The Gulf coast was devastated this past summer, as everyone on the planet knows. People have lost homes, jobs and loved ones; and, life as they knew it may never return.
In all of the storm coverage, the losses in the fishing industry sort of took a back seat to the losses on which the news media chose to concentrate. Guides and commercial fishermen lost homes, boats, income and a way of life. Many of them will not return to fishing any time soon. Some had no insurance. Others lost loved ones and can’t make themselves return – at least not just yet.
That was the human toll. One wonders what the toll on the whole Gulf coast fishery will be over the next few years. Time will tell, but for at least a couple of anglers, it appears that the fish may not have been affected as badly as I for one had imagined.
Jason Marsh, working in the hurricane area on loan from his job in Florida, went fishing with fellow worker and Louisiana native Ken Trahan. Fishing the marshes of Bayou Dularge in southern Louisiana, they caught a nice limit of speckled trout.
Using a method familiar to spec anglers along the Gulf coast, they fished plastics with a chartreuse colored sparkle beetle under a rattling cork. They fished a flat in the bayou on a falling tide, and left the fish still hitting. See his and Jason's catch in this gallery.
Does this mean that future fishing in the hurricane area will return to normal? One can only hope so, but if this trip is any indication, it is already on the way back!
