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Thank you so much for taking time to post a report. I’m more than happy to help figure out what could have gone better so you will catch more fish on your next time out. I know it can be tough to ask for help, so I appreciate you. I definitely see some obvious things that can be tweaked. I’m gonna hit you with a lot of feedback. I hope you’re ready to read.
First, I looked at the water levels for Shell Beach and Bay Gardene and they weren’t super high, but not bottomed out, either. You had plenty of water to get around the shallow spot at Brady Lagoon, etc. so that’s good.
The very next thing that needs work is your wind call. See here:
“We were getting beat up pretty good not to mention soaked.”
That should not have happened. In almost any wind it’s reasonable to assume that you can fish spots and navigate to them in the lee of the land.
I am being as respectful and ginger about this as I possibly can: You have got to get your wind calls right and failing to do so really screwed your trip. Look at the attached pic and see how the MRGO is oriented NW to SE. Then see the SE wind blowing up it (represented by the wind particles). Navigating a boat down the MRGO in a 20 knot SE wind is the worst way you can possibly go about it. The MRGO is basically a bowling lane, that 20 knot wind the bowling ball and your boat the bowling pin.
What I would have done different is fish the north side of the Rock Dam, where it would have been calm, or visit the marsh on the east side of the MRGO (south of the Dam) via the green route like what you see in the attached picture below. That route keeps me out of that SE wind, and I can fish some of the shoreline once I get there, though I would stay out of the MRGO due to the wind.
Or even all that marsh between Brady Lagoon and Bayou Pisana would have been worth trying since you would have basically been stuck with that. You may as well fish there because you can’t access the MRGO in a friggin’ 20 knot SE wind.
“but the water was blowing out”
What do you mean when you say that? There’s no way the tide was falling yesterday while you were out there. It was definitely ripping in with the rising tide combined with the 20 knot SE wind.
“Switched over to a green sparkle beetle, nothing.”
If the bait that worked on the last few trips isn’t getting bit at all, switching colors/baits isn’t going to help.
“Decided to run into the marsh…”
Praise the Lord, this was a good move. Get out of that obnoxious wind.
“…and fish a few spots on the way back to the pass…”
What pass?
“…There were shrimp jumping everywhere and baitfish popping birds diving the area looked perfect but no trout.”
WHAT PASS?!?!?!?! Arggghhhh lol jk but seriously
I’m assuming you mean the mouth of Bayou Pisana. That sounds really good. Whatever it is you’ve got going on there, be ready to fish it again and downstream of it as the brown shrimp make their way out of the marsh. FWIW, I’ve fished there a bunch over the years and never really found trout stacked up their. That could change. I could tell you more about this spot you found if I knew where it was. Email me if you need to.
“The only positive thing I learned from this trip is that I now know how to use a flipper, after watching Devin’s video, it worked!”
If it makes you feel better, I got lots of practice in Fourchon, too.
Real quick, I’d like to clear something up: So, when you say you left for the south side of “the wall” you really mean the Rock Dam? Just to be clear, because further up the MRGO to the northwest is the Great Wall of Chalmette, and it can be easy to confuse the two.
So I am assuming you went south of the Rock Dam to fish the coves that I mentioned in another posts. Can you confirm that for me?
“By this time it was around 11:30 so I decided to lick my wounds and put the boat on the trailer.”
Good call. The fish won the battle but not the war.
“the biologist said of all the people he talked to zero was the number no one was catching”
It was definitely a tough day with that kind of wind, but give me a minute and I’ll share what I would have done in that exact same area to catch fish.
“since every time I plan a trip the spots look great on GED”
Doing that kind of planning is good, but the icing on the cake is sharing that plan here. If you did then every other swinging dick in this forum would’ve looked at that plan and said “hell no”. Your last post was something about launching from Bayou Lacombe, not a word about the south side of the Rock Dam.
I know it’s kinda weird posting your route and fishing spots, but that really is a great way to learn picking out good fishing spots faster. I wouldn’t post that to Facebook, but here you’re good. Otherwise, I’m not 100% clear on where you went. I could offer further feedback if I did.
