Gerard “G.D.” Dupuis was pumped up, proud as heck and, yes, a little perplexed at first when he hooked and boated a redfish on a foggy morning Nov. 10.

The New Iberian sat on the front deck to hold the golden redfish up for a selfie while he smiled broadly. It was a nice-sized redfish, one he guesstimated at 18 inches long, and quite common in its typical environment.

Thing is, Dupuis was nowhere near Vermilion Bay or surrounding waters where many saltwater fishermen normally target redfish and other saltwater gamefish around Cypremort Point. He was fishing for bass by himself that Sunday in Grand Avoyelles Cove, located less than half a mile south of the lower end of Lake Fausse Pointe.

“That’s crazy. That’s really a first for me. That blew my mind,” Dupuis said about his first-ever redfish caught in a freshwater environment.

The 35-year-old engineering technician at Core Lab Reservoir Fluid Services said this is his favorite time of the year to target bass in Lake Dauterive-Fausse Pointe. At a younger age he hunted late October through early January but gave it up the more and more he fell in love with bass fishing – particularly bass tournaments – around 17 and, after upgrading from a 14-foot long riveted aluminum jo-boat, climbed into a 1999 ProCraft 180 Bass boat powered by a 1999 Mercury XR6.

“Now hunting season is my favorite time to fish. I don’t catch as many but there’s a much better chance at catching a big one. Since I bought that boat, I pretty much fished every weekend since,” he said.

On the fateful morning, Dupuis launched at Marsh Field Landing. The lake’s high water level made his decision on a destination simple because Grand Avoyelles Cove, a popular spawning area for bass from late winter through spring, has a lot of cover that’s usually out of the water and he wanted to fish it.

“I caught that redfish probably in the first half hour right off a cypress tree on a ‘Chatterbait’ (actually a bladed jig he makes himself). It shocked me. I knew it wasn’t a bass. I figured it was a ’goo (gaspergoo) the way it was running. There were no head shakes and it was just running around the boat … did a couple of circles in front of the boat. I finally caught a glimpse of it. I saw gold instead of silver. I said, ‘Oh, man, that’s a redfish!’ That’s when I grabbed the net and got it in the boat,” he said.

Dupuis was right to an extent. It was a drum, all right, but specifically a red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), commonly known as a redfish. It was far, far from its normal habitat.

As Dupuis pointed out, it had to get to that cypress tree from the marsh, perhaps via the upper reaches of Cote Blanche Bay, finned its way into Charenton Drainage and Navigation Canal (also known as Baldwin Canal), hung a left and headed northeast in Bayou Teche, turned right under the Charenton Bridge into the canal heading to the Charenton Locks, then made another left and swam north in the borrow pit canal along the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee. Then it might have gone looking for food in Grand Avoyelles Cove.

No telling when that journey was made but on that day in mid-November the redfish saw a homemade bladed jig with a silver leadhead and silver and light blue skirt retrieved by Dupis, who said the area was “full of shad.” His bladed jig was adorned with a shad-colored Big Bite Bait Cane Thumper.

“It crushed my ‘Chatterbait,’ ” he said, emphasizing the second word.

Following the photo session, Dupuis released the redfish back into its new freshwater home. He’s reconsidering, much too late, of course, that move.

“Looking back, I wish I kept it. That’s good eating. (But) I didn’t have an ice chest,:” he said, noting he was staying out until the afternoon so was uncertain if the livewell might keep it alive.

The redfish was the only fish he caught that day, he said.

Dupuis wondered aloud if there might be more redfish in the cypress tree-lined cove.

“I’m tempted to go back and try shrimp on the bottom to see if there’s any redfish,” he said.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.