Herald-Guide Outdoor Report with Bruce McDonald

Grand Isle messy but fishable

Photo by Ann Taylor

NICE CATCH. Speckled trout are still in the surf around the GI rocks. Here Lisa Lottinger Cuccia catches a respectable speck near the mid-island rocks this past summer.

After three weeks of Hurricanes, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, Louisiana, Texas and the Gulf Coast have earned a well-deserved break from the weather.

It felt good to walk out the house Tuesday morning to feel a north wind and 60 degree temperatures. Our thoughts of evacuating and returning to cleaning up are over for a while. Hopefully Laura, Marco or Nana will not be the next named storms.

Good news from the Wildlife & Fisheries, Phytoplankton has made good come back in the Lake Cataouatche. This means oxygen will quickly be replenished in the water.

Biologist Joey Shepard of the Inland Fisheries Division says, that depending on the flow in the Davis Pond Diversion and the amount of hydrilla destroyed by Gustav and Ike, good fishing conditions could rebound as quickly as three to six weeks.

Salt-water fishing will bounce back sooner than the fresh water fishing. Keep your fingers crossed and hope hurricane season is over for us.

Charter fishing in Lafitte is temporally shut down.

Grand Isle, recovering from a double whammy from Gustav and Ike, could have power as early as this weekend.

According to Renee "Buggy" Vegas, owner of Bridgeside Marina, both Bridgeside and Sanddollar Marinas will be open for business as soon as the power is turned on.

For now, the only ones fishing are the Entergy employees on break.

"One guy brought in 18 nice 1 ½ pound trout he caught at the rocks using artificial," Vegas added that the bull reds are filling the passes.

Vegas also said the National Guard has run boats in the bays and haven’t found any hazards except for a pile up of debris along a levee.

But be very very careful if you go because hundreds of refrigerators, toilets and icemakers that were located on the ground level of camps were swept away with the storm surge and could have ended up in Caminada and Barataria Bays.

Vegas says he hopes the island will be operational for the Ladie’s fishing rodeo on Oct. 17 and 18.

According to Russell Loupe, of Luling, "When Bayou Des Allemands gets to normal levels, the crabbing and fishing will get good again."

Time to plant your deet food plots

Late September is the perfect time to till the ground and plant deer food plots. Checking your stand will surprise you; bring a can of wasp spray.

Dove hunting second split for the South zone will open Oct. 18 - Nov. 30. Teal season is open until Sept. 28.