Northwest Fishing Reports

So I had my time at Lake Fausse Point, about an hour out of Lafayette Louisiana, where my wife's family is from. We spent an over night out in the swamp in a cabin. I come down here about 3 times a year so I am used to it, but if you've never been to the atchafalaya basin, it is like another planet! I fished from the front porch off the cabin with my 8 y\o son. There were alligators all over. They would stay a good 20-30 ft. from the dock, and would come in to head butt your bobber to see if it was worth eating, and then leave it alone.
We were fishing for catfish and bream (sp?) bream is just what they call bluegil. We had some bites on the catfishing, but not takers. Then at about 10:30 pm, I;m out in the dark with a small over head light, I can see these cool fish called Gar that have come to move in and feed on something within casting distance. They are mostly about as long as your arm and shaped tubular like a barricuda, with a funny alligator looking snout. I caught a few of these fish using "Shiners" this is a live bait fish about 3 inches long. Hook them in the snout, and then let them swim under your bobber.
Live bait regulations in the swamp,,, heck no! The Gar are considered a junk fish to the locals.

The highlight was about 10:30 pm I was pulling in my line and it suddenly was very heavy, then my bobber came up.. and I had snagged an alligator, only about 4' in length. It kind of freaked me out and I panicked and got the line to come free. I then decided to hang it up for the night and go to bed. I will try to attach a couple of pics. check out the head on this fish.

I think I can provide the following link to a video of an alligator. It's better with speakers on your computer.

http://good-times.webshots.com/video/30 ... good-times

click on this link, for the fish photo and then over in the right hand side, click on slide show.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/56 ... good-times

Sounds like great trip. The infamous alligator gar,these suckers get real big. Thanks for the pics. I don't suppose you got photos of the cabin in the swamp. I think its the beggining of a scary movie:-$

Tack a "gar" up as another new species caught! Sweet stuff.
Would be sweet to land a 4' alligator..Wouldn't be the best of ideas, but hey, it would make for a sweet story....

kevinb wrote:Sounds like great trip. The infamous alligator gar,these suckers get real big. Thanks for the pics. I don't suppose you got photos of the cabin in the swamp. I think its the beggining of a scary movie:-$

No cabin photos, but I added a video link of the gator.

Good times! Some of my fisrt fishing memories are at my relatives fishing camp (run down old cabin) down on the swamps in southern Louisana (Houma area). Little black ants were everywhere in that cabin and I caught what I thought was a HUGE redfish. Looking back at the photos it was pretty small.

quadradomus wrote:

kevinb wrote:Sounds like great trip. The infamous alligator gar,these suckers get real big. Thanks for the pics. I don't suppose you got photos of the cabin in the swamp. I think its the beggining of a scary movie:-$

No cabin photos, but I added a video link of the gator.

Great video,glad to hear you guys had a good time. The video would have been a little better if you did your "Croc Hunter"voice. "Oh cranky" haha. Take care and thanks again.

There you go Chris. That gar looks like it would have been fun. I have always wanted to fish down south like that. Until you mentioned all the alligators lol. That would be a little scary