Big Lake report...and road troubles!

[Freebird87]

Took the family down on Wed night after my son's trumpet lesson. Thought the boat was all ready to travel, but had a tire blowout south of Many on Hwy 171. Side of the highway was mush, and didn't have any solid ground to set the jack, so I backed up 75 feet to a crossover in the highway. Flat tire caught in the mud, jack-knifing the trailer and denting the rear fender of the truck. That's gonna cost...

Anyway, two local young men stopped and helped, and we had the tire changed out pretty quick. Then trailer lights went out down the road, and had to fix them...

Finally arrived at Hebert's camp at about 0100 on Thursday. A 3 1/2 hr trip took 6 hours. Girls didn't want to go the next morning, so my son and I launched about 0630, picking up a local gentleman who was stood up by his partner (with boat) and was standing on the dock. John turned out to be a licensed captain and showed us some reefs that he had done well on for specks. Even though the wind and tides weren't in our favor, we managed 5 keeper specks on a variety of soft plastics (Saltwater Assassins, Gulp Shrimp, Norton Sand Eels, and biggest trout (4 lbs) on a watermelon Exude RT slug. We then tried the north wier for reds, where we picked up 1 small keeper and 3 flounder on gulp and dead shrimp.
After heading into Lake Charles for a fishing license for my wife and a trailer tire at Wal-Mart, we launched again around 6 pm with the girls to try the southern-most wiers for reds. After letting them play with small reds and croakers at Grand Bayou wier, we went on to Lambert's and found the reds in the coves and rocks to the south. It got very hectic for a while, with the kids and wife fighting reds 2-3 at a time and me trying to untangle, unhook, measure fish and rebait hooks with dead shrimp for about 30 minutes as they took advantage of a feeding frenzy at dark. Reds were pounding baits as soon as they hit the water, and drags screaming all around the boat! The mosquitos drove us away, but not before they allowed me to make 1 cast to the honey hole. I got hit immediately as the jig hit the water, and fought a 33" bull red out of the crab trap bouys as he ripped 40 yards of line off with the drag set almost to the breaking point. After landing the big boy, we headed back to the launch --kids grinning from ear to ear despite multiple mosquito bite welts!:D
Friday morning found them all dead to the world in bed, and I made plans to fish alone until coffee and breakfast re-appeared due to a stomach bug that kept me in the camp until we had to leave for home. Fish are well iced down in two coolers --we'll take some pics and then see how the reds are on the half-shell on the grill!

[1perchjerker]

Freebird87,
Congrats on the catch!
Not so on the trip down.
Try Thermacells to ward off the skeeters.
looking forward to the pictures.
1perchjerker

[GCD]

I thought everything was covered in oil down there?

Sounds like some good catching!

[docwaldo]

awesome job lynden. hadn't meant to not holler back at ya. been working in the man cave all week. almost got it done. will have to have you and the fam over to watch some football.

mark

[sneakypete]

Way to go, Lynden!
Sorry about the trailer problems, but glad you got them solved quickly. Hope the tummy problem is as brief!
Good fish - 4-pound speck and a 33-inch red. Can't believe you were able to keep the red out of the crab-trap lines! One day you've got to try those reefs with a Dog - that's a blast!
Guess for a while now it will be thinning the catfish population on Cross Lake with Mark. Give 'em fits!
Oh, and if you can figure out why that lake has been putting out catfish like that non-stop for the past half-century, I'd sure like to hear about it. That lake is amazing!
Pete

[Freebird87]

Ok --finally got the pictures down to a size to upload. Very difficult to get small enough! If anyone has suggestions....

[shadow]

Lynden, I too have to apologize for not calling you back. Work has been busy and about to get busier! Any free time I have had, I have tried to spend with the family.
Hate to hear about the problems, sounds like one of my trips! Glad you were able to make lemonade out of the lemons. Thanks for the report and pictures.

As for the resizing, photobucket automatically resizes pictures for you. You have to set up an account but it is free.

[BamaFan]

Family time, it dont get no better!! Nice fish.