[cliffhall]

Devin covered everything well but I’ll reiterate that a big part of fishing that area is riding around and looking for bait. I wouldn’t fish an area for very long if I wasn’t seeing signs of bait. I like to drift the wind blown banks in that area. Trout will usually hold off the banks.

I’ve heard a couple good things about ameda recently so it’s worth really spending time in there.

If the water comes up with that wind then don’t be afraid to peak into some smaller ponds or flats off of the big water. Sometimes it surprises me how skinny those trout are willing to get with incoming tides.

[cliffhall]

Let’s go! Love what yall are doing.

[cliffhall]

That’s good to hear about grass and bait.

I have a duck lease around skippy and pointe fienne. The grass was really thick in there this year so that may be worth checking out as well.

[cliffhall]

Think of the rocks as you would the trestles. Sometimes they are so close to the rocks that you want to throw something weedless right into them and sometimes they could be 50 yards off of them. I can remember a few trips where I caught fish by parking my duck boat right off the rocks and casted a jig behind the boat towards the MRGO.

As a general rule, temperature trends usually dictate whether they are closer or further away from the rocks. If the temps are trending up then I’d throw weedless stuff (slicks work well for this) or suspending jerkbaits ( shadow raps, vision 110, jackal rerrange, 17mr) right up against the rocks. If temps are trending down then maybe start by backing off the rocks 40-50 yards and throwing deeper diving jerkbaits (Berkeley cutter 110s, vision 90, heavy dines, Corkys).

As with most of trout fishing, there are no permanent rules for this and they could completely switch things up on your for no perceivable reason at all.

[cliffhall]

17mr has been really productive on the flats. If the Chalmette flat gets too busy then it’s worth hopping around all of the grass flats from there to proctors.

Don’t discount throwing mid diving jerkbaits on the rocks: Shadowraps, xrap, megabass vision 110, 17mr

Berkeley cutter 90 is a really good fish finding jerk out there

[cliffhall]

Exactly what Boyce said. Southern end moves first/hardest.

The east side poles (dock poles on the furthest eastern shore of Lake P) all the way up to the hospital wall can be worth a try with light tides.

[cliffhall]

Grass COULD equal bait. If there are pogies and mullets up there then I’d be thinking of what path they take from Salvador – Little Lake – Barataria and how to intersect them for the early spring topwater season.

[cliffhall]

I feel like I often learn a lot more from the butt whoopins than I do when they are fired up and will hit anything. It forces you to think and refine your process.

I also like to try new things, which forces you get comfortable with failure. I don’t know any fishermen, even those who I would consider much better than me, who don’t have bad trips. Being a speckled trout nerd is a humbling experience lol

[cliffhall]

That’s good to know. I heard there were some trout deep deep in hopedale before the all time low water so I was wondering where to intercept them. Ameda makes sense. Love that area for late winter/early spring

[cliffhall]

First split was great then it fell off a cliff. Low water kept a lot of people out the marsh for a few weekends in January.

Do you fish the hopedale side of terre aux boeufs at all?

[cliffhall]

That makes a lot of sense to me. I guess there is good and bad to everything including a high river.

[cliffhall]

You are not alone. Unfortunately the Bayou b area is a shell of what it was even 6-7 years ago but it’s still a worthy place to look for big fish.

[cliffhall]

I still owe you a trip out to Bienvenue. Might finally break out the fishing boat this weekend so I will let you know if its worth meeting up down there in the next couple of weeks.

[cliffhall]

I’ve played around quite a bit with what rules and area would make a proper BIG trout tournament. I think the best way to truly test each anglers skills would be to do a 3 day tournament in an area no one is familiar with. 3 days could help eliminate the luck factor and a new area would ensure no one could substitute time in an area/fishing network for big trout knowledge.

Having said that, we’ve probably prioritized convenience and having a good spot to do the post tournament stuff for the RO20 one. I’ve had a relatively decent amount of people ask me to do more tournaments so maybe I could do some just focused on big trout in the future.

[cliffhall]

This will be us arguing until 2:30 at the next LAFB Venice trip