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SOLID TAP telegraphed up the braided line like Morse code. A split second later and the graphite rod arched in
response, straining every fiber in the process. The over-slot redfish thrashed the mocha-colored water into a froth, stunned that an imitation mud min- now would actually bite back. While my companions scrambled to clear the other lines, all doubts vanished. The backwaters of Barataria Bay were indeed just as fishy as when I’d left them 11 months earlier.
Large sections of the marsh and back bays were unscathed. That, combined with the lack of pressure during the closures, gave stocks an unintended boost.
Flashback to April 20, 2010. My buddy Chuck Simpson and I
cleared the morning rush-hour traffic in downtown New Orleans and were heading east on I-10 towards our Florida homes. We had spent the previ- ous three days as guests of Capt. Theophile and Eilene Bourgeois at their fishing lodge in Barataria. The steady action for redfish, trout, floun- der, jacks and even largemouth bass in the nearby brackish marsh had im- pressed us both. As Chuck drove, I fid- dled with the radio trying to find some Zydeco music. A brief news flash described how an oil rig was on fire in the Gulf.
Little did we know that was only the beginning.
LONG, HARD SUMMER
As the true tragedy of the Deep- water Horizon explosion and subse- quent spill unfolded in the weeks and months ahead, I remained in contact with Theophile and the other guides I had met during the inaugural Bayou Blast. The news wasn’t all doom and gloom as the national media sensation- ally reported. But it wasn’t good, either. As the oil oozed on to nearby Grande Isle beaches and spread into the sur-
TIDE
rounding bayous and marsh, the waters were closed to recreational and commercial fishing. Bourgeois and his guides went to work in the cleanup efforts, ferrying officials, checking on booms, tracking the slick’s progress and whatever else they could to make ends meet. It was a long and difficult summer. Now, nearly a year after the well was finally capped, some semblance of order is returning to the bayou. But it is certainly not back to a pre-spill tempo by any means. I asked Bourgeois how the spill had affected his business dur- ing my return trip in March.
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“My bookings are off by 60 to 70
percent this year,” he explained. “The fishing is fine. But the mindset is bad. People up north think we’re still conta- minated down here. In 2008, after we’d rebuilt from Hurricane Katrina, I had 10 guides working for me and was grossing $1 million a year. In 2009, that increased by 20 percent. We were doing a lot of corporate trips. Now I’m down to three guides and the phone isn’t ringing that much. We’re paying the bills and making do. But we’re not operating like we would normally. “When a hurricane hits, it’s over
quickly, you clean up and move on,” he 13
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