-
This morning I just wanted to get the above word out in case folks didn’t get in the water yet and didn’t want to wait all day. Here’s my actual report:
So I wanted to catch a limit of keeper specks and have my kids reel in some fish and having been on the day before (see my 4-25-25 report) I figured I’d whack ’em early. Yeah right.
Anyway, we left the house later than I planned on. I had originally planned to launch from the south shore, like Bonnabel Boat Launch, but figured that if the weather man screwed up the light forecast NW wind that we’d get beat up. So at the last minute I decided to launch from the north shore, figuring I could stay protected and run south/west if I needed to IF the wind did indeed lay down.
Well, for whatever reason, my brain wasn’t working and I thought it’d be okay to launch at The Pointe. I needed to have ice later in the day and a place to clean 30+ fish (I still had the previous day’s fish in a cooler packed in ice in the back of the truck), but when I got there I was like “ain’t no way”.
There was a long line of women, teenagers and pale guys taking forever, so I immediately turned around and headed to the Super Secret Launch where there are no amenities but also no people because of that. And it’s “Super Secret”, right? Look, if I pulled up and saw a bunch of dudes launching that looked like hammered bacon then I would have waited, but just see the below pic. It would have been an hour until we got in the water! And we were already running “late”. So, no thanks, maybe next time.
Anyway, the water wasn’t glass calm and it didn’t appear to be moving much, either. So launching protected was a good choice. But without the water screaming in like it was more or less predicted to, I just wasn’t confident about the trout bite. The bright skies didn’t help, either. The water color/clarity was green and doable.
So I got to work anyway and found that the water was indeed barely coming in at The Trestles. So was the rest of Louisiana. It was clear that the bite was there, but there were throwbacks, the fish were very finicky and that in order to catch them you had to keep moving, dissecting each piling with a jig. The west side of the Trestles had more boats than the east, and it was the west side I wanted to be on.
That’s fine, but there were enough boats out there that I couldn’t really do this. I even tried ducking in and out to either side of the bridge. So after ten or so throwbacks and 8 keepers I took off to fish two strategies: #1 Fish Things That Don’t Stick Out Above The Water and #2 Fish Things That Stick Out Above The Water But Are Not A Bridge.
The idea was that I could come back later and the tide would be moving more and the crowd would have given up and headed in. Plus the wind appeared to be laying down.
The first two spots for Strategy #1 were a bust. Lots of bait, no visible water movement, and zero fish. Water was good looking at one spot, pea soup at the next.
Then I went on Strategy #2 which proved to be not as productive as yesterday. I caught 5 more keeper trout, another 10 or so throwbacks, 3 throwback reds and 3 keeper reds. So not a goose egg, but not what I hoped either. Water clarity was great. The midge flies were awful. They were swarming us very badly and I’m thankful they don’t bite.
I also lost a lot of fish. They were just biting so finicky. It was a neap tide bite. My guess is that the SE wind we had piled up water in the lake and it was still wanting to fall out, but the incoming tide cancelled it out and we got little to no water movement. It’s been awhile since I lost that many keepers and it was beginning to get under my skin. LOL I mean like, they would come off on the boat flip, *thud* into the side of the bite then swim away laughing. I was so pissed. lol
By now it was past noon, very hot and the boys were sleeping in the boat. LOL
So I headed back to The Trestles and got there for 1:30pm, and immediately started putting trout in the boat. Lots of throwbacks, but the keepers were there. So was the Greater New Orleans area, but I was able to find a stretch where I could jig the west side in peace. It didn’t take long for #14 and #15 to hit the deck. The incoming tide was barely noticeable. The only way you could detect it was by looking at the boats on anchor.
By 1:52pm I had caught 19 keeper speckled trout, 3 keepers reds, who knows how many throwback trout and three throwback reds. I should’ve just stayed at the Trestles, I would’ve finished up much earlier. Now one of my kids is sunburned a little and I am debating going tomorrow. lol
I am grateful for the day on the water and to have caught fish. I just got done cleaning and vacuum packing 60 trout fillets, so I am happy for that.
3/8oz jighead and whatever color (mostly Ultraviolet) did the damage today.
If I were to go tomorrow, I’d hit Mississippi Sound.
Also had four bananas in the boat, first time I’ve done that in my life. lol That was playing with my nerves all day. LOL
