Captain Devin has killer blogs and YT videos. A ton of information to consume – https://www.lafishblog.com/blog/

I fished a lot down there when I lived in MS. Definitely get a guide for a few days (Regardless of location), but especially in Venice. I never ran across anybody that rented boats down there so I would plan on bringing your own. Venice has a ton more navigational hazards in comparison to Hopedale/Shell Beach or Cocodrie/Dularge. With the river constantly changing sand bars, etc it’s not the easiest navigation, and you can get yourself in trouble.

Mike Frenette is a helluva guide, but to be honest, I have run into very few guides who are bad fishermen.

Venice definitely is the redfish capital, but with the more difficult navigation in your own boat, I would look into going to Dularge/Cocodrie or on the east side near Hopedale. I fished out of Shell Beach the most often, and unless the water is really low, it’s hard to get into trouble. That time of year, fishing should be dynamite, and you shouldn’t have to run very far.

Don’t get hung up in buying 100s of baits. 99.99% of the time I was using either a 4 horseman popping cork with a 2-3 foot section of 30lb fluoro with a 3/0 Octopus hook and shrimp, a johnson silver minnow in gold, or a Strike King Redfish magic spinnerbait. When they are hungry, they’ll eat anything.

I’ve shot/hunted with the Renegauge a fair amount. It’s reliable, and ridiculously soft shooting. I would say the softest, and great with turkey loads and other magnum shells. However, I would definitely consider it a waterfowl or turkey gun. It’s heavy…to say the least. If you’re using it to upland hunt or when you’re walking a lot, I’d look elsewhere.

KP wrote:

ust my 2 cents but not a fan of anything from them.

I have 7 savage rifles, and not being super into mods, etc. It’s one of my favorite brands out of the box. Haven’t had any problems from their 2k offerings down to the price point Axis.

Cabin Fever in Victoria has a 20-yard indoor archery range. Really good folks. Rifle Ranges are tougher to come by…Not many around. Caribou Gun Club down in Le Seur has a 500 yard range I believe.

My heart breaks for you and your family Sharon. We’ll definitely keep you in our thoughts and prayers.

Depending on the dominant period, true 4 footers are going to be hell in just about any walleye boat. Like others have said, yes it’s definitely doable if you have the skill, but I wouldn’t want to sign up for that in anything other than a 31′ Ameracat.

Judging wave height is an exercise in exaggeration in many cases. In true 3 foot seas, sitting down in your boat at the bottom of the trough, you’ll be just over eye level with the waves, and be able to see the next wave or so. 4 footers you probably couldn’t see the next wave.

I just couldn’t justify spending $300 for a machined piece of aluminum! I don’t know why but probably because I spent a small fortune on a the head unit, LiveScope and the mounting bracket! haha

I ended up crafting my own, and have used it probably 10 full days fishing so far this year.

I used PVC, Hose clamps and some flexible tubing from the hardware store.

Albeit not the prettiest thing in the world, it works damn good for $20 bucks.
I don’t have great photos of it, and my boat is down at the marsh right now.

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Such a pain in the A**! I did the same thing this spring on my F150. I put it in the freezer for 12 hours and didn’t do it for me. What ended up working was taking canned air (aerosol), flipping upside down and freezing the fuel filter. Came off very easy after that. A word of caution, the plastic bowl isn’t cheap so don’t break it!

The ethanol in the gas swells the plastic, and I hadn’t changed it since I bought the new to me boat…who knows when the last time it was changed!

Eelpoutguy wrote:

#1848963
Are Red fish table fare?

Reds are fantastic table fare. Fillet them and leave the skin/scales on, and throw it on the grill. Redfish on the Half Shell! We’ll end up keeping quite a few reds, but very rarely the big ones like we were catching for the show. Perfect size eater red is about 18″-24″. In LA you’re allowed 5 Reds, 16″-27″, no more than 1 over 27″.

I’ll keep Speckled trout to fry, and Redfish to grill, and don’t get me started on Sheepies. Probably one of the better fish to eat in my opinion, just a little tougher to clean.

Had a blast fishing with James & Pat! Learning the marsh and how to fish it has been such a great experience. Not that fishing in the Midwest was getting old by any means but the challenge of learning how to catch fish in a 100% different environment was a great breath of fresh air. Looking forward to having you guys back down again!

Might be sooner than later with the 500″s of snow they’re calling for up there

Justin Haack wrote:

Does anyone have guide recommendations to do a similar fishing trip?

Give captain Jimmy Corley with Waterfowl Specialist Guide Service a call. He’s a great guy and has helped me learn a ton!

Fishing Charters

Ploppers are very effective. Top Raider is my go to. Hands down. Like Pat said, you can’t work them slow enough, thus they don’t cover as much water. I like to work the TR so slow the blades are barely spinning.

As an aside…

Don’t get caught up in buying a lot of different baits. I made that mistake. 99% of the time I threw a DCG, (Blue/Nickel, Black/Nickel) TopRaider, (Baby Loon/Anything Black), and pounder bulldawgs in Walleye, or Cisco.

It’s what I had confidence in, and that counts for everything. It keeps you engaged thinking “every cast I may hook up” vs. just going through the motions. Plus you became very effective on how to work these baits.

I thought the same exact thing but according to the Magic Tilt website, it’s made for 18-19′ boats. Mine is an 18.5′.

CBMN wrote:

Red fish action sounds awesome Ben…

But on the some thoughts on the trailer:
Winch post looks like it is to short no matter if you move it forward or not, can you get a taller post where (guessing it is maybe a 4″x 4″ steel tube?)

Can you move the winch post in front of where the 2 aluminum sides converge and move the wheel stand elsewhere? Guessing you might also have to move the spare tire.

I would think a taller post would help, and contemplated trying to move it forward, just not sure if i’d have to totally change the bunk set up then.

Fish Pics

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Pictures

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I personally haven’t fished it, but know a hand full of people who get down there. It’s pretty good, I’ve heard fishing from the Gulf Course to Ft. Gaines on the Gulf side. Down here they call it “tightlining”, pretty much casting a lindy rig, with enough weight to get it to hold on the bottom! There are a couple bait shops down there if my memory serves me correctly. Mark’s Bait and A&A. Should be able to get into some speckled trout. Try to find some live or frozen shrimp and you should be golden.

Can’t say with a 619 but a 620 with a 225 will do about 53-55. Solid hole shot and plenty of power.

Jason Brunell, I get all my deer done with him but he’s really cut his teeth on pheasants, doing a ton of them while living in the Dakotas. I drool over all his bird mounts every time I go to his shop! He does most of his work in Elk River now.

http://www.jasontaxidermy.com/gallery/gamebirds.html

http://www.fittantereplicas.com/

Joe Fittante without a doubt. He’s located in Wisconsin, but the level of detail he puts into his fish is second to none.

I was on the edge of creating Separation Anxiety with my pup. The best thing that worked was putting her in the crate and locking it while we were home. We’d leave her in there until she stopped whining, and freaking out. Normally 15 minutes building to an hour. We’d just be going about our normal routine but wouldn’t be out of eye sight and ear shot. Then after that we’d leave the house for 10 minutes to 30 minutes, and kept building from there.

She was freaking out about being in the crate because it meant when she went in it, we were gone. You have to try and break that association, of crate=alone. After awhile she didn’t mind being in it, and when she would get tired, she’d go lay down in it. FYI – She’s still not a fan of the crate but doesn’t whine anymore.

She also didn’t like being in there at night. I made the mistake of letting her sleep with us for the first week, and then decided she needed to at least learn to be in the crate at night.

I would take an old shirt I had worn and put it in the crate with her, that helped a little. When things were looking pretty bleak and she was whining for hours, I took her crate and slept in our guest bedroom, so my girlfriend could sleep. It happened to be right by the AC unit, and the humming of that did the trick. Her anxiety lessened over 3-4 nights and I brought her back into our room where she finally slept without whining. Some sort of repetitive droning noise, like a fan or a clock that ticks has been known to work. After a 2-3 weeks of that, she could come back and sleep in bed with us.

It was testing at times, especially when she was whining so violently, you swore she was dying! I feel your pain!

Yeah I went through a phase when I was filming the show and struggling with the glove matrix (warm, waterproof, with dexterity). I used it on my gloves and it would last about a week of fishing/filming. It also worked on bibs too and lasted a little bit longer. It really does work how it’s advertised.

James Holst wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Joel Nelson wrote:</div>
Might even have a few new dirty jokes for you guys? No promises, hopefully you forgot the old ones and they’ll be like new again.

Trust me, you could go a thousand years without re-telling the “no i-deer” joke and it would never get fresh again.

One of my more favorite jokes! But if I ever hear Will Roseberg sing what does the fox say before 7am, I might lose it!

Sorry to hear that buddy. Terrible feeling, that’s for sure. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

Think about it just like a rifle. They are like the savage axis of bows, it’s not the most expensive or sexiest but it will shoot well. You can a go out and buy a flagship bow and spend $1000 for relatively little gain. It’s more about the indian than the arrow. I bet Levi Morgan could out shoot the **** out of me with a $300 bow, doesn’t matter if I’m shooting a 2,000,000,000 dollar bow.

I’d highly suggest taking a look at the Mission line of bows too.

Depends on whether you are fishing the south side or in the islands. Your options using a truck in the islands are very limited, as there is only one road system pretty much taking you from youngs bay to flag, oak and a few other islands. There are a few good spots to fish close off the road but you won’t be able to do it justice. Booking a house through the lodges up there like Sunset, is pretty dang good fishing. They’ll work hard to get you on fish, and you’ll be able to get out of your house and be able to hole hop on some good structure. Even if the there is no snow and you could get around with a truck, it’s still a bit sketchy if you don’t know what you’re doing or where you’re going. There are some areas with pretty strong current and a few pressure ridges that would be impassable with a truck. In the last few years the fishing up in the angle has been much better than the south side in my opinion.

The southside will give you more mobility if you’re looking to not go with a resort. You can buy a road pass from Adrians and use their road system. It’s pretty extensive Fishbone like road layout, and you’ll be able to fish from just outside pine island to miles out. Like I said, for whatever reason the fishing has been pretty poor the last few years.

My vote would be to fish out of a resort house up in the Northwest Angle aka the islands.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

I absolutely love that picture, Ben!!!

Thanks! She was a trip on her first retrieve! Had never grabbed a dove before, she wanted it bad, but couldn’t quite figure out all the feathers in her mouth!

First time dove hunting down in the south this past weekend. It’s crazy how people get fired up for the opener. It’s a weekend pretty rich in tradition. I tagged a long with a group of people who hunted in the Mississippi Delta. We didn’t wear them out by any means but I went through a ton of shells. I wasn’t even shooting that much either, mostly concentrating on working with Annie. Needless to say she loved it. Getting better at steadiness after the shot.

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Craigslist Missed Connections

Male Seeking Fish……

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/i/personals?category=mis

I’m ready to be the least popular person on IDO right now….

Have a similar set-up to the Dakotas.

OTC Archery Tag

Rifle – A drawing system and Landowner tags. It’s never going to happen but man can they grow some dandy deer out there. I’d be more than happy to get a Rifle tag every 1-4 years but knowing that when you do, the odds of seeing a trophy class buck increase immensely!

Obviously Youth are guaranteed a license.

Quit your complaining…..90-95 degrees everyday and 90% humidity here in Mississippi. Good thing the winters are nice. Can’t remember the last time I stepped outside and didn’t instantly start sweating….everywhere!!

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

“Brettingen, you Weatherby-shooting, Sitka-wearing, VLD bullet loving, Range Rover driving… Your mother probably shoots a Creedmore!”

Yeah yeah yeah! I also have a .300 win mag! Nobody told you? You’re not cool unless you have a 6.5 Creedmore….best thing since sliced bread!