Chris Ginn Creative Outdoors

Speckled Trout Biting in Dead-End Canals around Lake Mechant

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Chris Ginn

Captain Marty LaCoste helps Jason Powers land a speckled trout at the mouth of Raccourci Bayou in Lake Mechant

The Lake Mechant area out of Bayou DuLarge gave up 75 speckled trout to Captain Marty LaCoste with Absolute Fishing Charters, Jason Powers and me before 8:30 this morning. We were out working on a future feature story in my 2010 Saltwater Series for Louisiana Sportsman, and we didn’t have any shortage of fish to photograph.

LaCoste told me before we left the ramp that we would be fishing some of the dead end canals surrounding Lake Mechant rather than fishing out in the main lake. He had been on a bite in the back of some of these canals that was too good to pass up, and it turned out that we never even had to leave our first stop.

LaCoste, Powers and I caught trout on a few different baits. LaCoste caught all of his on a Tsunami Swimbait in just about ever color he threw. Powers landed several early on a MirrOdine before switching to the Tsunami. And I caught a few on a DOA under a cork before eventually falling in love with the swimbait.

All we were doing was sitting in the middle of a dead-end canal and casting toward the bank. We had to reel our baits extremely slowly to get bit. The faster we reeled the fewer bites we got.

After finishing up our limit, we headed out to Lake Mechant to work on the story. LaCoste pointed out 10 different and specific spots that are great places to fish each November. This feature will run in the November 2010 issue of Louisiana Sportsman, and it will include GPS points, images of outstanding geographical features at each spot and LaCoste’s expert advice for fishing each spot.

Dead end canals around Lake Mechant are holding speckled trout

We found Travis Miller, a former coworker of mine, dead in the water, so LaCoste towed him back in

Filed under: DuLarge, Saltwater Fishing | Tagged: Absolute Fishing Charters, DuLarge, Lake Mechant, Marty LaCoste | Leave a Comment »

Lake Amedee out of Reggio to be First Feature in 2010 Louisiana Sportsman Saltwater Series

Posted on November 21, 2009 by Chris Ginn

Captain Charlie Thomason with Bayou Charters unhooks a speckled trout he caught on a MirrOlure Catch 5

I worked on a January story for Louisiana Sportsman with Captain Charlie Thomason and Bayou Charters today. This story will be the first in a 12-month series of exciting features that will provide all the information anglers need to know to be successful on the water.

Each story highlights one major lake or bay that is broken down into 10 specific fishing areas complete with GPS coordinates, photos of outstanding geographical features of each area, and expert information about how to fish each spot.

The Lake Amedee area to be featured in the January 2010 issue of Louisiana Sportsman

Thomason and I fished Lake Amedee and the surrounding area including Bayou Batola, Cochon Bay and Tanasia Lagoon. Each of Thomason’s selected spots will be prominently marked on a map, and specific details on where to launch and how to get there will be included.

We found the bite strong in several of our spots, but we couldn’t stay on any one spot too long because we had so many to hit. We caught most of our trout on a new bait Thomason has been throwing called a Marsh Works 4-inch Bayou Thumper.

This is a brand new bait that was exciting to fish. Rather than the cocahoe tails that most saltwater soft plastics feature, the Marsh Works Bayou Thumper has more of a square paddle tail that vibrates and flutters with the subtlest pulls.

Thomason also landed a couple nice trout on his favorite lure, a MirrOlure Catch 5. Rather than twitch the fire out of this hard plastic suspending lure, he steadily and slowly reels it strait back with just a few pauses for a twitch or two.

Look for the Lake Amedee installment of my 2010 Saltwater Series in the January issue of Louisiana Sportsman Magazine.

Looking up Bayou Batola to Lake Amedee

We caught most of our speckled trout on a 4-inch Marsh Works Bayou Thumper

Filed under: Hopedale, Saltwater Fishing | Tagged: Bayou Charters, Captain Charlie Thomason, Lake Amadee, Bayou Batola, Marsh Works, Bayou Thumper | Leave a Comment »

Louisiana Sportsman November 2009

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Chris Ginn

Two of my November stories fell victim to some odd timing by Mother Nature. A feature about catching trout in the low and green Mississippi River at Venice has to contend with uncharacteristic high and muddy water. A feature about catching bass at D’Arbonne Lake may help anglers later this month, but the lake was actually closed for a while because of high water. Sometimes Murphy just have to have his way.

Freezer Burn – Sure November’s temperature can be chilly, but the action at these four Venice spots is smoking hot.
Lazy Anglers – This month on Lake D’Arbonne it pays to have a week work ethic.
Public Intoxication – Looking for ducks on WMAs? You won’t be disappointed if opening morning finds you on one of these.

Filed under: Louisiana Sportsman, Published Features | Tagged: Louisiana Sportsman | Leave a Comment »

Mississippi Sportsman November 2009

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Chris Ginn

Mississippi is doing some great things with its public Wildlife Management Areas. I talked to MDWFP Waterfowl Program Coordinator Ed Penny to find out what sets Mahannah, Malmaison and Howard Miller apart.

Where The Ducks Are – Don’t have a pricy lease? Who cares? Visit these public areas, and you’ll put some birds on your straps.

Filed under: Louisiana Sportsman, Published Features | Tagged: Mississippi Sportsman | Leave a Comment »

Forage Feast Attraction Made Clear by Exclusion Cage

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Chris Ginn

Deer usage of my Forage Feast food plot became obvious after putting up an exclusion cage

I’m not a very patient person when it comes to waiting on deer food plots to come up and look like they do on the pictures on the sacks or the web sites. That’s why my Forage Feast food plot that I had to plant twice has been driving me crazy. After replanting it due to a gully washer of a rain storm that rolled through two days after the first planting, Washington Parish got another gully washer a couple days after my replanting.

It has been growing, but the best thing I could say about it was that it was green. Sparse growth and crinkly stalks of wheat and oats had me wondering if all my lime, fertilizer and seed had washed into the nearby low spot that was now serving as a drinking pond for deer.

I had read a lot about putting up exclusion cages, but I had never taken the time to put one up on my own plots. However, a few spots where I could tell deer had been grazing got me to wondering if they were eating it before it could grow.

A $15.00 roll of some kind of cage fencing from Lowe’s and three $2.00 poles later, I had a triangle shaped exclusion cage on my plot. I picked a spot that had sprouts of everything Forage Feast had in it, but I left unsure that it would every make me feel any better.

Since the acorns are dropping around my area, I visited my plot yesterday to put out a bag of Acorn Rage just to see how it would work. While I was there, I checked my exclusion cage and couldn’t believe what I saw. The greenery inside the cage wasn’t dramatically taller than what was outside, but everything outside the cage looked like it had been mowed level.

After careful inspection of the rest of my plot, I noticed that the entire plot looked as if I had just mowed it the day before. Without the exclusion cage, I never would have looked close enough to see any difference between what the plot would look like and what it did look like.

Filed under: Deer Hunting, Management | Tagged: exclusion cage, food plot | Leave a Comment »

Tensas Parish Deer Hunt with Parker Cyclone Xbow

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Chris Ginn

Mike Clement from West Monroe invited me to do an archery hunt on his private land in Tensas Parish this past weekend. Since I don’t have a bow, I borrowed a friend’s Parker Cyclone Crossbow, shot it a few times in the yard and took off for the weekend.

Clement told me that he had the guys with FIELD X-TREMERS coming down the same weekend to do some filming. As I we were introduced, I realized that these were some of my former students and football players. What a pleasant surprise it was to share the hunt with John Rieger and Sean Vines.

The FIELD X-TREMERS crew, John Rieger (left) and Sean Vines (right) with our three deer.

After showing me some pictures of some awesome bucks on his property, Clement asked if we would only shoot does and cull bucks, two of which were of particular interest to him. He had been watching a couple of button bucks on his cameras that he just knew were over 2 years old. However, he couldn’t never convince anybody to shoot them because they were just “button bucks.”

He wanted one of them down to see how old they actually were, so I told him I didn’t have a problem shooting one if their paths crossed mine. And that’s exactly what happened later that evening. Clement’s line of thinking was that if these were indeed older deer, he wanted them removed from his herd.

After watching a spotted fawn take 30 minutes to close the gap between the edge of the woods and some rice bran, I thought I was going to get a shot a a big doe, but she eventually pulled the fawn off realizing something wasn’t quite right.

Several minutes later, one of these cull bucks came through the clover patch like he owned the joint. I waited for him to quarter away from me and made a perfect heart shot. The bolt from my borrowed Parker Cyclone crossbow passed through the deer and stuck 3/4 of the way in the ground on the other side.

The deer bolted into some nearby timber, and I heard him crash into the palmettos. Although palmettos make it hard to cover ground, any blood on them shines like a bicycle reflector when the light hits it. After thinking that we might be going in circles, we heard a deer get up and crash through the timber.

Worried that it was my deer, Clement told me not to worry because no deer was going to survive that much blood loss. Apparently, it was the doe that I had seen follow my buck into the woods; she must have been lying with the dead deer.

We found the buck close to where the other deer jumped. And to pay me back for some of those bonus points I gave them during school, my former students came in to help drag the deer through the palmettos.

A close inspection of the jawbone determined that this was indeed a deer that needed removing from the heard, as Clement estimated it to be over 2 years old.

Clement also passed along lots of other great information that I will be sharing in a feature story in the December issue of Louisiana Sportsman. I’ll also share some of his extra information here in the coming days, so make sure to check back in to learn everything you can from this experienced deer hunter.

The FIELD X-TREMERS crew gets ready to film their Tensas Parish deer hunt

Filed under: Deer Hunting, Hunts, Uncategorized | Tagged: button buck, Field X-Tremers, Tensas Parish | 2 Comments »

Plot Spike Forage Feast Growing Well

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Chris Ginn

I had the opportunity to plant some Plot Spike seed in my food plots this year. With their Forage Feast blend and Forage Oats, Louisiana Sportsman editor Todd Masson and I planted our two plots featured in Postage Stamp Plots that appeared in the August issue.

Plot Spike Forage Feast

These two plots are about an acre each, but last year they were nothing more than a few rake marks in the ground. We thought we learned something last year, but our knowledge gained then doesn’t compare with what we’re learning this season.

First off, we eschewed mass-marketed seed blends in favor of the local Plot Spike company. They are located in Pontchatoula, and the Plot Spike brand is operated and owned by Ragan & Massey, Inc., a company 14 years in the seed business. Their seeds are sold all over the country, but it is my understanding that the Forage Oats were developed at LSU, and that they grow especially well in Louisiana.

We planted on Saturday, September 19 only to experience a gully washer the following Tuesday. Five inches of rain essentially destroyed my low-lying “Cemetery” plot, but the “House” plot fared far better because it is on higher ground at the edge of a clear cut.

Plot Spike Forage Feast three weeks after planting

Both plots were already sprouting by Thursday, September 24. Some puddling on both plots washed some of our seed into big piles even though we covered it by dragging the harrow. Two days later, I filled in the bare spots at the “Cemetery” plot with 50 pounds of Forage Oats.

By Wednesday, September 30, the “House” plot had some very good, green patches that already showed some signs of passing deer getting a nibble or two. Unfortunately, the “Cemetery” plot had very sparse growth. These two plots were identical in that we put 400 pounds of pelletized lime on each plot along with 200 pounds of 13-13-13.

The only difference that I can tell is that I had to do a lot of dirt work on the “Cemetery” plot before planting, and I must have brought up a lot of clay soil to the surface. It also drains a lot of water off the side of a hill, and the seed and fertilizer from our initial planting must have washed away or got soaked so bad that it rotted.

I totally replanted the “Cemetery” plot on Friday, October 2 with 40 pounds of Forage Feast and 100 pounds of Forage Oats. Rather than drag the harrow this time I simply ran the ATV over and over it to press the seed into the soft soil. I also put out another 200 pounds of 13-13-13 to make up for any that might have washed away.

A whitetail doe with a mouth full of my mineral stump

By this time, the “House” plot was starting to come together, but it also had some bare spots in what was some low, wet areas. I reseeded it with 50 pounds of Forage Oats and hoped that the rain, which had relentlessly continued since our initial planting, would ease up for a few days.

On Saturday, October 10, the “Cemetery” plot was starting to look like the “House” plot did a week after its initial planting. There are still some bare areas, but the spots that didn’t hold too much water have sprouted well. Now if I can only keep myself from checking it every day, I may be surprised if I can stay away for a week or two.

All the experience we’re gaining from continuing our deer plot projects will be compiled and revealed in a continuation to Postage Stamp Plots next August when hunters will be well into working on their plots for 2010. Personally, I can’t wait until then to put it to good use.

Filed under: Deer Hunting, Management | Tagged: food plot, Forage Feast, Forage Oats, Plot Spike | Leave a Comment »

Louisiana Sportsman October 2009

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Chris Ginn

Chas Champagne is one of the hottest young anglers on Lake Pontchartrain, and I was fortunate to share the boat with him and his cousin Carl a while back. We fished the mouth of the Pearl River and slammed the redfish with a few lagniappe trout. And as you will see in my offshore story, I’m not much four bouncing around in those big boats, but when the tuna are so close to the shoreline, it makes it easy for everybody to catch them.

.400 Hitter – Chas Champagne explains why Pontchartrain anglers should head east toward the Pearl River during October rather than west toward the Causeway. The fish won’t be nearly as big, but there will be a lot more of them.
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Mullet Munch – If offshore fishing isn’t your thing, you’ll be happy to know that anybody can catch big tuna during October as close as five miles from the mouth of Mississippi River. They come in to munch on giant schools of mullet that pour out of the river to spawn.

Filed under: Louisiana Sportsman, Published Features | Tagged: Louisiana Sportsman | Leave a Comment »

Mississippi Sportsman October 2009

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Chris Ginn

I first met John Harrison this past spring at Reelfoot lake in Tennessee. His charismatic style and down-to-earth demeanor in front of the camera made him a please to interview and photograph. I caught up with him recently to see how he catches crappie at Sardis, Enid and Grenada, three of Mississippi’s best know U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Lakes.

U.S. Army Corps of Crappie – Learn how crappie tournament veteran John Harrison and his partner Kent Driscoll with B’n'M Poles maximize the crappie bite around shallow stump fields at Mississippi’s largest Corps of Engineer lakes.

Filed under: Mississippi Sportsman, Published Features | Tagged: Mississippi Sportsman | Leave a Comment »

Washington Parish Deer Must Be Mineral Starved

Posted on September 27, 2009 by Chris Ginn

At least the deer on my property seem to be mineral starved. Louisiana Sportsman editor Todd Masson and I have been moving forward with the two plots we featured in the article Postage Stamp Plots in the August issue.

After seeing the fruits of our labor last deer season through some tiny food plots, we’re continuing to educate ourselves on managing small properties for deer. And the one thing we’ve been amazed by so for this year is just how starved for minerals these deer seem to be.

I found the Black Magic gone from my stump which had obvious signs of use.

While looking into putting out mineral sites for whitetail deer, I learned that they are important for spring and summer. However, I didn’t get ours put out until the middle of August, and they just sat there for several weeks. I poured half a sack of Dicalcium Phosphate and half a sack of loose red trace mineral salt on stumps near each plot, but I guess the deer just needed some time to find these stumps.

The deer obviously found my mineral stump about three weeks ago. I found my stump bare and nearly licked clean. A friend of mine told me he had some success with the Deer Cane Black Magic, so I bought two bags and poured one on my stump on Saturday, September 19.

Masson’s mineral stump was still undiscovered, so we dumped a whole sack of loose red trace minerals on a shorter and more decayed stump close to his original site on the same day. What I found this past Thursday after work surprised us both.

Masson's mineral stumps looks like it's turned into a deer lollipop.

Masson's mineral stump looks like it has turned into a deer lollipop.

Every bit of the Black Magic was gone on my stump, and there were obvious signs that the deer had started to gnaw the edges of the stump and paw up the ground around it. What was more surprising was that the deer not only found Masson’s brand new mineral stump, they also found his original stump which now looks like it has become a deer lollipop.

I can’t say that all Washington Parish deer are mineral starved, but the deer on my property have responded very well to these two sites. I finally moved our Moultrie cameras off the corn and on the minerals today, so we should get a good look at just what kind of deer have been hitting these sites.

Here in Washington Parish, I’m going to guess some spindly-racked three-point bucks, a few gangly does and maybe even a spotted fawn or two. The good thing about these mineral stumps, though, is that they can help these deer turn from spindly and gangly to symmetrical and gorgeous.

At least that’s what we’re hoping.

Filed under: Deer Hunting, Management | Tagged: Black Magic, deer, minerals | Leave a Comment »