Second cast hooked the same ladyfish, and I had it reeled all the way up to my feet when I released the tension on the line to uncap my camera and the lady spit the hook and swam away.
Subsequent casts were ignored by all the finned creatures of the Bayou, so I packed up and drove over to the Vinoy Basin.
Still in search of the elusive keeper trout, I tied on a 1/8oz chartreuse jighead with a Gulp shrimp in the "nuclear chicken" color and started tossing the lure around the dock pilings. Over the course of 45 minutes, I had a bite on every cast, but not a single hook-up. The fish were simply too small.
My fishing buddy:
Frustrated, I walked down to the west side of the basin and threw some casts around the docks there. A few casts in, I hooked up with what I thought was a monster trout, but it ended up being a nice ladyfish.
The rest of the western seawall netted zero fish, so I packed up and headed back to Coffee Pot to see if the ladyfish bite had picked up. Here's what was left of my lure:
The bite was on. There was a nice school of ladyfish holding around the bridge, and I was hooking up with a fish every cast. A dad walking with his boy stopped to watch us fish, and when I caught one I walked it over so the boy could see. He shied away, but then came back and took a good look at it.
I tossed it back in the water, then the boy said, "Catch another one!" So, I did.
As I was packing up to leave, I saw something shiny in the water:
A couple weeks ago, I had lost my tape measure/nail clipper combo, and there it was amongst the oysters, rusting away.
All told, the morning session netted six ladyfish in the 18" to 22" range.
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