Fishing out of Lafitte this morning

How big have you seen them? This one was only about 3-4 feet. We pulled it in the boat, only to check LWF Regulations and find that you can take one from April 1st to June 30th.

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How big have you seen them? This one was only about 3-4 feet. We pulled it in the boat, only to check LWF Regulations and find that you can take one from April 1st to June 30th.

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Brother caught one right under 6’ in Lafitte.


My brothers and I rarely fish Lafitte since we have a place in Grand Isle but we usually make 1 trip every other year to Lafitte in late February or March.

Back in 2009 fishing along the jetties catching reds my brother caught one 5’ 8”. We had been catching bull reds and sheepshead all morning but we both knew within 2 seconds when he hooked it it wasn’t a red. The first thing I thought was a big Jack but my brother said no way because the way the shark was pulling and how heavy it felt. The pole he happened to be using was an Ambassador 6000 with 15# test. It was a miracle he landed that fish. No wire liter, 15# test. We got lucky because when he made his run instead of running straight to the jetties, he ran almost to the center of the shipping channel and continued down the center. We just let the boat do the work and let him drag us, then pull right on top of him when he was wore out.

I usually don’t carry a gaf on my bay boat but happened to have it on there from the weekend before when were catching Cobia at the closer rigs in Grand Isle. I gaffed him and that was it. Took every bit of 50-55 minutes. We were blown away because not only didn’t we think there were bull sharks that size and that time of the year in Lafitte but that we actually landed him.

It was absolutely wild. The whole time he was fighting him we were saying to each other he’s about to break the line, bend/ break the hook. It was a blast. An old man at the launch said that was one of the bigger ones he’s seen landed in Lafitte. He said there were a handful of times he’s seen people land them there that were over 6’. He said the biggest he saw caught out of Lafitte was one right under 8’ but said there are bigger one but they rarely or never get landed because you’re mostly using lighter tackle in that area on reels that don’t hold enough line on the spools.