First Salt Water Catch: Fishing Bay St. Louis

It wasn't long before my daughter felt the familiar tug and I heard, "Fish on, Daddy."

We walked through chest deep troughs carefully holding the rod and reel high. One hundred yards from shore we found a sand bar. There the water of Bay St. Louis gently lapped against us at our knees on its way to the beach where the rest of the family played.

My oldest daughter and I surveyed our surroundings. To our left the bridges carrying cars and trains to Pass Christian arched into the air. To our right the coastline worked its way toward New Orleans where we spent the morning shopping and dipping beignets in cafe au lait. Behind us the sun began to set over multicolored beach homes on South Beach Boulevard . All around us small fish made double leaps over the surface. Sea gulls and pelicans patrolled above.

A plastic crawfish on a .5 circle hook dangled on twenty four inches of leader below a large popping float. My daughter was excited, and though I tried to feign confidence as I assembled the rig, I was too. We grant ourselves expert status in our canoe at home where we bass fish, but this our first experience together fishing salt.

We began working the next trough out, and though our first few casts yielded no result, it wasn't long before my daughter felt the familiar tug and I heard, "fish on, Daddy."

As we waded back to shore to show off the catfish, all of ten inches, she had a smile and the confidence to ensure this wouldn't be her last catch from the bay.