For the ultimate in light-tackle saltwater fishing, look no further than the fish-filled bays of Cocodrie, Louisiana.
 
By Larry Bozka
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For the first time in months, it rained the next morning. Not a steady shower, mind you, but an electrically-charged downpour that dropped several inches in just as many hours. Truthfully, as tired as we were from the previous day's antics, no one was really upset. Upton's wife, Leslie, went out with Mississippians Tom and Nathalie Tramel to try the action after the storm and returned home with a "poor" catch of 60 or so keeper trout. Meanwhile, I visited with Holliday about the current status of Cocodrie fishing.

"The action is as good as ever," he told me. "I suspect it won't be long before we break the 8-pound barrier, thanks to the absence of the gill nets. Other than that, not much has changed - just lots and lots of trout, hordes of redfish in the marshes and big bull reds on the beachfront. The ling are coming in, too," he added, "and by August they'll be in here thick, only a mile or two off the beachfront. You name the game, we've got it."

Indeed they do. Perhaps one of the best things about fishing here is that you can name your game, be it topwater and spinnerbait redfish in the bayous or jig-hungry trout around the wells. Any way you go, however, you'll come home happiest if you play the game with lightweight spinning gear.

Those who haven't played much with this type of tackle will have to make a few adjustments. Foremost, be sure to spool on the line in proper fashion. Lay the line spool flat on the ground, and crank the line onto the reel bail in the same curled fashion it exhibits while coming off the spool.

Second, be ready to lighten up your touch in no small way. It takes a lot more "punch" to work an oversized surface plug on a baitcasting rig than it does to walk a 3-inch Zara Puppy with light spinning gear. One thing that'll help is to hold the rod tip low, and work with low and gentle twitches as opposed to the high, up-and-down motion that propels a big topwater on a medium-light 6-1/2-foot baitcasting rod. It's very easy to overwork the lure, and not-so-easy to apply the diminutive retrieve that makes a baby-sized surface bait do its thing.

The wind can also be a factor. The stronger the breeze, the tougher it is to cast quarter-ounce plugs to the desired location - usually, just outside the edge of grassy bayou points. As it is with flyfishing - which is also a wonderful option in these waters - too much wind can make it nigh-impossible to fish with downsized baits and spinning rigs. But when it's right - and the more summer draws on, barring the tropical storms which harassed the area late last summer, the more "right" it will be - light tackle fishing in Pelto Bay, Terrebone Bay and the plethora of other fishable waters outside of Cocodrie is a refreshing and ultra-exciting undertaking for fishermen who have grown bored with cranking in 15-inch specks on 14-pound-test line.

For some reason, the area from Rockport, Texas south to Port Isabel is wall-to-wall with spinning tackle enthusiasts while anglers on the Upper Coast remain almost exclusively partial to those who prefer baitcasting. Provincial partialities abound most everywhere you fish, but this is one that I really don't understand. Perhaps more than anything else, we get stuck in our ways. This is one experiment, though, that'll leave you wanting more if you only give it a serious try.

I'm not about to hit Baffin Bay next February with a fully rigged quiver of downsized spinning gear. When you're fishing waters that are home to consecutive catches of state-record speckled trout, you're already in a dicey situation. But when the school trout crank up beneath the birds this fall, I'll be there with a whole new set of undersized toys and the knowledge that said gear will not only catch just as many fish but allow me to do so with an element of challenge and excitement that simply cannot be experienced while fishing with magnum trout rigs.

There is a time and a place for everything. And from here on out, when conditions and locale allow, there's no way you'll find me on the water without at least one 7-foot light-action spinning rod affixed to a lightweight spinning reel loaded with 6- to 10-pound monofilament and topped off by a 3-foot length of heavier fluorocarbon leader.

We fish, after all, to have fun. Light spinning gear, next to longrodding with a fly, is about as fun an approach to fishing as there is.

Try it, and I'll bet my favorite baitcaster that you'll agree.

(Editor's Note: Tom Holliday and the crew at Cocodrie Charters have vastly expanded the facilities at this remote Bayou State fishing lodge. The place now boasts a total of four lavishly furnished condominiums over the water, so visitors can enjoy watching a steady parade of coastal fishing craft from flats boats to billfish boasts to shrimp boats while kicking back on the porch.
 
The kitchen and dining room area, where Tom "Captain Floppy" Turner cranks out some of the most incredible down-home Cajun cooking known to man, has also been enlarged considerably. (For a few of his recipes, see this month's "Texas Tasted" installment in the TF&G Almanac.)
 
For more information on this premier fishing facility, call toll-free, 1-877-LA4-FISH. Fax number is 504-594-7177. Or, check out their extensive Web Page at www.rodnreel.com/cocofish. Send email to: cocodriecharters@yahoo.com, or write to: Cocodrie Charters, 7255 Shoreline Dr., Cocodrie, LA 70344.
 
Special thanks, too, to Joe and Dan Meyer of Cut-Rate Fishing Tackle in Houston (281-991-5812) for assisting in the gathering of tackle and accessories for this piece.)