58 Louisiana Sportsman^ | April 2015
When it comes to habitat preference, redear seem to favor
hard substrate. Sandy bottom works, as does man-made habitat.
For example, Cormier said he catches a lot of chinquapin in
Grand Bayou
Lake, par-
ticularly along
the Louisiana
Highway 784
bridge causeway
that crosses the
lake’s west end.
Elsewhere, he’s
fared well on
lakes like Bruin,
Concordia,
Providence and
Black River, all
of which have
expansive shell
beds.
“For some
reason, the old
oxbow lakes have
a lot of shell beds
on the shallow
ends,” he said.
“I used to catch
hundreds of
chinquapin on the
False River over
the shell beds,
while the bluegill
were mostly in the
grass.”
In the basin, Bill
McCarty also tar-
gets hard surfaces,
but his objectives
are the those that
rise from the dark
waters — cypress trees.
Catching one chinquapin per tree is the rarity, McCarty said.
The fish usually stack on the cypress, so finding the right tree
can be a gold mine opportunity. ■A full-time freelance writer
specializing in sport fishing,
David A. Brown splits his
time between journalism and
marketing communications
(www.tightwords.com).Cracking the codecontinued from page 52 >
The cover of darkness
Panfish aficionado Glynn “Catch”
Cormier reminds anglers not to overlook
the species’ after-hours potential.
Maybe it’s a light/dark thing, or perhaps
a particular forage becomes more acces-
sible in the darkness — either way, you’ll
enjoy the redeye flight to redear bliss.
“We used to go to the False River at
night, and I’d catch (panfish) until 11
o’clock at night,” Cormier said. “Most of
what I’d catch at night was chinquapin.”
The same probably applies anywhere
the fish roam; but, as McCarty noted, not
all chinquapin habitat welcome night-
time anglers as graciously.
“With all the mosquitoes we have in
the Basin, I think I’ll pass on the night
fishing,” he chuckled.BELOW: A limit of these
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