Hunting Bull Redfish in the Delta By: Captain Brian Boehm
Around an hour south of New Orleans, down a beat-up old highway, lies the world’s finest redfish fishery. In this expansive marsh paradise, redfish of all sizes stalk the shallow muddy marsh waters for food. Given the abundance of life in the marsh, they never have to look too hard to find a meal. Redfish smash shrimp on the surface, snarf menhaden, and devour blue crabs whole. The delta is a bustling place full of hungry fish and endless angling opportunities.
The enormity of the delta and the diversity of places where you’ll find redfish can be overwhelming for newcomers. There are enough muddy creeks and marsh ponds to keep an angler busy for years. There are endless miles of passes and bays lined with cane grass to explore. Curious names like the Wagon Wheel, Magic Island, and Zinzin Bay add intrigue and mystique to these waters.
Bull redfish (the really big ones) are uniquely plentiful in the delta. Big hungry bull redfish habitually frequent the shallow delta waters to partake in feeding rampages. The aggressive nature of these big bruiser redfish makes them ideal targets for seriously fun sight fishing. For folks that love sight fishing, the marsh is truly redfish paradise.
It’s hard to imagine there exists a better place for saltwater sight fishing. The fish are plentiful and are generally very easy to spot, even for new anglers. The redfish here seem tame when compared to redfish in other regions. The number of close-range opportunities that present themselves on a daily basis is remarkable. The sight of a big bull redfish charging your fly, flaring its gills, and then opening its cavernous mouth is a joy every fly angler should experience in their lifetime.
The privilege of sight fishing one of these enormous beasts should be preceded by, at the very least, casting practice. Your guide will be able to give you a few things to work on before your trip so that when it’s your turn to stand on the bow and feed a Louisiana bull redfish, you can do so with confidence. Sometimes you’ll need to be quick and sometimes you’ll need to shoot line into the wind. Other times you may need to back cast into a school of boiling redfish and then just hold on.
Fishing for redfish in Louisiana can be good year-round, but October and November are the prime months for bulls. The biggest challenge you may face in this fishery is the weather. The weather can get nasty in the delta. Strong winds, harsh cold fronts, and biting rain can, on occasion, become part of your redfish experience.
Because the fishery is so strong, we can successfully fish in all but the worst weather conditions. I recommend that anglers pack their best warm weather rain gear and hopefully they’ll never need it. It is wise to book a minimum of three days on the water. Booking three days ensures that you will at least have one good day of weather. Regardless of the weather, I’m certain that you will find hunting bull redfish in the Louisiana delta to be an experience of a lifetime.
