David Siskind | Sunday, 26 October 2025
My trip to the Delta was a hoot but the fishing was difficult. I learned a lot. New questions arose. I garnered new insights. But best of all, I spent the week with my old school roomie and best bud Marty. We always fish well together, just not often enough. Life gets complicated and we’ve lived 3000 miles apart for the last 40 years. I introduced him to my long-pole-guy Brian Boehm, who guided us for 4 days through wind and dirty water. Brian also helped liven things by hooking us up with his crew of Floridian guide buddies after-hours, so we were immersed in the arcane arts of the shallow water chase for big reds, the etiquette of the chasseurs, the merits of one-piece rods and various skiff hull shapes. All good.
I’ve been fishing with Brian for at least five years in Florida, where he lives, and Louisiana. He’s a great guide and an accomplished fisherman. I’m amazed at his knowledge of this Louisiana fishery. There are so many islands, ponds, creeks and passes to learn. Navigation is difficult - between the oyster bars and the unmarked hazards left by generations of offshore oil exploration and production - there is no straight path to any destination. Brian and his buds have been guiding there for several years, mostly from September through December and into January. They spend the rest of the year at home in Florida. Those from Miami and the keys, fish mostly for bones, permit and tarpon. Brian emphasizes tarpon and snook. Everyone has some redfish. Their approaches vary, they all have different origins and paths to this place and time, but they freely share information each evening and during the day. They’re all sweet guys and I’m delighted to know them.
Over the weekend the wind from the SW created a surge, flooding the marshes and stirring up silt. The water was rough and fish-spotting challenging. So for a couple of days we were all about a search for clean water. When things calmed down we did better but we only had a few shots at un cooperative bulls. On the last two days we found some good water and eager fish and did well enough. We finally found quite a few big reds cruising lazily over some oyster beds. The water was deep and they weren’t easy to see and we didn’t convert. I’m now discovering that while my sight fishing skills have developed with effort - fish-spotting, choosing a target, and placing the fly quickly - I am not good at feeding the fish. We’re not conversing. It’s just splash-down and strip. As the fly sinks I lose track of where it is. I lose sight of the fish (it’s probably near the fly), resulting in mistimed strips, sets and pickups. I need to develop some way of training up that skill - breaking it down. I’m trying using a drab colored yarn and casting it in the park, retrieving it and reminding myself to find it relative to the fly line at all times as I strip. Hopefully learning to keep my gaze on the small piece of brown yarn hopping through the dying lawn will get me looking in the right direction. We’ll see what the fish say then.
Equipment Note: I took two of my HT rods out there - the HT8 (with SA Amplitude Bonefish WF8F) and HT10 (with SA Amplitude Infinity WF9F). Brian ties and we fished bushy headed, rabbit strip flies with moderately heavy dumbbell eyes. They cast better on the HT10 with the 9+ line. The clunk at the end of my backcast was way less pronounced and the line and fly punched through headwinds with authority. I handed the rod to Brian to try. He was suitably impressed.
David Siskind