Winter Redfish in The Big Easy 2010

January
As a Colorado fly fishing guide I am always looking for areas with good winter fishing. Places where we can go, have a good time, and warm up a bit.  For years I have heard of the superb Redfish fishery near the Mississippi River mouth, only a short drive from New Orleans. Captain Greg Dini  of Fly Water Expeditions www.flywaterexpeditions.com was our host for the memorable day of fishing.

New Orleans is an easy flight from Denver and makes for a good long weekend trip.  Chris Eisenhard (a Colorado Trout Hunters guide) and myself made the weekend trip, and we had a good time.

Time constraints allowed only one day of fly fishing, but it was a good day.  After breakfast with several Big Easy guides, we hit the marsh.  In the morning, cloud cover made spotting fish very difficult, although we did get a few shots.  In the afternoon the weather warmed up a bit and the clouds blew off.  Once we could see the fish it was game on!  We got quite a few shots at both single reds and some schools. Both Chris and myself managed to hook and land several nice Reds on fly.  The best fish of the day was just shy of the 20lb mark and a very good tussle on a fly rod.  (This area does get reds up to 40 pounds).  The fish were quite eager to eat a well-presented fly and would aggressively inhale flies that looked like BC steelhead patterns.  Most of the fish were in the 7-12 pound range the day we were out.

I would encourage fly fishermen looking for a break in the winter to give this area a try.  There is good year round fishing in the area, but
talking with the guides, it seems that October-March is the prime time for big fish.