[Devin]

***FIRST 15 TROUT PT 1***

I decided to take pics of the port side of each trout just to prove that I did catch them. I know that yall will take my word for it, but I’m posting this to show the process I teach in 101 really does work.

This is not a standard I plan on doing, or expect anyone else to do. It’s just that I wasn’t keeping fish and wouldn’t have a dock shot to show for my effort.

Since there’s a ten pic limit on each post/comment, I am putting the first 10 here.

+5 More Photos

[Devin]

***EXECUTION***

Well, I got off to a bad start. The night before while pulling the Cajun Anchor up (I’ll post a separate report for that) I pulled my back. I wasn’t even straining, I just bent over to pick the thing up and felt a *pop* in my lower back. It hurt really bad and was swelling before I even got home.

Then, for whatever reason, I must’ve spaced setting my alarm, because I set it for 0430 instead of 0330.

So I woke up, went “F*CK!” then went “F*CK!” again when my back protested getting out of bed. I could hardly move without lightning pain.

“Oh well, I’ll be a pussy some other day” I thought as I checked to ensure the conditions were still good. Yup, they were. Gotta go. So I departed the house with enough ibuprofen to kill a horse. Also loaded up on nicotine and caffeine to get me through the day.

But my troubles weren’t over, because I looked at the clock and saw I lost an hour of time. Nor did I account for the fog and travel time, so I didn’t get in the water at Sweetwater Marina until 6:30am. Man, was I stressing.

So, I run to Tanasia and fish that. I caught a keeper speck drifting with a cork and about 15 throwbacks and 1 slot red. I really beat up that body of water. I didn’t see much in the way of bait (pogies, potbelly minnows, mullet, whatever) but I did see some and I saw some on the graph. But the trout just were not there.

At least I got the skunk out of the box. Because I fished my ass off after that. There are no words that can succinctly describe the painful grind that follow from:

• Tanasia
• to Lake John
• to Four Horse
• to Lake Robin
• to Bay La Fourche
• to Grand Point Lagoon….

….across NINETEEN (19) different fishing spots.

These spots were a mixed bag of spots that are worth trying every year they should turn on, or spots that matched the conditions and other stuff that was completely new and I just wanted to explore/try out.

I fished deep holes, points, grass flat, eroded islands and oyster beds

At this point in time it was 11:15am. The tide had been falling out all morning, absolutely ripping out along the Twin Pipeline, and in some places further south it was starting to come in, but closer to the river it was falling out. Weird.

I’ll never fully understand the marsh. Anyway.

When I got to Grand Point Lagoon I saw the water was pretty clean and green. Which was odd because in a part of Robin it was garbage, like someone had been dredging there.

I wasn’t sure about fishing PLH because @Boyce had said the water was dirty there, but given what I saw in Grand Point, I felt better and pushed on.

Then at Spot #20 I found them. 14 casts later I had a limit of speckled trout. Yeah, it was like that. Caught them on a cork with a Boom Boom Shrimp, but I think anything would’ve worked. It was broad daylight, bright skies, tide still falling out and they were just there. The graph was also lit up with a rough bottom, bait and fish shadows. I do think that these fish were biting all morning and I got there late.

Yes, there was dead hyacinth everywhere. That’s fine. A cork snags less on those things.

After I caught 15, I went for the stretch goal and caught another ten. Then the tide quit. So did the trout. I cast around for another 30 minutes but got nothing. While I caught those 10 I tried throwing a topwater and got no interest. A suspending bait caught nothing. An 1/8 oz jig worked, but it snagged more often whereas the cork snagged no dead plants.

That and they just wanted the cork. I could’ve caught more if I wasn’t screwing around with the hard baits. It broke my heart that they wouldn’t hit on top. lol

Anyway, so I pressed north to where I thought the water would be coming in and began working to where I thought I could get onto a decent evening topwater bite and replicate what @cliffhall did the day before.

I didn’t catch anymore fish at the other 9 spots that I fished. I really fished my ass off!!!

I was way up north, staring at the backside of Delacroix and just didn’t see any bait at the surface or on the graph. I drifted hundreds of yards and cast cast cast but just couldn’t get anything to materialize. That and the water wasn’t moving.

So I made the decision at 4pm to run all the way back across the map AT WARP 9 to where I thought they could be on an incoming tide down by the river and caught another fourteen (14). I tried and tried to get them to take a topwater but they wouldn’t even follow it to the boat. Then, as soon as the cork got out there I got bit again. What the heck?!

As soon as the sun got below the horizon the bite quit. I swear, I will never understand these fish.

Goals 1 thru 3 were accomplished, I found the needle! But I shall continue to endure the shade of Cliff Hall’s shadow. We live amongst a giant, friends.

So I ran back in the dark to Sweetwater Marina, recovering the boat a full 12 hours after I had launched. I thought I overheard Captain Jack say he caught 60 specks, as he was recovering his boat the same time I was.

I ended the day having 800mg of caffeine, umpteen bottles of water, 15 9mg Alp pouches, 1600mg ibuprofen, run 112 miles, fishing 30 spots, catching 39 keeper speckled trout, ~20 throwbacks and 1 slot redfish.

All fish released to fight another day.

Not a bad day for a last fishing trip in the Tracker.

So, there you guys go, stop screwing around and find some damn fish already!!

+5 More Photos

[Devin]

***PLANNING***

So I uploaded tracks to my Humminbird from previous years (2018-2025) and added some additional routes so I could easily navigate and criss-cross the entire Reggio – Delacroix – PLH area. I picked out 26 fishing spots based on the conditions and based on the pattern I was 99% sure I would find, speckled trout feeding shallow in 18 inches to 3 feet of water. These are areas I would drift or use a cajun anchor. Remember: no trolling motor! The plan was to cork those spots and throw a topwater when light conditions allowed (morning and evening).

A word on the number of spots I picked out: experience has shown me that I typically find fish from scratch in about 13 spots. But given Most Water, Least Fish, I picked out way more and figured I’d fish more stuff worth checking out that just looked “good”.

Anyway, I did pick out some places that were deep and would graph/jig those.

I had all day to fish. No obligations. I planned to launch with a topped off gas tank and use every drop.

Several cork rods were tied up. Had my topwater rod, a backup topwater rod, a suspending bait rigged up and a litany of jigging rids with various weights tied on. All I had to do was pick up whatever weight I needed and throw that. No HDS rigs, though I probably should have had that rigged up..

At Bay Gardene, the wind was predicted to blow out of the southeast and east fairly calm in the morning, 7-9 mph, then increase throughout the day to 9-14 mph in the evening.

Tide was falling first thing in the morning with 1.6ft range with low tide at 9:45am, then coming in all day. Water levels were normal, maybe a little higher. I figured the east wind would help the water turn around and rise pretty quickly.

The idea was to start out in Tanasia then work south from there. Then, later in the day once the tide had turned around, beat feet to Reggio and fish the incoming tide there. Ultimately I would do what I saw on the water. Whatever the fish told me, whatever I saw, I would respond to and fish accordingly.

I would use my graph in shallow and deep water to look for bait, as per @cliffhall report. Sometimes we see bait on the surface, but sometimes they’re below the surface and don’t easily present themselves. Examples are croaker, gobies and pinfish in deep holes, but even in shallow water this can be the case.

• Water temp in the 60s (higher or lower depending where you’re looking)
• River at 3.5ft

I would free navigate from my tracks in Reggio while keeping this hazard in mind. I’d do the same in Delacroix but absolutely not FAFO in PLH.

The plan was to launch from Sweetwater marina, pull into a spot, observe the graph, get my presentations and GTFO. Go go go. If I see bait, get bites, I’ll give the spot some more effort. Otherwise, if it’s crap, then I’m out.

If fish are there, then they are there and you will get bit immediately!!! It’s not rocket science!!!

[Devin]

I came here to post a report for yesterday and found this one loaded ready to rock and roll in the website’s memory. So I just posted it. Shows a big difference between this year with a low river and last year with a high one.

Typing up that other report now.

[Devin]

And man, you are not gonna like my report. LOL I’ll post it tomorrow.

[Devin]

Man, nice trout!

[Devin]

Did you not have GED tracks uploaded to your GPS for the route I gave you and @Geremy ?

That red route is good, but so is the green. I was there today.

[Devin]

Dammit Cliff, you beat me to it.

Son uva gun.

I was hoping to build off @Boyce recent report to get after them.

Well, I’ll try anyway.

Lots to comment on here, but I gotta rack out. Long day. I’ll come back.

[Devin]

Outstanding. Can’t wait to listen.

[Devin]

The fish are definitely presenting a riddle right now. Based off your report, I’m just gonna take my kids back to where I caught ’em last time I went out, in the evening (tonight). It will be what it will be.

I think the biggest factor this spring is that the fish have so many places they can be. They may have been in the river this whole time, or went back to it. Who knows? But there’s fewer fish and no dirty water to cancel out places they could be.

I cannot investigate the river at this point in time. I can only drift and anchor in the marsh.

Either way, you did a lot of “learning where they ain’t” and for that I thank you. This is a valuable report and maybe tomorrow morning I can get after them. No kids. Just one last effort to figure them out before I gotta strip Gnartooth apart and rebuild her.

Hopefully @Jason_B saw this and factored it in to his planning.

[Devin]

Sorry to hear about the hub, but it happens. When was the last time you packed the hubs? I take mine apart during the two slowest times of year, February and August, clean them, repack with grease, re-assemble.

Then after that, every few trips I’ll inspect remove the dust caps and pump a few shots of grease in there. I used to be crazy about getting the fancy Corrosion-X grease, but now I just use whatever Autozone has. It’s cheaper and I don’t see a difference in the grease that beats consistent maintenance.

I also carry a spare hub. And the “next” boat trailer will have one mounted on it with the spare tire.

You live and learn.

[Devin]

You might want to skip Wreck Bay. We ought to have a more detailed report later.

[Devin]

What issues exactly? I’d love to know.

[Devin]

I believe that you are currently finding out. lol

[Devin]

ha ha ha ha ha ha

Well, whatever the difference is, I have no idea. I am guessing your work laptop probably has an extended service plan? I’ve heard of companies doing that because they don’t want to replace their computers just to have a new OS that’s not any better (IMO).