L_S_2015_04_

114 Louisiana Sportsman^ | April 2015

Capt. Kenny Heikamp, like many other fishermen, believes

mangrove snappers are wary fish and learn quickly how to avoid

danger.

This is especially true out of Heikamp’s home base of Grand Isle,

the closest thing Louisiana has to a fishing resort.

Mangrove snappers there get exposed to fishing pressure virtu-

ally every day during the April-to-September season.

They aren’t a hard fish to locate: Every offshore oil and gas plat-

form is a signpost.

Live bait is the ticket

To expose them to even more pressure, mangrove snappers are

the snapper species located closest to shore, making them more

accessible to fishermen in smaller boats and during marginal

weather.

Constant pressure and clumsy bait presentations by poorly

skilled anglers, compounded by numerous break-offs when

fish dive into the maze of sharp, barnacle-covered rig legs, give

Grand Isle-Fourchon mangrove snappers a PhD in how to avoid

getting caught.

Amongst other tactics, Heikamp has resorted to using live bait.

For our trip, his boat had 60 pinfish and 200 croakers in the live

well when it left the dock that morning.

Richard and Trey Waller caught the pinfish from the Bridge Side

Marina dock the night before the trip, using small hooks and

Golden Meadow to Grand Isle

Inland and Coastal Fishing

Capt. Eddie

Berthelot, Jr.

USCG Licensed & Insured

(985)637-3177

ldwfis #057-087-5112

[email protected]

http://www.spotsandspeckscharters.com

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