# The Marsh & the Chandaleur islands



## Demeter (Apr 13, 2006)

After seeing the â€œ Bulls on Topâ€ video, I had to put a Lousianna marsh trip on the top of my bucket list. My brother and I booked a trip with Capt Doug Henderson out of New Orleans. The 1st day was tough. Overcast skies, murky water and strong winds made for difficult fly fishing conditions. We blew a couple of opportunities, but still ended up catching a couple of monster bull reds. Around noon, the wind was howling and we had to cut the day short and race back to the marina before most of the water had dumped out of the marsh. 
 During the night, the stars must have aligned perfectly for us. We got a phone call from our guide saying that he wanted to get an early start the next day. The conditions were good to go offshore to the Chandaleur islands. We woke up to blue skies and zero wind. When we left the Gulfport marina, the Gulf of Mexico looked like sheet of glass. 
The Chandaleurs is like a slice of the Bahamas that was picked up and dropped into the Gulf of mexico. It is an 11 mile long crescent shaped barrier island, with shell and hard sand flats. The water is clear enough to where you can see the ell grass several feet beneath the skiff. Most importantly it is a fishermanâ€™s paradise. We arrived at a slack tide and had to wait a while until until the fish started getting interested. Once the tide started moving we had a couple hours of non stop sightcasting to big reds. I canâ€™t wait to go back again.


----------



## Demeter (Apr 13, 2006)




----------



## Demeter (Apr 13, 2006)




----------



## Demeter (Apr 13, 2006)




----------



## Demeter (Apr 13, 2006)




----------



## Demeter (Apr 13, 2006)




----------



## Golden (Aug 1, 2006)

D man those are SICK! We (Texas FlyFishers) had a trip out there last year and my good buddy Ray R. hooked and landed a 50"+ red on his 8 wt. from the beach. His fishing partner took pictures of Ray running 300 yards this way ...another 300 hundred yards that way until he finally landed the beast. Might have been new State record but was released back to the Gulf. You might have seen some of the pictures here before I don't know. We'll probably be hooking up with crew on the Double Trouble (mothership) again. They have outboard driven skiffs that they let you use while fishing the islands. I will say there are some sharks out there bigger than the boats too.


----------



## Joe T (Dec 13, 2012)

awesome fish!!


----------



## flyfishingmike (Nov 26, 2010)

Amazing! Sounds like a trip of a lifetime. Good photos.


----------

