[Devin]

I love that y’all just had fun with the spade fish instead of stressing out over another species. Like, just have fun. Good stuff.

Also, love that y’all punched out to the rigs. Taking advantage of the conditions.

All I can say is “great report, thanks for posting”. I definitely have the itch to get out there. lol

The river has cleaned up and is continuing to do so. It’s really gonna be a badass fall down there.

[Devin]

Well, you’re already winning because you took time to post a plan. This is key because there are things that you would’ve learned the hard way and other things that you would’ve had no idea about if we weren’t here to tell you.

So now you know. Good things. Now, let me give you some thoughts on your plan and what I would do instead.

*** Feedback On Your Planning ***

You have a thoughtful plan and are accounting for most of the conditions. I really love how you tell us what tackle you’re going to use. Very key.

A minor detail that I see being left out here are water levels. Is the water unusually higher or lower inside Lake P? That will affect how water moves on the day of your trip regardless of what the tide is mathematically predicted to do. Spoiler alert: water levels are even. You’re good.

Next thing, if you’re going to fish a neap tide, why are you fishing spots where water doesn’t move first?

If I were fishing a neap tide tomorrow, I’d be looking hard at Seabrook, L&N bridge, Chef Pass and the south shore of the Trestles or Hwy 11. Not spots like Spot 1, Spot 2, Spot 3.

*** IMO Too Early for Lake P ***

But I think you’re planning for the wrong area. In my opinion, I think fishing the bridges in Lake Pontchartrain is not a good idea. Not yet. It’s just too early. The grass beds of Lake Pontchartrain can be good, but I think it’s too early by a week or two.

Also, the tide prediction is crap. It’s a neap tide.

Now, quick sidebar: if it weren’t for the garbage tide, I’d tell you to go to Martello Castle and fish it when the tide is absolutely ripping out. But it’s not.

And this is a problem for your original plan or any modification to it, because a lot of these places are otherwise good to fish under a better tide, but you won’t know because the tide will be crap when you’re casting a line. You won’t be very confident fishing those spots again in the future because you fished them at their worst. Nor will you be learning anything more useful than what I can already tell you right now: fishing Lake Pontchartrain this early in the fall season on a neap tide is a useless grind and exercise in futility.

There you go. I just saved your fishing trip. Take it from the guy who does this for a living and beat the video game. Or, go ahead and do it. You’ll find some throwbacks, look at slack water and maybe luck out with a couple slot redfish. Whoopty doo.

*** But If You Absolutely Must Fish Lake Pontchartrain ***

Then I would concentrate on grass beds. Get on GED and identify grass beds on the south and north shores of Lake Pontchartrain. They are painfully obvious, or reference the Grass Mats folder in the IF101 Student .KML

Fish a light double rig (1/8 oz jigheads) or Mirridone (17MR) suspending bait over the top of them. Topwater is great first thing in the morning or if it’s hard overcast.

You can do that and that will probably be your best shot at speckled trout in Lake Pontchartrain. You’ll get to learn what the grass looks like in person and where it is actually located for when more speckled trout move in.

But, IMO, it’s nothing so great that it’s worth committing that much time and energy to. That’s why I have this next suggestion:

*** Or Maybe Just Consider This Wild Idea ***

So where is the water definitely still moving? This is the beauty of fishing the River, because she’s always moving. So even when the tide is slacked out, there’s still moving water in the river and one reason why I am encouraging you to take a ride and begin learning that.

In comparison, Lake Pontchartrain sucks. It’s not even close.

When fall fully kicks off, you will want to be fishing Pointe a la Hache on down to Venice. Screw Lake Catherine, Borgne, Pontchartrain, etc.

If you’ve never launched out of Venice or Empire or whatever, then this is your chance. Go explore on a day the tide sucks and then fish Lake P when the tide is better. This way you can get your GPS tracks and put in your TOW for a fishery that is far more rewarding than Lake Pontchartrain.

[Devin]

#noguideneeded

[Devin]

Man, that’s too bad because Lake Lery tends to be on this time of year, but I guess it’s gets hammered pretty good by all the guides and what not. Either way, great report, thanks for posting!

[Devin]

Sorry, just saw this.

Yeah, I think that’s a worthy plan. The only one worthier is hitting Venice now that the river is down.

But I think the MRGO could have some stragglers in it. Good luck out there!

[Devin]

I’m dying to know how SW Pass went for Team Just The Tip.

Like, if they ended up by you that quick then there’s a lot of territory they either didn’t cover or they covered like a friggin boss. It’s hard to tell.

[Devin]

Great post. Thank you so much for posting it. When members actually take time to raise concerns/questions they can be addressed here to really fill out the amount of useful content in this forum. It really is that easy.

Yeah, so when you export from your Lowrance/Simrad and convert that .usr file to .kml, you will end up with a few extra folders. One is for your actual waypoints, another is for your tracks. Inside the folder for your tracks you’ll have your actual trail and then a folder called “Points” that populates that trail with waypoints. You don’t need the data in the “Points” folder.

If you look at the attached pictures, you’ll see waypoints “7” and “8”, which are just fishing spots I have picked out. Then you’ll see the blue trail, or the breadcrumb tracks from that day of fishing. Look closer and see all the dots along it. One of them has been selected, “Trail 2-1238”. That’s one of the waypoints in the Points folder. It is unnecessary.

So what you should do when you offload your GPS data from your Lowrance is pull out the “Path” track for whichever day of fishing, rename it to the date of your fishing trip and store it in your My Places folder (or wherever).

[Devin]

Naturally, I would go for figuring out the rest of the speckled trout and limiting out on them then rolling out for snapper, TWD or whatever. That’s just me.

But it’s 8am and you guys are for sure already out there doing the dang thing. Good luck.

Also, goes without saying, this report and what you guys did absolutely kicks ass. That and the weather cooperated so you guys definitely lucked out. It was just meant to happen.

We’ll have to plan a fall trip and hopefully the planets align again.

[Devin]

The Wall needs to be photoshopped into the background of all these pics.

And tell me this trip wasn’t better than a Wall trip. lol

[Devin]

“hold up, and 1 cast later we were tripled up on 19″ trout.”

#noguideneeded

“and he was hooking up regularly”

#noguideneeded

“I flipped a 31″ cobia over the gunwale(my first Louisiana cobia)”

#noguideneeded

“and in the absence of a gaff he BOAT FLIPPED IT IN LIKE A G”

#noguideneeded

“ended up picking up a MASSIVE 19″ white trout”

#noguideneeded lol

[Devin]

I removed that video from YouTube ages ago because no one watched it. The only thing worse than a sight fishing video is a dock light video. It’s dark, people can’t see what’s happening and most people largely used it just to see which docks to fish.

But, we do have this forum now, and if you have any specific questions about what to do, tackle, where to go, etc. we are more than happy to help out. Well, I am. Everyone else is in Venice doing the work of the gods.

[Devin]

I saw some fly over Pearl River this morning. Heading south.

[Devin]

Oh there’s so much to talk about here. Did you guys fish the mouth of Joseph Bayou, specifically with an HDS?

“@DrillNFill did and said it was a struggle.”

Man, I hate hearing that. I’m assuming he got into the shallow stuff by the sunk rocks. I’m sure we’ll hear more. I hope so lol

“but @ShooterMcGrabbin was so confident in his plan at the marina it got me thinking too much”

You let that autist temu viking get in your head!!! lol Just kidding.

I have no idea why I care so much, I’m not gonna get out there anytime soon lol

But y’all did get out there and wreck one helluva box, and during what I think is a tougher time of the year. Give it 30 days and it will be a different game. And it will all be happening down there first.

Man, and y’all did this on a lark. Imagine if you were out there regularly. I’d be happy with what you guys did. It’s laying the groundwork for what’s to come.

[Devin]

Sorry I didn’t see this sooner.

Well, for future reference, I would try fishing Lake Catherine and Lake Pontchartrain’s dock lights. The inner harbor area of Olimpic Beach is good. The lights at the Trestles bridge are worth fishing, too.

If running that much in the dark bothers you (and it absolutely should) then I recommend getting your GPS tracks during the day and then running those at night. That way you’re crystal clear there are no pilings or something else to ruin your day.

I would have small lures like these tied on ready to go.

[Devin]

That is fascinating.

But I’m sure you’re not the only person to read that article.

So, it’s a case of trying to find them somewhere else or that’s just where they are at.

If I were you, I’d figure out why fish are there. What’s bringing them to those docks? You know how many docks are elsewhere in Louisiana and big trout are never on them?

Also, what’s the salinity there? I find it hard to believe that it’d be high enough for summer trout, but I could be dead wrong (which I’m totally fine with, just part of learning).