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Editor's note: ESPNOutdoors.com Fishing editor Ken Schultz also is a commentator for "BassCenter," which air Saturdays on ESPN2; look for his "Reel Speak" segment.

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LAFITTE, La. — After running for 20 minutes, we eased the boat up near Plum Point off Bayou Perot in the Mississippi Delta.

Raymond Griffin, the owner of Griffin Fishing Charters here, took a spinning rod in hand and made a cast with a gray and green soft-bodied jig, then explained how it should be worked for redfish in the 12- to 18-inch-deep water near Turtle Bay.

I stood up next to him on the bow deck and we started casting toward shore. Then he turned to me and said, "You know, I have a reputation to hold up here. I have never — never — been skunked on this water."

"Never?"

"Nope."

We'd just started fishing and the sun would set in three hours. Pressure's on, I thought.

Griffin read my mind. "Even if we have to stay out until after dark, we will catch us a fish."

"Well, have you ever been lost out here?" asked Sam Heaton. "This is a mighty big body of water."

"No sir," answered Griffin. "I might have been confused temporarily, but never lost. And we don't need GPS here 'cause we got C-A-P-S. You know what that is?"

"Nope."

"Coon Ass Positioning System. We just know where to go and where not to go."

After we stopped laughing he said, "And when people ask us how deep it is, here's how we tell 'em." He leaned over and stuck his rod tip into the water until it hit bottom, then put his fingers on the rod at the water line and stood up.

"'Bout this deep."

Fish galore

For the record, it was about 16 inches deep there, and we stayed for 20 minutes without catching a fish before moving on.

As it turned out, Griffin had no need to worry about his guarantee or his reputation. One fish in the boat would have taken care of his streak, but three hours later when we headed for the dock we had caught about 120 seatrout and redfish.

That's about 13 fish per person per hour, which is pretty darn good by anyone's standards and which also is probably why Griffin has embroidered his hats and shirts with the name of his business and the slogan, "We don't go fishin' — we go catchin'."

A lot of our catchin' took place in the last half-hour of the day.

We were actually headed back to the dock — having already caught redfish, black drum, and speckled trout while fishing with shrimp in Turtle Bay — when we crossed Little Bay and found a flock of seagulls squawking and diving over a big pod of trout.

It was only about 3 feet deep in the middle of the bay, and the trout (which are locally called speckled trout or specks, but are primarily known as spotted seatrout) kept moving northward while a south wind let us drift at just the right speed to keep pace with the school.

There was not another boat in sight.

In a half hour, the three of us kept 41 seatrout at 12 inches or larger and released about 50 undersized fish, all hooked on soft shad bodies fished on a ¼-ounce jighead.

Some of the kept trout would go home with us and some would go toward a fish fry the following evening. If it had not been getting dark, we could have stayed and caught many more.

Amazingly, the jump-off point for this great fishing — Griffin's camp on Barataria Bayou in Lafitte — is just a 30-minute drive from New Orleans.

North America's greatest delta

The Mississippi Delta is a huge, extraordinary place and one of the most important estuaries in North America, as befits its namesake river, which flows from the third-largest drainage basin in the world.

The flood plain of the lower Mississippi covers an area from 40 to 70 miles wide, where rich sediments, freshwater current flows and saltwater tidal action have combined to constantly change the landscape and add to the abundant aquatic resources.

New Orleans is at the head of this region, and Lafitte is near the center of it — and thus home to some of the greatest fishing in the country.

The fishing community of Lafitte, named after the French pirate who helped General Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans, is the capital of Gulf Coast shrimping.

Bayou Barataria, which extends from Lake Salvadore through Venice and out to the Gulf, is loaded in the Lafitte area with shrimp-, crab- and oyster-fishing vessels and processors. It sees plenty of barge traffic and all manner of vessels plying the Intracoastal Waterway headed to and from the Mississippi. Natural gas rigs exist all over the shallow bays, and oil companies are a major presence in the region.

The commercial-fishing industry is now banned from taking seatrout and redfish, so the recreational fishery has picked up over the past decade or so to where there is a heck of a lot of activity throughout the area for these species.

Excellent fishing for redfish and seatrout — as well as for black drum and flounder — draws anglers not only from the nearby region, but pulls them from the likes of Dallas, Little Rock, Memphis, Tallahassee, and Birmingham — all seven to 10 hours of drive time away.

It also is increasingly drawing day visitors from New Orleans. These include people visiting the Big Easy for a convention or vacation and who want to spend a day on the water without going too far. Also drawn in are corporate groups seeking a two-day fishing getaway.

If you're going …

By Ken Schultz For information about fishing in this area, contact Griffin Fishing Charters by calling 800-741-1340 or visiting its Web site at www.griffinfishing.com. The Griffins have a fine facility on Barataria Bayou in Lafitte. Their day-fishing rates include fishing with one of the top area guides, plus a license, lunch and soft drinks, bait and tackle, boat gas and fish cleaning and packing ($300 for one person, $425 for two and $475 for three), and they can arrange pickup in New Orleans if you need it. They also have comfortable one- and two-bedroom apartments, and will include these, plus breakfast and dinner in their Cajun cook house and all of the aforementioned services, in a fishing and lodging package. March is a swing month with lots of winds, but things really pick up in April and May when prevailing south winds help warm up the area, bringing brown shrimp into the shallows. Big seatrout (3 to 7 pounds) appear in the beaches and bays. And schools of 8- to 12-pound redfish show up. Anglers use topwater plugs and plastic-bodied jigs for big redfish, and catch big seatrout on live shrimp or minnows, often fished on Carolina rigs. The Lafitte area had a very mild winter this season, and that may mean that the redfish will get active sooner than usual. Some 6- to 8-pounders, which are usually not seen until May, have already been caught this year.

Game-fish profile

Species: Spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus).

Other names: Trout, speckled trout, speck, spotted weakfish, spotted squeteague, gator trout, salmon trout, winter trout, black trout.

In general: The spotted seatrout is a member of the Sciaenidae family of drums and croakers. It belongs to the genus Cynoscion (weakfishes and seatrouts), named for the tender mouths from which hooks tear easily. An excellent table fish, the spotted seatrout is intensely pursued throughout its range, especially in the Gulf of Mexico.

Identification: The spotted seatrout has an elongated body with a slightly more regular and even tail fin (with a black margin) than sand or silver seatrout.

Coloring is dark gray or green on the back, with sky-blue tinges shading to silvery and white below; the dorsal fins are gray-green and many round black spots speckle the back, tail, and dorsal fins.

The lower jaw protrudes beyond the upper, which has one or two prominent canine teeth.

The first dorsal fin has one spine and 24 to 27 soft rays, while the anal fin has two spines and 10 to 11 soft rays.

The presence of spots on the fins can distinguish the spotted seatrout from other seatrout.

Size and age: Mature spotted seatrout commonly range from 12 to 24 inches and average 4 pounds, although they can reach 48 inches in length.

They can live up to 10 years. Anglers commonly catch spotted seatrout from 1 to 3 pounds; fish weighing more than 7 pounds are considered large, with 10-pounders definitely trophies.

The all-tackle record is 17 pounds 7 ounces, caught at Fort Pierce, Fla., in 1995.

Distribution: Spotted seatrout occur along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. They are most abundant along the shores of Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, eastern Louisiana and Texas, but range as far westward as Tampico, Mexico.

In late spring, they can range as far north as Long Island in New York, but are more prominent in the mid-Atlantic, specifically in the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland.

Habitat: An inshore bottom-dwelling species, the spotted seatrout is found in shallow bays, estuaries, bayous, canals and along Gulf Coast beaches.

They prefer nearshore sandy and grassy bottoms and may even be located in salt marshes and tidal pools with high salinity, but can be found around oilrigs usually within 10 miles of shore. Ideal water temperatures are between 58 and 81 degrees.

Life history and behavior: Optimum spawning conditions for spotted seatrout exist when salinity is 20 to 34 parts per thousand and temperatures reach 70 to 90 degrees.

Spawning takes place at night in coastal bays, sounds, lagoons, near passes and around barrier islands from March through November. The eggs hatch within 20 hours and are transported to estuaries by winds and currents.

Spotted seatrout are schooling fish and are not considered migratory, as they rarely move than 30 miles; although they do move into deeper waters or deep holes to avoid cold temperatures.

Food and feeding habits: Spotted seatrout are predatory, feeding primarily on shrimp and small fish. When shrimp are scarce, they often consume mullet, menhaden and silversides. Larger specimens feed more heavily on fish. Juveniles feed on grass shrimp and copepods.

For more fish species information, see "Ken Schultz's Fishing Encyclopedia," available through www.kenschultz.com.