A beach town that keeps coming back
Holly Beach is a small unincorporated community on the Gulf in Cameron Parish, roughly 120 miles east of Houston, on the Creole Nature Trail All-American Road. Its nickname, the Cajun Riviera, still turns up in the Lake Charles tourism bureau's listings. It was never a resort. It was raised camps, trailers, a few bars and seafood shops, and on summer holiday weekends its population climbed into the thousands.
Hurricane Rita in 2005 destroyed every structure in town, and Ike hit again in 2008. When the Associated Press visited in 2009, about a dozen people lived there year round and the nearest groceries were 20 miles north in Hackberry. Families still came for the Fourth of July and Labor Day, camping on the sand and catching flounder, crabs and shrimp. One resident remembered the smell of crabs and shrimp boiling up and down the street. A handful of owners have since rebuilt on tall stilts.
The parish around it is huge and nearly empty. The Census counted 5,617 people in 2020 across more than 1,280 square miles of land, about four people per square mile. Services are thin, so the tourism bureau tells visitors to fill the tank and pack food, water and bug spray before they head south.
How to crab the Creole Nature Trail
Crabbing here is a roadside sport. The trail guide says blue crabs gather around the small bridges over the roadside canals, and it points to the Blue Crab and West Cove recreation areas on Sabine National Wildlife Refuge and to Price Lake Road on Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. The kit is cheap: cotton string, raw chicken or turkey necks, a dip net, a bucket and an ice chest.
Tie on the bait, let it sink to the bottom, and when you feel a tug, raise it slowly and scoop the crab from below. Synthetic line is banned because it never breaks down. Since June 1, 2022 Louisiana has required a license to crab for fun, and Rockefeller Refuge also needs a WMA permit unless your license already covers it. Go early or late on a moving tide, and plan around the full moon, when the guide says crabs run bigger. After a storm, walk the beach at low tide for whelks, angel wings and the odd sea bean.
