Gauthier & Amedee loses to Southland 2-0

In American Legion baseball, Gauthier & Amedee lost a hard-fought game to the Houma-based squad 2-0. The loss to the Southland Hogs forces the Wombats to compete in this weeks eight-team Southeast Regional at Kirsch Rooney Stadium in New Orleans. The top two teams from this regional will return to Kirsch Rooney the following week to compete in the American Legion state tournament.

Gauthier & Amedee (17-4-1) and Southland (11-4) finished district play with 3-3 records against each other that forced a winner-take-all contest with very similar results as the regular season. The game pitted G&As Dwain Guice, of St. Amant, against Southlands Gabe Gravois, of E.D. White. The two pitchers were locked in a scoreless pitchers duel throughout five innings.

Gravois only allowed three base runners until the bottom of the fifth inning. The Wombats Preston Thrash, of East Ascension, lined a single to left field and Dutchtowns Cameron Crawford followed with a two-out single. Southland went to their bullpen and Blake Freeman came in and struck out EAs Noah Fontenot to end the inning.

The Hogs took advantage of a fielding error in the top of the sixth inning to score their two runs. A sacrifice bunt was successful and intentional walk by the Wombats put runners on first and second. The next pitch was a wild pitch that moved the runners to second and third base. Gravois (2 for 3) used his bat as well as his arm and stroked a two-run single up the middle just out of the reach of a diving Thrash with the infield playing in.

Donaldsonvilles 9-and-under Cal Ripken All Stars went on another tear and captured the state championship last weekend in St. Charles. Donaldsonville went 4-0 in the tournament and previously won the district tourney without a loss and stayed unbeaten during tournament play.

Donaldsonville scorched East Feliciana 16-2 in the finals and outscored its opponents 54-15 in the four games they played in the tournament. Donaldsonville last won the 9-and-under state championship in 2011.

Donaldsonville's Camille LeBoeuf was selected the state MVP. Congratulations to the players and coaches on a successful season. Special thanks to the parents and fans for their support during the season.

When I think back to my teen days, the words surfs up first make me think of folks on the West Coast, especially California, heading to the beach to catch some waves. The Beach Boys come to mind as well. Heck, they own nine of the top 100 surfing songs, including the all-time No. 1 hit, Surf City.

One of my favorite animated movies from 2007 is Surfs Up featuring Cody Maverick, a 17-year-old rock hopper penguin who has wanted to be a professional surfer ever since a visit from surf legend Zeke "Big Z" Topanga when he was a young teen. He entered a surfing competition that was held in Hawaii.

But really, when I hear the word surf, it brings an instant photo to my mind of the beach down at Grand Isle or Elmers Island. Clear and calm waters teeming with speckled trout, redfish, white trout and lots of unexpected species lures the angler who is not faint of heart.

With a little preparation and information one could enjoy a morning doing a little wade fishing, enjoying the outdoors and probably have the opportunity to catch a few fish for dinner. Well help you accomplish this if you read on.

Lets talk preparation first. A fishing license is needed, so if youre a resident or a visitor to Louisiana, visit wlf.louisiana.gov and you can get what you need online. Your feet need protecting, so a good pair of beach shoes is a must. There are inherent dangers anywhere you wade, so the shoes can keep you from a benign crab bite or a medical incident.

The beach is associated with swimsuits and shorts, but I prefer using long pants while wade fishing to protect my legs from incidental contact with gulf creatures. That is a personal preference. But pockets go a long way in bringing extra tackle with you. Too many trips back to the bank gets tiring and cuts down on fishing time.

A fishing shirt with pockets serves the same purpose as the pants: some protection and more storage in the pockets. Short sleeves are fine. Head cover is important as well, so anything from a ball cap to a wide-brim fishing hat will do. An enterprising angler will hang a few top water baits on the hats to add to their tackle package. Sunscreen all exposed skin; the water magnifies the suns rays, and theres no need to come out of the water cooked.

Now that were dressed for the occasion, lets get to the tools of war. Keep everything as simple as you can.

A medium spinning rod with a spinning reel and 12- to 15-pound test monofilament line is a good choice for the novice or less-experienced angler. Its easy to cast and will work in windy conditions. A bait caster is fine for the experienced angler and affords more accurate casts, although thats not usually a factor while fishing in open water.

Live or natural bait seems like a good tactic, and using it does offer some advantages to the range and amount of fish you catch. To me, the pitfalls outweigh the advantages. Live bait has to be kept alive. Floating bait buckets are readily available and reasonably priced, but keeping the shrimp, minnows or croakers alive is not so easy. You end up with lots of dead bait and some of it jumps out of your hand, gets away and the fish get a free meal.

Natural bait or dead bait (bait shrimp is the most popular) attracts many trash fish. Among them are hard head catfish that have poison in their fins and usually ends up in a hospital visit if you get stuck with one while trying to remove the fish and release it. The risk is just not worth it.

Artificial bait is the way I like to go. There are a lot fewer complications involved with this route in execution for wade fishing in the surf. The choice of types is a somewhat different matter, so well keep it as simple as we can.

Top water is one of my favorite methods to catch any fish. If youre making an early morning trip, theres no better way to get started than trying them on top. Get there right at daybreak to start your fishing before you even step into the water. Big specks like to hug the shore before sunrise to feast on the bait fish thats in the shallows.

The simplest rig that will be easy to cast, change lures and easy to remove the hook from the fish is a lead head jig. A 3/16- or 1/4-ounce, unpainted head is the best size to use and the range of plastic baits that you can fish with in almost unending.

Cocahoe minnows and sparkle beetles are the most popular.

Basic colors should be determined by water clarity. If the water is dingy, dark colors with a chartreuse tail will usually work the best. Black, purple or dark blue will work well under those conditions. As the water gets clearer, change to a color that is a little more translucent (see through) like avocado, smoke or glow.

The new, modern colors that are popular cant be figured out by name but they work. Electric chicken, new penny, opening night, chicken on a chain, blue moon, lemon/lime I guess you get the picture.

OK, weve gotten the right tackle, made a cast, and we got a feisty speckled trout on the end of the line. Hes shaking his head, trying to throw the hook. Im in the water, hes in the water how am I going to land it, and what will I do if I get it off the hook?

Holding the rod in one hand, then grabbing the fish with the other (which Ive tried) usually ends up with about a 98 percent loss rate. Invest in a reasonably priced trout net with a clip that attaches to a belt loop and has a retractable lanyard. You can stretch it out, dip the fish and it returns to your side for the next victim. Pliers are a must, as well. Removal of the hook or hooks will be impossible without them 50 percent of the time.

Long stringers with a float on one end are an option to store the fish until a trip to the shore is needed to ice them down. The only problem with this is fish dangling in the water that a fish a little farther up the food chain can find them and try to eat. My preference is a floating basket that has a long rope that can be attached to a belt loop. This results in less opportunity for other stuff to eat your catch.

South Louisiana offers three spots to wade fish without having a boat. All are located off of La. 1 South. Port Fourchon is the first spot on that route. It is not as easily accessed as the other two but that might afford a less crowded spot.

Next down the line is Elmers Island. This one is a state-owned land that is easily accessed by vehicle. Unless theres been some untimely weather, one could drive down the beach and pick your spot. Grand Isle is just down the road: 7 miles of well-kept beach with a state park at the end of the road.

I know this is a lot of information to take in and process, but this is it in a nutshell. Take one rod and reel youre comfortable with, a floating basket, a retractable lanyard net, a top water bait or two, a few jug heads and some plastic baits in assorted colors and youll be set for a great experience wading with the fish. It just doesnt get any better than that.

Lyle Johnson, a writer and host of the Ascension Outdoors cable TV show, covers sports and the outdoors for The Ascension Advocate. He can be contacted at reelman@eatel.net or ascension@theadvocate.com.

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Ascension Athletics for July 6, 2017 - The Advocate