I'll keep this as short and as sweet as possible, and please bear with me as I'm really just shooting from the hip here, as I wanted to explain what's been going on with myself and Louisiana Fishing Blog, especially if you're one of the relatively few people who actually visit my website (thank you for that).
First off, one of my continuing struggles with LAFB has been finding the right kind of content that people enjoy consuming, that I enjoy making and isn't incredibly difficult or time consuming to make. For example, people liked the produced and heavily edited fishing videos I published to YouTube — and I like them, too! — but those videos are an absolute pain in the ass to film, edit and produce. The video below is one such example, and in the opening scene at 0:49 you can see the timeline and the media on it. It's no slouch!
It took about three days of filming to get everything I needed for that video, and another couple weeks of editing. This video was actually pretty easy to edit because I only fished one spot, whereas videos where I go on a journey to find fish end up taking upward of 45 days to edit. This wouldn't be a problem except for one thing: hardly anyone watches them. It's not like these videos have hundreds of thousands of views. So I'm squeezing a lot of fruit and not getting a lot of juice in return.
I've also created other kinds of content that took non-trivial amounts of time and effort to create and, again, not much juice to match the squeeze. Some of that content you will find here on this website. It's great. It's banger. But you have to apply yourself and r-e-a-d. Being that focused is a high ask of people these days. Nevertheless, it's to your benefit if you can muster the willpower.
This was leading to burnout. I was beginning to get seriously bored with LAFB and ask "what's even the point?" A lot of my grievances can be found in this blog post about quitting social media. That's a dangerous road to go down, because what fuels something like LAFB is passion. Believe me, I can take the skills learned and honed here and apply them to greater effect elsewhere. I've thought about it a lot. But I've also spent the last fourteen years working toward what you see here, and it'd be great to keep it going.
So, if I'm not writing here and if I'm not making highly-produced YouTube videos, then what am I doing?
Well, it's been on my mind for awhile to try uploading entire fishing trips, unedited, or at least edited very little. Last month I finally said "F it" and tried. That's this video below:
That video is three hours long. This pales in comparison to the usual 15-45 minutes my videos were before. And what kills me is that this video is out performing the highly produced one embedded above. It is crushing the produced videos in analytics. I can attribute this to a litany of reasons, but I'd like to point out that editing and rendering this video took about a day's worth of work. That's great. That means I can crank these out at a much better rate. But there's more! Forget the analytics, the dry and inhuman numbers, all you need to do is look at the comments. People really notice and love this "long" format. That and this longer format is in keeping with my own digital ethics (i.e. not hacking your brain stem).
So, to answer the question posed earlier, I am making these long-form videos now. But I am also posting fishing reports inside LAFB Elite Community and helping members plan their fishing trips. I am also making content for LAFB Elite, whether that's more courses or behind-the-scenes stuff like developing an app. Finally, whenever there's free time, I am writing a book for inshore fishing in Louisiana. I hope to have that published some time in 2025.
I really enjoy writing here and taking time to deep-think inshore fishing ideas, tactics and techniques, but I just don't have time to do that and everything else. So, for the time being, there are the new YouTube videos and — if you're not scared to apply yourself, use the search function and r-e-a-d — you will find a ton of great fishing advice and information in posts from years past. Patterns repeat themselves, after all. If you're in my email list then you'll get a link to whichever guide or article currently applies to the season and/or conditions.
Last, but not least, the best way to learn everything I know to finding and catching speckled trout, redfish and more on Louisiana's coast is to join LAFB Elite and complete Inshore Fishing 101.
George Smith / North Louisiana Native
Captain Devin, I would like to thank for all your hard work. Inshore Fishing 101 is about as thorough as you could get.
I would like tell you my situation: I live in north Louisiana by Bossier City. I only get to go to fish the coast once or twice a year and have been putting off signing up for LAFB Elite because of that.
I finally broke down, joined your membership, took Inshore Fishing 101 and am very glad that I did. I will go over it quite often before my next fishing trip.
Once again, thank you for all your hard work!
John Fortner / Louisiana Native
I thoroughly enjoyed the Inshore Fishing 101 experience. The overall knowledge makes me feel more prepared to find fish on a consistent basis. I've been fishing in inshore Louisiana waters my entire life. While some of the knowledge was not new, the way it is presented with new material really seemed to tie everything together for me.
My biggest take away from 101 was the ability to pick (potentially) productive fishing spots. How to appropriately select weight and why was another huge help. I feel much more prepared for hitting the water!
Shawn Bailey / Inshore Angler
I am horrible with GPS/computer interactions , so the building routes with Google was great. I can't wait to put in action to avoid shallow water and navigational hazards.
Something else I learned was fishing the entire water column, now I know what I was doing wrong and why I wasn't catching fish.
Inshore Fishing 101 is great because it is self paced, well organized and easy to navigate!
That’s awesome, I wish the best for you. I’m also glad you like those long-format videos. I really wish they did better. If they did, I’d make more. Thank you for the kind words.
Thanks man, I appreciate the input. I can’t wait until I’m able to get a boat and start the LAFB elite courses. I’m currently in the middle of watching some of your previous fall fishing content on YouTube and I really enjoy the unedited adventure of finding fish format that you have in the video I’m watching.
Thanks,
Ryan
I quit doing charters so I can do what you see here. If I’m out on a boat fishing, how can I produce content? If what I did here was easy, then many more people would be doing it.
As for becoming a charter captain…well, that depends. Many charter captains really aren’t that great at fishing. They just fish the same spots and go where their buddies catch fish. These are “phone call captains”. If you took away their phone and sent them to a new area they’d be lost and skunked.
It took me 16+ years to get to where I am now, and I would say that I am much more skilled, experienced and knowledgeable than when I guided. The Devin of 2025 would absolutely skull-drag the Devin of 2012. It’s not even close.
What makes the good charter captains “good” is their ability to find fish from scratch then get presentations on them. After that, they’re constantly on the water and usually aren’t starting from scratch. A good angler’s network on top of that is the icing on the cake.
As for you, that depends on you. It may only take a couple years. Most people are lazy, hubristic and willfully ignorant, and it takes them much longer to get good at fishing (if they ever do at all). But if you can apply yourself, keep an open mind and work your ass off, then you can do so in a much shorter amount of time (just like anything in life).
Thanks for the response, I have to get out on a boat somehow. I can already tell from the free content that you have posted on YouTube that I would benefit from your paid content. What would you say is the amount of time required to go from zero experience operating a boat to charter captain taking out clients knowing what you’re doing? What made you quit doing charters?
I would say that you would still learn a lot, but would ultimately benefit getting into a boat of some kind, even if it’s just a simple aluminum boat, like what I fished out of for years. Bank fishing is really competitive. There’s not much space to go around, and folks who figure out where to fish often keep it to themselves.
How useful is lafb elite for bank anglers in se Louisiana?
Thank you so much, Keith! I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon!
I sure hope you don’t give up on LAFB. I’ve been fishing the La coast all of my life and I’ve learned more in the past two months from you than the whole 50 years of doing it the way dad showed me, not saying dad was entirely wrong just old school. Inshore 101 I by far the best tool I’ve seen, hands down. Keep it up Cap you got this!