Roadtrip Fishing: Dec. 2020

ZETA Trip Set 2

By Keith Lozott Contributing Writer


If you’re a product of the Greek system at a university, you’re probably thinking I’m about to talk about a trip with a bunch of Zeta girls!!!

While that was only a young college man’s dream (especially since I was an independent); the real premise of the story is our annual trip to Louisiana that was cancelled due to hurricane Zeta.  We were fired to go, anticipating the opportunity to cast at cruising redfish in the marsh swimming down a shallow creek bed or drain, (trenasse: a trail in the marsh that will lead one to the best fishing). We were on our WhatsApp chat every day talking junk at one another, ribbing back and forth about the upcoming trip and out of nowhere the news comes in that the seventh storm to put the trip in jeopardy is on its way. We stayed positive hoping it wouldn’t be cancelled. The storm was only supposed to be a tropical storm or a weak Cat 1 at worst, so we stayed on course to go.  Well that all went up in smoke as the storm intensified into a Cat 2, boasting winds of 110 mph with a forward cruising speed of 25 mph and went directly over Delacroix causing some serious damage. The lodge had been hit, the power was out, the marina was compromised, and the boat house roof was blown off.

The owner of the lodge called and told me that all in all, it wasn’t that bad.  It sounded bad to me but as always there is a silver lining to every story. The house would be fixed soon and if the power was back on, we could probably use it as is. Well this time of year Delacroix can have some cool weather come in so we decided to wait until the place had power restored to try and rebook the trip. Scrambling, I organized the crew and set a date for December 5-11 and by the time you’re reading this we will have come and gone.  None of us have fished Delacroix in December and being from Florida, cold weather fishing rarely happens.  That being said, the average December temperature in Delacroix is 65-45 degrees and that is freezing for us.

We immediately went into research and development mode and found the fishing is supposed to great in December.  The trout bite is supposed to be really hot and close to camp. The main targeted species, “BIG REDFISH” come into the marsh to get warm and eat for the winter and you don’t have to wake up early to top it off.  Hopefully good things come to those who wait! This should be a great early Christmas present to myself with memories that last forever!

Keith Lozott The Fishing Realtor