How’s this for a stringer of fish?

Four redfish, a dozen or so speckled trout and three bass.

All were taken on a fishing trip a couple of weeks ago (prior to the rains and the cool weather we’ve had) and all from the same area — Contraband Bayou.

Mike Soileau and daughter Mattie made the catch in the afternoon, most of the fish coming in an area from the mouth of the bayou, where it opens into the Calcasieu ship Channel, up through the generous spacing of numerous tree stumps that can be seen during low water.

“All of the fish were blowing up small shad and glass minnows,” Soileau said, noting that he and Mattie were fishing 3-inch, white curly tailed Gulp!

“I just put the trolling motor on and let it go. We found most of the fish on the edge of the bayou following blowups. Every time we would see a blowup we would try to throw right by it, keeping the bait as close to the top of the water as we could.”

Soileau said they had a couple of reds in the 24-inch category and all of the specks were 14-17 inches long. A surprise were the bass, one of which he estimated would have gone about 3 pounds.

He said it was his first time to find bass that far down the bayou and close to the channel.

“When I was growing up I would fish the upper part of the Contraband and we would always catch bass and bream,” he said. “It’s really been strange, though, about the past year and fishing the upper reaches of the ship channel.

“Last year I caught fresh water catfish (channel cat) in the middle of the ship channel and Mattie caught a large Jack Crevalle.

“Some of these fish I think had just become misplaced.”

In this area of the state, because of the proximity of salt and fresh water, there is always the possibility that some fresh water fish could wind up in salt or brackish water and vice versa for salt water fish because of numerous happenings, including high water, low water, storms and hurricanes.

Everyone is sure to remember all of the blue crabs that were caught out of Lacassine Reserve after Hurricane Rita and the redfish in the Big Burns and Willow Lake.