How’s the fishing after Katrina been? What’s the biggest fish you ever caught? Other then a few sharks I hauled in 60 miles out in the gulf, I pulled in the biggest garfish I ever seen. Man this thing bent my rod and almost broke it in half. Dam near had to hit it in the head w/a paddle to calm it down. That creature fought harder then Fat Phil’s buttons on his pants. I remember it was about 4 feet long. I winded up throwing it back in the swamp b/c I didn’t want it in the boat no more. I remember they had a few lakes around LSU don't know if the fishing was ever that good but down in New Orleans I bet it's going off. I was watching kings of the gridiron or whatever that show is called and saw the Manning’s fishing, it got me wondering if LSU had a fishing team?
Obviously, this is pure speculation on my part, but I would imagine that the waters--at least immediately surrounding New Orleans are possibly contaminated and the fishing not too swift....Perhaps in more rural lakes it's different...
Actually Lake Pontchartrain and the surrounding waters were monitored very closely by environmentalists and the save the lake foundation and suprisingly the lake and waters around New Orleans fared very well. There was no apparent contamination and catches in the lake and all across the gulf have been as good or better than usual.
No, they don't, but the bass fishing in University Lake isn't too bad. The state record bass back in the early 90's was pulled out of the lake there. The fishing hasn't been affected negatively from all accounts I've heard. I fished in Lake Ponchartrain in October and caught two 20 inch redfish. Tried over at the Seabrook Bridge in December when the weather warmed up and water temps went up to about 70. Not a bite. My biggest fish out of the lake was a 80 pound gar. Fun fight. Those mean fish jump like tarpon. Best fight from a fish out of the lake was a 45 pound Jack Crevalle. Biggest red was about 15 pounds. Never caught a speck bigger than 22 inches. As for offshore fishing, it's been exceptional! There's been a billfish caught every month since October. That's a first in our waters. As for me, the largest fish I've ever caught was a estimated 400 pound blue marlin off the coast of Venezuela. I worked as a deckhand on charters out of Grand Isle and Venice for a time, and we caught some good sized fish. Once we hooked into a 800 pound marlin, but she jumped off. Quite a sight to behold.
Fishing in Terrebonne Parrish hasn't missed a lick. In fact, immediately after the storms, was some of the best fishing in quite some time. As far as the biggest fish I've ever caught: I've hauled in 2 Jack Kravels that weighed around 37 lbs, a few bull reds in the 35 lb range, a 30 lb Black Drum, and my biggest trout was just over 6 lbs.
It ain't the biggest fish I ever caught, but the most memorable was a 10-pound Northern Pike in a big lake in Canada. We were on a three-week canoe expedition through Northern Ontario and we fished every day to supplement our meager rations. We were using tiny collapsable backpacking rods and ultralight reels and line. Trying to catch a big pike on an ultralight rig in a canoe on a big choopy lake in Canada is as fun as landing a marlin. We usually released the pike because the lake trout and the walleye were better eating and two men can only eat a couple of big fish in a day.