Shore Thing: Cat and Mouse

This late February and early March has got to be the most challenging fishing we see all year. We have drastic shifts in wind, temperature and salinity(daily). If you wanna really see what your made of as an angler, try your luck this time of year. Then again, what doesn’t break you, makes you.

I’m not gonna lie, we’ve had some long days on the water this past week or two. Our sheepshead spots in close have been good , the fish have been huge, but scattered some days. Our historical “honey holes” down south in the LA Marsh for this time of year, have been void of life. The only option has been to move and keep moving, until you find fish.

I noticed my partner Capt Matt Tusa had been bringing in some big freshwater catfish on his last few trips. After some questioning, then begging, he told me he’d been checking some deeper holes around Bayou Biloxi in the Louisiana Marsh. Keep in mind these deeper holes are where we typically see our trout this time of year.

On my last two trips over in the the marsh, I’ve been checking all of my favorite redfish areas. The fish have either been super spooky or just not there. On both of these same trips I stole a play from Capt

Matt’s playbook, and checked some deeper(20 + feet) holes. Hallelujah!all the deeper holes have held big tasty drag screaming catfish. We have kept a handful of cats both trips, and then went back to looking for redfish.

We’ve found our redfish both trips later in the day(warmer) as far back as the boat would get, in narrow little canals. The angling opportunities are still there, but between the weather, spooky fish and constant moving, we just have to play a little “Cat and Mouse” to find them…