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.
Ira Burge / College Teacher
I really appreciate Devin's teaching & how he is "to the point" and down to earth, yet professional and gives a great presentation of what I need to know in order to catch speckled trout and redfish.
Before taking Inshore Fishing 101 I have not had very many successful trips to Louisiana, but with these great learning experiences, since completing 101, I have had more success. Finding the best conditions, using the right tackle, Google Earth Desktop & technical stuff on my Lowrance, etc., the list is too long for this, so THANKS from a rookie inshore fisherman!!!
Captain Devin has done an excellent job with these classes! As a speaker, preacher, college teacher, & singer I appreciate the research, experience, time, & knowledge he put into the great presentations of each class. I can not suggest any changes for such an excellent course!
Scott Ruiz / Lifelong Inshore Angler
I am a member of LAFB Elite, and can say that Devin is a very knowledgeable guy when it comes to fishing Louisiana's coast.
The investment in his courses is definitely worth it.
Plus, you can go back and look at all the past seminars or refresh what you've already taken.
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!
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!
Trey Guidry / Louisiana Native
Inshore Fishing 101 was an excellent experience. I learned a lot of good information.
I think the most important thing that I learned was how to use Google Earth Desktop to find new fishing spots and avoid hazards. I never realized how awesome of a tool it is.
Above all, I really enjoyed the attention to detail. I feel like the information inside this course is so broken down that anyone can understand it.
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!