Redfish in Buras - catch while you can!

Heather Durapau caught this 18-pound redfish that was 39 inches long. The redfish was caught in the Black Bay area.

With many of the coastline fishing areas closed due to the oil spill, some areas around Buras are still open to fish saltwater.

Ross Monet recently took a few family members, including Jude, Rhonda and Ross, to the area. Heather Durapau and her sister Chelsey also made the trip. They launched at Lloyds Marina and ran across the river through the Ostrica locks.
From there they ran out to the Black Bay area and started fishing for trout with Top Dogs, chartreuse/white, sparkle beetles, purple/white cocahoe, and salt-n-pepper/chartreuse terror tail on a slow retrieve and under a cork.

They didn’t have much luck.

However 10-inch gafttop catfish were plentiful and the group was catching one just about every cast.

Usually it is a good sign when gafttops are in the area because it means the specks are nearby.  After fishing there a while they moved to some broken up islands where they started catching bull reds from 27 inches to 40 inches.

They were fishing with black and chartreuse cocahoe minnows both under a popping cork or jigged on the bottom.

They tipped the baits with shrimp under a popping cork, which was enough to catch a few bulls.

Some of the islands they fished had orange booms for the oil spill.

With the river being high and all the diversions open, this was helping keep the oil out of the marsh. Their trip ended around noon with five bull reds to show.

Heather Durapau caught her biggest fish, a personal record, and took a picture.  The fish was an 18-pound redfish that was 39 inches long.  

"Redfish of this size are only good enough to take a picture and release them," Ross Monet said.