The BigFish Finder
Sid Tiblier with a
massive bull red from
Stone Island.
A well-known island consistently
provides phenomenal fishing.
28
June 2016 www.marshandbayou.com
There is a fair number of Louisiana anglers
who know of and often fish Black Bay’s Stone
Island. You may be in that number. But for
many years I have watched quite a few anglers
look for limits on this shrinking island of prime
fishing real estate with little success, often
passing over areas which I knew had fish.
To really understand the island and its fish-producing qualities, you need to know a little history. Like most of coastal
Louisiana, the island was once much larger, mostly composed
of shells and hard bottom. A major natural gas company used
the island as a base for operation
and drilling. The island had a large
facility with buildings, a marina, lots
of bulkheads, docks, and pilings, a
huge antenna with cement columns
(once on land, now on water), and
actually extended a little over a mile
farther than its current western
shore. There is still an impressive operation taking place on the island,
but much smaller in comparison
by Capt. CT Williams
than the original. As erosion chewed
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at the island, many of these features
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became surrounded by water and
are now structure for early summer’s feeding and breeding
fish, especially speckled trout.
Stone Island is also surrounded by numerous wellheads in the area (added and removed almost at
whim). There are many structures damaged by
Katrina and other storms that still remain
submerged. Add extensive, exposed underwater
pipelines and years of
discarded welding
rods, scrap
metal, and
other dilapidated material, and you can
imagine how the
structure available to bait
here is impressive. The island’s location offers another fishing advantage. Most inshore
bait like the water brackish. Brown and white shrimp, mullet,
and other small finfish prefer it slightly fresh. While on the
other hand, breeding speckled trout look for saltier water so