been enjoying a bit of a sabbatical here lately.

 

[Colorado Cajun]

There's this guy known as fshfanatic AKA "Mike" that fixes those sort of problems. It seems he has been enjoying a bit of a sabbatical here lately.

He must live somewhere warm and is probably out fishing. *LOL*