Grand Isle, LA

Most outsiders have come to know about Grand Isle, La., for either of two reasons. It’s best known as the setting of Kate Chopin’s classic novel, The Awakening, in which a wealthy young wife in late 19th-century Creole society discovers love and freedom, however fleeting, on its shores.

Most people these days, however, know it better for the fishing—and usually pass through this southernmost stretch of southeast Louisiana armed with rod and reel. Grand Isle is home to some of the world’s best catches—redfish, croaker, red snapper, red and black drum, tuna, and marlin, to name just a few (more than 280 species of fish swim in its waters).

It’s the sea that calls all people to Grand Isle, from its 1,500 year-round residents to the thousands more who fish its shores and venture further to the oil rigs and the deep sea catches that lie beyond. The island itself is a mere beach ridge—about seven miles long and half a mile wide, swept on all sides by the Gulf of Mexico and a network of inland channels that connect to the bayou tributaries of the Mississippi River. Plenty of room to lose an afternoon fishing off a skiff in the marsh, off the end of a pier, or further offshore for the fisherman with a boat at hand and more time to spare.

Laine Landry, harbormaster of the Pirate’s Cove Marina and a lifelong resident of Grand Isle, says the rich fishing opportunities are all because of location. “I guess it’s our estuary system with the delta of the river and because there are so many oil field structures out there,” he says. “The ones that are abandoned are cut down and left under the water to make an artificial reef.”

Steven “Scooter” Resweber, park manager of Grand Isle State Park, which makes up the last mile of the island, has another idea about why the fishing is so good. “The two passes that drain on either side of the island might have a lot to do with it,” he says. “Barataria Pass drains on one side and Camanada Pass drains on the other, and they bring out all the bait fish and the shrimp and crabs.”

Whatever the reason, anglers have been attracted to the waters off Grand Isle since it was first settled in the late 18th century as five separate plantations. Hurricanes and a lack of labor led to the division of the plantation lands, and an influx of immigrants came here to work as fishermen and merchants, selling their catches in New Orleans. By the 1840s, tourists from that city began descending on the island for refuge from the summer heat and yellow fever, renting seaside cabins and passing their days fishing or on the beach. A catastrophic hurricane changed all that in 1893, destroying almost everything on the island.

“We only have about 14 homes that predate the storm of 1893,” says Jean Landry, an informal Grand Isle historian and co-proprietor of the Landry House Bed and Breakfast. Ever since, the buildings and most of the homes on Grand Isle enjoy the unusual distinction of being raised on stilts—about 10 feet high—to avoid the flooding that has become almost a seasonal inevitability.

But Landry says that hasn’t kept the fishermen away. “Commercial fishing is still a very viable part of our economy, neck-and-neck with what recreational fishing brings to the island,” she says. And those recreational fishermen bring in some serious dollars to the local economy, particularly during special events such as the annual Tarpon Rodeo which, founded in 1928, is billed as the oldest fishing tournament in the world.

For those who continue regularly to visit for the ultimate catch, and especially for those who continue to live on Grand Isle, the sea’s generous bounty is worth the risk of its sometimes devastating force. “We’ve got the best of both worlds,” says Buggie Vegas, harbormaster of the Bridge Side Marina. “Half the year we’ve got a bunch of different people here, and the next half it’s just us.”

Michael Depp is a freelance writer living in New Orleans.

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