So much of successful fishing comes down to timing. If you’re retired or self-employed, and can pick your days, you have a much higher percentage chance of success than someone whose job duties limit him to specific days every week to fish.

That’s because conditions usually dictate when and how aggressively fish feed, as well as your ability to reach them or make productive casts to them.

I’m obsessed with monitoring the buoys scattered across the Louisiana coast to make daily mental notes about real-time wind speeds, tide ranges and water levels so I can plan my trips when conditions will be optimal.

But all that goes out the window when a relative comes in town and has a limited window to fish.

That happened last week when my niece’s husband, Dustin Jones, flew down from Columbus, Ohio, and hoped to duplicate previous successful trips he’s had with me into the Louisiana marsh.

He could fish any of three days, but unfortunately, the tide range was abysmal each of those days. I’d rather fish during a snowstorm than on a dead-tide day, so with no other reason to go, I would have kept the boat on the trailer. But I love seeing out-of-towners stare in slack-jawed amazement at the beauty of our wetlands, and there’s nothing like watching them get manhandled by a big red pulling them ‘round and ‘round the boat.

So off Jones and I went, with my son, Joel, in tow.

As I suspected it would be, the fishing was slow — at least to start the day. But it picked up, and that was really bad news for my favorite rod.

To see all the details, check out the video below.

Like the video? Please give it a thumbs up, and subscribe to the Marsh Man Masson channel on YouTube. Also, leave a comment below or on the YouTube page.