Jurassic Redfish Louisiana Style

Sweet Waters Adventure would like to welcome Southern Way Charters – home of the Dogwood Lodge – to our family of wonderful destinations.

Dogwood Lodge is a historic vessel that was built for the US Coast Guard as a buoy tender on the upper Mississippi River. It was later bought and renovated by a local cruise ship company and converted into a modern-day mother ship and used for river cruises up and down the Mississippi River. Dogwood Lodge is now moored deep in the heart of the Biloxi Marsh in Southeast Louisiana and offers a blend of first-class accommodations, excellent southern cooking and genuine hospitality that makes you feel like a million bucks. Great food and amazing hospitality are important, but the real reason to visit Dogwood Lodge is the exceptional redfishing.

DOGWOOD LODGE: HOPEDALE, LOUISIANA

The Dogwood Lodge is located past the End of the World Marina also known as the Hopedale Marina in Hopedale, Louisiana in the Biloxi Marsh. Hopedale is located an easy 45-minute drive southeast of New Orleans and is on the edge of the mouth of the Mississippi River. This location offers easy access to great inshore fishing for redfish, speckled trout and many other species. Fly fishing opportunities for trophy redfish are also exceptional here because of the clarity of the water and the endless extent of wild marshes.

Venice Louisiana makes an excellent destination for duck hunting. Coastal Louisiana also plays host to a significant portion of North America’s waterfowl population during the winter joining the millions of other feathered friends that live or visit Louisiana throughout the year. Louisiana ranks in the top 10 states for bird species richness with over 400 different species on record. These include many residents who spend their entire life cycle here and a more significant number of migrants that pass through only at certain times. The number of ducks and other waterfowl that spend their winter on the marsh is astounding.

The Biloxi Marsh is one of the world’s great estuaries. It’s a complex network of 210,000 acres of coastal wetlands located on the eastern side of Louisiana merging into the Gulf of Mexico. Crisscrossed by bayous and canals; dotted with innumerable lakes, bays, ponds, and lagoons; it provides a rich variety of habitat that offers some of the best coastal fishing anywhere on earth. Staying at the Dogwood Lodge puts you in the middle of some of the most exciting fishing opportunities in the region. Spending a day in the marsh chasing giant redfish and sea trout is a once in a lifetime experience. It’s something you will remember forever and relive in your dreams for the rest of your life.

Venice, Louisiana, the “Sportfishing Capital of the World”, forms the other bookend to Hopedale, Louisiana across Black Bay. The waters just offshore of Venice Louisiana are dotted with hundreds of natural gas platforms and dozens of tethered semi-submersible rigs. Also, located just off the mouth of the Mississippi River, before Venice, the continental shelf is closer to the mouth of the river than anywhere else in the continental United States. As a result, the offshore fishery near Venice is the most diverse in the world with opportunities to catch Blue & White Marlin, Tuna, Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, Grouper, Cobia, Amberjack and Snapper.

The Biloxi Marsh is a stunningly beautiful place to relax and unwind. Just spending time on the water is unique and should never taken for granted. Moreover, Biloxi Marsh has few equals when it comes to redfish, and the trout fishing is not bad either. There are not many places in the world where you can pitch a fly to behemoth redfish like these in Pat Ford’s photographs, and for the most part, the redfish can be found almost year round. Because the fish are so big, there two things you will find out quickly when you set the hook: one is how good your knots are, and two, is the overall quality of your tackle. I have been fishing the east side of the Biloxi Mash off and on for the last twelve years, and the number and the size of the redfish combined with their raw, brutal power still amaze me every time I fish the marsh.

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