L_S_2015_04_

94 Louisiana Sportsman^ | April 2015

He started fishing along the bank immediately across from

the landing. He explained that the focus of his fishing would

be along tall cutgrass clumps and woody brush hanging into

the water.

This wasn’t a wilderness experience. While one bank, the

one he fished, was a tangled jungle of natural vegetation,

the other bank consisted of one manicured home or camp

lawn after another.

Still, it was peaceful. It was a weekday and the camps were

all empty.

He slipped the kayak slowly from spot to spot. When he

picked up a bite, he quickly dropped an anchor from each

end of the small vessel. When the action played out, the

kayak’s nifty pulley system allowed him to easily raise the

anchors without moving from his seat.

Other times, he just drifted slowly along the tree-lined bank,

flip-casting into openings in the brush or under overhang-

ing limbs.

“This is what my mornings consist of — going down these

bayous flipping along the sides,” he quietly explained. “A

good morning is 35 bream and four or five bass.”

A boat with two attractive late 30-ish women idled past us

in the narrow bayou.

“Oh, y’all look so cute,” one of them cooed with a smile.

Latiolas scratched his stubbly, black beard.

“I’ve never got that before,” he grunted in a low voice.

Latiolais’ tactics steadily added fish, mostly bluegills but

“All my fishing is kayak fishing,” Dustie Latiolais said with a grin.

“I’ve been doing it three years. Cory Werk, who owns Bayou Teche

Experience in Breaux Bridge, got me into it.”

After Werk broke him in, Latiolais made a pilgrimage to Pack and

Paddle in Lafayette where he bought a 12 ½-foot sit-on-top NuCanoe.

“I wanted a sit-on-top kayak for its stability,” he explained in his

high-octane Cajun accent. “I also wanted a tandem so I can bring

my wife Denise and 4-year-old son Dawson.

“We fish together.”

They fish in the Atchafalaya Basin, in state parks, and along the edges

of the marsh for speckled trout and redfish at Cypremort Point.

“You can go anywhere with a kayak,” Latiolais said. “The depth of

the water doesn’t matter. A kayak is convenient and cheap. You

don’t have to worry about buying gas or the engine not starting.

“It’s a very different experience than using a trolling motor in a

big boat. You are closer to the water and get a more natural experi-

ence. The fish even seem to fight harder.”

Latiolais particularly enjoys fishing for bass and bream — the fish

he grew up fishing for.

His family likes to eat bream, which he calls his favorite fish to eat.

But he is quick to admit that largemouth bass are fun to fish for. ■

Editor’s note: Cory Werk’s Bayou Teche Experience (337-366-0337)

loaned Latiolais the kayak used by the author for this story.

FACING PAGE: Latiolais’ growing

stringer brought a smile to his face.

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