Rusty Old H&H Spinnerbait
For those born and raised here in South Louisiana, it’s not hard to think back to the good ole’ days when choosing a fishing lure often took a grand total of 5 seconds. Sure, there wasn’t much to choose from, but with the lack of selection, there was less doubt as to if you were using the right lure.
John Gibby of Slidell made a fishing trip to Bayou Lacombe in which he decided to go “old school” and try using a lure that he’s had in his tackle box for over 10 years. It’s a lure that is familiar to many native South Louisiana fisherman — The H&H Spinnerbait. “I grew up fishing the Dundemona River in North Louisiana and my favorite bait was an H&H Spinnerbait,” he said.
It was a Friday afternoon. Gibby launched at the end of Lake Road in Lacombe and headed into the marsh in order to try and escape the wind. “The forecast didn’t call for those kinds of winds but luckily the spinnerbait had some weight to it and cut right through the wind,” he said. “I was making some bomb casts even when casting into the wind.”
He began casting the orange and brown colored spinnerbait into small cuts as he meandered through the marsh. He came up empty after 10 minutes of fishing, but then came upon a trenasse with a mixture of wind and tide that caused the water to pour out of it. “I found a little bayou where I could reel in with the current,” he said. “The swift current allowed me to reel the spinnerbait in slowly without it getting bogged down in the grass.” Gibby made a cast into the cut and after a few turns of the reel handle, set the hook and landed his first fish of the morning: a 1.3-pound marsh bass. Before releasing it, he tagged the fish. “I fish here a lot, so I tag them. I want to learn if these fish stay here all the time or move around,” Gibby said. He made three more casts and as he was reeling in, he spotted a bass swimming after his lure. “I saw the whole thing. He swam after it and hit it by the boat,” he said. After that fish he finished out the day with another three fish with one of them measuring 15 inches and weighing 2 pounds. Gibby said the water was surprising clean despite all of the rain we’ve been seeing. “The water was crystal clean and full of eel grass,” he said.
At the end of the day the Bayou Lacombe bass fisherman accomplished what he set out to do, and that was to catch bass with a lure that he used as a kid. “It just proves that you don’t really need to go fancy to catch fish.” he said.
Tournament Results
The Florida Parishes Bass Anglers fished the Tchefuncte River on a cold, overcast day. Out of the 21 teams that fished the event, nine teams caught a limit of 5 bass. In the end it was the team of Trenton Pittman and Chase Damare who came out on top with a limit of bass weighing 14.07 pounds. In second place was Robert Eddreman and Patrick Gordon who brought in a 13.41-pound limit. Wendell Meyers and Melvin Meyers came in third Place with 5 fish that weighed 12.59 pounds. Team Meyers won the big fish pot with a lunker bass that weighed 5.05 pounds.
Upcoming Tournaments
The Double Nickel Bass Club is holding their next tournament at the East Pearl River on Tuesday, Feb 14. For more information, please contact Dwain Crumby at 985-502-6006.
Pearl River Team Trails is holding their next tournament at Crawford’s Landing on Feb. 11. For more information, please contact Charles Dauzat at 985-960-3260.
The Florida Parishes Bass Anglers are holding their tournament at the Tickfaw River on February 12.
(Keith Lusher Jr. writes a weekly column. For more info, visit NorthshoreFishingReport.com.Contact Keith at keith@northshorefishingreport.com.)