Devin
Forum Replies Created
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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.
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Also, I would look hard at fishing in the lee of Comfort Island. It’s probably “on” right now, as it usually turns on when the Long Rocks do. You are gonna take an ass whuppin there, but nowhere as bad as I would in my tin 19′ boat, and I would try it if I were fishing there in those conditions.
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“What conditions would turn you away from going out for an afternoon trip?”
Depends on the time of year.
I wouldn’t dream of it when it’s hot as balls out in July. Not for speckled trout, probably not for redfish. Everything definitely bites better first thing in the morning when it’s hot.
Right now it’s not hot.
During fall I would shoot for when the falling tide is falling the hardest to maximize the white shrimp pattern.
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That’s a *strong* SE wind that’s predicted! I wouldn’t try fishing spots that are wide open to it like 1, and even 5 and 6. I’d try to fish stuff that’s protected from the wind like 4, 7 and 3.
Fortunately, you’re in a good boat to handle crossing chop that wind will make, but it’d be a royal PITA to fish in it, even with a big glass boat.
Your call on the MRGO being choppy is correct. I wouldn’t bother with it, not unless you tried fishing spots protected from the wind on the north side of the MRGO.
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“and was plagued with Spanish Mack’s!”
They are definitely making a comeback. They practically disappeared during The Freshening but now they’re back in a full force I don’t remember seeing before the river came up.
I’m glad to hear the Long Rocks produced. It just should this time of year through June, even parts of July.
Great report, thanks for posting!
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LAFB Elite Community is really firing all eight cylinders this week. All great advice here.
I’ll fish whatever shoreline is sitting in the lee of the land. I’ll also push into the duck ponds that were created by Katrina. Yes, it’s shallow as all get out, but it can be real good for redfish, especially sight fishing.
It’d be great for the grass to grow back like it was in 2015 before they started dredging. The bass and redfish action back there was even better back then, believe it or not. lol
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You’re the man, great report, thanks for posting.
Some trout lived to see another day, but not for long.
They can swim, but they cannot hide from the King of Lafitte. lol
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You’re also gonna want to look hard at Elmer’s Isle.
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“ran the Lagoon Brady route to the MRGO because I figured the spoil canal would be too shallow”
Good call. That and I feel there could be more birds working in the MRGO that you are liable to come across, more so than the Spoil.
If I could make a tackle recommendation: next time you hit the Long Rocks you really ought to try an 1/8 oz jighead cast right up against the rocks. That can make all the difference in the world. Like what you see in the pic below.
Pac Man’ing it has worked best for me, but gets tough when there are a lot of boats. An advantage you have is that you’re anonymous. If I got in there to slug it out there would be people wanting to talk (I can’t hear over the wind, and hate yelling over it) or people cussing me because they think that since I’m within 100 yards that I’m messing up their fishing. *sigh*
After that, did you see rafting mullet? Any diving birds?
Something tells me the Long Rocks aren’t over yet. It’s probably gonna turn on more if the mullet/shrimp show up.
Great report, thanks for posting!
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“I accomplished all three so that to me is a successful trip”
I agree. Absolutely. Way to knock it out the ball park!
“I am absolutely certain I could have fished on to a limit but I wanted to have the rest of the day to relax and cook fish.”
As I get older, that’s how I feel about it.
Great report, thanks for posting. Seeing the fish this far “inside” in April is promising that The Saltening is doing its thing.
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“I was on it constantly for about 7 hours and finished the day with 81% left on the battery.”
WOW
Man, you just sold me.
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The grip of LAFB Elite shall tighten around the throat of these trout hiding in the Barataria Basin and drag them into the light where they shall be seen.
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The water was ridiculously pretty. Everything was just right. Lots of bait.
I just couldn’t find the trout. They’re somewhere out there. At least now I know where not to go.
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“– Keep learning conditions and fish them. Don’t chase YouTuber around just because he’s a pro. There’s more than meets the eye.”
Yeah, for all we know he caught them somewhere besides the Trestles. I’ve been doing this inshore fishing thing for a minute and I wouldn’t even dream of chasing Chas. lol I’d have a better chance of finding Bigfoot that finding where he’s fishing. Dude is a ghost. lol
For me, personally, I’ve found that unplugging from what everyone else is doing and focusing on my own thing keeps me from being distracted. One time that allowed me to find fish that he wasn’t on. It was like I won the lottery or something. lol
After that, Chas’s greatest weakness if that he doesn’t fish anywhere else. He will stay in Lake P long after the bite is gone, and won’t trailer to Venice when the bite is much better there. You have that option. I strongly suggest that next time you get a full day to fish you go camp out at the Rock Dam. The north side most accessible, but if you can drag your kayak to the south side then that could be good, too. I’m sure that would be an amount of exercise, I’m not sure if you’ve been eating your Wheaties or not. lol
It just seems that during April every year some intrepid kayaker yanks a 27″ trout off the Rock Dam. For reference, I haven’t caught a trout that long since 2012. Right now, that’s a fish of a lifetime and you have a shot at it. Just bring refreshments, it’s gonna be a long day.
“– LAFB Elite is a bargain.”
You’re too kind!
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Okay, that clears things up. Thank you for that.
“I lost ZERO lures and was only snagged a handful of times.”
It sounds like you weren’t getting to the bottom as often as you could have. You’re gonna feed that bridge with lead. On a long day of fishing the Trestles I’ll probably get snagged a few dozen times and lose a half dozen to a dozen jigheads. That’s why I use the cheap jigheads from Gus’s Tackle and not the expensive Deathgrip jigheads. That cost adds up.
“Thing #7: Yeah, I’m confused then on the reason the water was moving WEST to EAST.”
I don’t recall what the wind did in the days leading up to your day of fishing, but it sounds like a case of uneven water levels.
Think of a 5 gallon bucket full of water sitting in shallow water that’s only a few inches deep. If you drilled two 1/4 inch holes in the bottom of it, water will leak out because it’s higher than the surrounding water. If that bucket were in water as deep as it is, it would not drain. Furthermore, if it were in water deeper than itself, it would fill and sink.
Lake Pontchartrain is that bucket, and those two holes are Chef and Rigolets Passes. I know that when you see them in person they are huge, but they are tiny compared to the rest of the Lake Pontchartrain. It’s like breathing through two straws.
So I am guessing that Lake Pontchartrain had more water in it than what was in Lake Borgne and beyond. As a result, it drained out, even when the tide was predicted to rise.
We see the same effect with flood walls like the Great Wall of Chalmette.
It wasn’t the wind moving that water, it was uneven water levels.
It’s kind of a mind fck, but that’s the best way I can describe it.
“And when I spotlocked, my kayak pointed into the wind in a northwest direction, toward the tracks.”
It’s possible to have the wind be the dominant force acting on your kayak, being stronger than the tide itself. So you can have your craft oriented against the tide if the wind is strong enough. But this does not affect the fish, which are underwater.
Conversely, it’s possible to have water moving so strongly that it orients the bow away from the wind. It just depends on which force is stronger. But the strongest force acting on your craft is not necessarily the strongest force acting on the fish/lure.
I hope that makes sense.
