Devin
Forum Replies Created
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Great report, thanks for posting! Now it’s time to find more spots like that one.
I’ve also heard that clinking two metal baseball bats underwater spooks the dolphins and pushes them away.
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“Has anyone else observed porpoise activity following them when moving in the same area? I think we are training them for easy food with so many throwbacks now. Thoughts?”
I cannot recall a time when they did not do that. That’s been a thing in Louisiana for as long there have been dolphins and inshore fishing.
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“based on what I read here I’m inferring that this is farther away from the bow fishing guides.”
It is, but they still go to those areas you marked.
“Are these areas fresh enough?”
Yes.
“Will get to spanish lake via the cuts between in and grand lake.”
It gets shallow. But the water ought to be up. You should be okay. IIRC there is a bayou or two that runs between Grand and Spanish you can take. It looks like you’ve got it.
Give me a minute and I can pull up old tracks through there to confirm your yellow route.
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“I ran up Chef Pass to start at the hospital wall.”
Dude, no. Fish there in early spring or fall. I would not be hitting that now. Some guides and/or Chas Champagne might go there and hit it just right, but I assure you that if that happened that that bite is about to fizzle out (if it hasn’t already).
Then those same people are going to move to the outside. Maybe not Chas. He doesn’t need to catch limits to move product, but the guides most certainly do.
I recommend going to the outside. The rigs in Lake Borgne are where you begin. I would be looking hard at Mississippi Sound (Isle au Pitre, Half Moon Island, all the artificial reefs around there, etc.), or just trailering to Hopedale and fishing everything from Bay Eloi to Breton Island.
That Alligator Point rig is “meh”. It hasn’t been as good to me as the other rigs out in the middle of the lake. You probably have, at most, 30 days left to hit those anyway. And then you’re gonna be looking at the above mentioned places to find trout.
That and the river is low. The fish are gonna go to the bleeding edge of river water. I hate to say it this early in the summer, but we are starting out the summer with Venice being the king ding-a-ling. So plan redfish or trailer the boat.
And a giant +1 on TOW. You just need to get out there and get your experience. It will come. Just do it.
Great report, thanks for posting!
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“I will say I could not find any bottom structure on my side scan.”
Well, good on you for using the provided GPS coordinates instead of blindly fishing wherever the buoy is. It definitely gets dragged off site by storms and for the longest time was something like a half mile or more off site.
I’d watch folks go to it and fish there. lol
But the reef balls are there. I promise you. Just motor around next time and find them.
“It was fun for my kids to see the cork go down.”
Yes indeed! I’m happy to find a bunch of small white trout or small specks just to let the kids have fun. So, mission accomplished, in my eyes.
Also, I think you’re referring to the Tulane Rig. The shell pad and some rig trash were still there last time I graphed it (which was last year, I think).
Next time, go straight for the other rigs in Lake Borgne then move up into Mississippi Sound. That’s what I would do if I had to fish that area.
Great report, thanks for posting!
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“All the reports from the beach had been underwhelming, and the surf still looked a little messy from what I saw friday afternoon.”
Exact same thing I’ve heard.
“I’ve never thrown back so many 12.98″ trout”
Fascinating. It’s almost like dolphins have rulers and obey the creel limit. lol
“We easily would have had a 2022 limit”
And if we still had that limit then those trout would’ve been 11.98 inches. On the bright side, we have that many more mature fish able to spawn. And the trout fishing has been making a comeback. So that’s good.
Going east to Venice will solve your trout size problems.
“We posted up downcurrent in about 3′ of water, and casted 1/8oz and 1/4 jigheads upcurrent into the cuts, and let the bait drift over the structures working it very slowly.”
Beautiful. The boat positioning, etc. Just beautiful.
Excellent reporting. Glad you adjusted and found some fish.
Now we just need a deterrent for Flipper. I still want to try the aluminum baseball bat idea (clinging two together underwater, not hitting dolphins with it lol….though some days I want to)
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TOTS strikes again!
“My topwater game needs work, so more fish were lost than caught due to poor hookups.”
I wasn’t there, so who knows? But my guess is that you just need to let the fish take it. Don’t move until you feel him on the line, then sweep the rod. You’re not setting the hook like you do flipping. Just let him take the lure. Sometimes they miss and you don’t want to rip it away from them. Let them bite it, let the lure fold over on to their face then sweep the rod. If not, you will only hook them with one treble hook as opposed to all three (or two).
“Getting to add tracks to my graph in a new area of Venice makes me happy.”
THIS
I do think that if it stayed overcast you would’ve been good.
Excellent report. You are on the path to long term success in the most challenging/rewarding place to fish inshore on Louisiana’s coast.
Thank you for posting!
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“Decided a trout wouldn’t stage to feed in that so left.”
Ah, a “I haven’t fished Seabrook or The Jump” clue.
So tie on a heavier jighead or, better yet, a Heavy Drop Shot. A one ounce lead will get you there. lol
With that said, if it was only 8ft of water, that doesn’t give me much confidence. I really like it to be 10ft+ when fishing rocks, with rare exception.
“Stopped at the rock barges but the water was super muddy there.”
Noooooooo!!! Ugh, that sucks!!! I bet they’re there when the water clears up and the wind quits.
“I think my biggest error was not checking geosphere in the days leading up to the trip”
And all you would’ve seen are clouds. There could’ve been a break in them to see the water, but I doubt it (I was checking myself).
Well, it seems like everyone had a tough time. I don’t know how local guides did. I would check Keith Bergeron, Daryl Carpenter and anyone else in the area to see how they did. I bet it was a grind. With all the wind and dirty water fishing over there would have been tough.
Next time that happens, maybe just run north and look for those redfish.
I’m sorry it was a tough trip. On the bright side, you’ve got those tracks now.
Great report, thanks for posting!
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“Pointe A La Hache looked like and to see if it had bait to target redfish.”
As soon as I read that I knew it would be a bust. PLH just hasn’t been great for redfish for a few years now. But good on you for just going and looking anyway. That’s what is gonna keep you ahead of the power curve.
“we left Hopedale Marina at 5:30 headed down the Spoil Canal and out the long rocks to the platform roughly 5 miles out.”
NOW we are cooking with gas!
“There were several boats there and of course they was in the prime spots.”
Those are kinda community holes, but if they were there first thing then there must be a slew of trout there. I’ve fished those rigs a bunch over the years, catching 100+ trout on charters or with friends/family. When I want to fish those rigs, I leave the dock (if I was leaving Hopedale Marina) at 4am, definitely no later than 4:30am.
” Devin mentioned this in my planning post about where they remove the rocks for the dam. I didn’t know that they did this and was thinking no way they picked up every rock. Nonetheless I graphed and found rocks scattered all along.”
Yeah, so I really like for people to figure things out for themselves. I want them to think critically and actually fish instead of waiting for the spoon-feeding.
The gap in the rocks really isn’t a secret, but that there’s still rocks there is something a lot of folks don’t know. So when I read that is what you found there, then I know that you’re paying attention and applying yourself. Bravo. Thank you for that.
And yes, I think that if you want to get on fish, you gotta get closer to Breton Sound/Venice. The fish have a lot of water they can be in. It’s not like 2011-2014 when there was a bunch of fish and a little water for them to be in.
Man, what a report. Excellent work. THIS is Louisiana fishing. Glad to see someone come in here and show us what’s up. Thanks for posting!
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With that said, you can jig anywhere.
Maybe consider jigging somewhere else.
I bring this up because people tend to learn better through positive reinforcement. If you are going to what will amount to a grind, you will not be positively reinforced on what works and what doesn’t.
Sorry, but the best time to fish those bridges has come and gone.
You’re really better off catching some fish. So, if I were you, I would go hit the rigs/reefs in Lake Borgne, Bay Eloi and Breton Sound when the wind allows. Which, unfortunately, does not appear to be on June 5th. You really want the wind to lay down. June 7th and 8th look better.
I understand you probably can’t fish those dates, I’m bringing those up as examples.
Good luck.
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If you just want to grind a jig bite then go to the bridges and jig until you get tennis elbow and your hands are covered in blisters. Jig your heart out.
With that wind, do you think you will want to fish the north or south end of the bridges?
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I think you are 1,000% onto something here.
I will not jinx it by saying it. But I think it’s coming and now is the time to look/prepare.
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Shooter, for the love of all that is holy, please do not use ChatGPT to give fishing advice in here. lol
“Don’t get discouraged by not seeing much on side scan — many of those reefs are low relief and hard to distinguish unless your settings are dialed in.”
I know you didn’t write that! Reef balls are low in relief and hard to distinguish? Your contrast, sensitivity, etc. could be completely blown out and there would be no way you could miss these reefs if they scrolled past on your graph.
These reefs sit FEET over the sea floor. If you don’t see them on any kind of sidescan on the market then it is because you are not hitting them with sonar. See attached pics of crushed concrete and reef balls. Look at the length of those shadows.
If the reefs didn’t provide any relief then why would fish be there?!??!?! “Reef balls are low in relief and hard to distinguish” sounds like something some dumbass computer programmed by a hipster coder in California would say!
“Usually when you’re catching 10-12” trout nonstop under birds this time of year…”
…it’s because that’s all that’s there. Go somewhere else.
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If there was such a thing as magical settings that just worked then the graph would come from the factory set that way.
But they don’t, do they?
Think about it: it’s like a flashlight. The further the flashlight can see into the dark, the further you can see.
When I am hunting for those reefs, I punch out to 300 feet on either side and use a lower frequency to see that far (450khz).
When you see them, drop a waypoint, motor over to them, then use a shorter range and higher frequency to see more detail (if needed/wanted) and figure out where you need to position the boat to get presentations on and around them. I’ll do something like 40-60 feet at MEGA frequencies. 800khz works fine if that’s all you’ve got.
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“How are you going about identifying oyster reefs?”
Sonar helps, too. But GED will zero you in a lot faster. Yes, I get it. GED homework is annoying and time consuming. But nowhere as time consuming as looking at all those PVC poles without knowing where to start.
That and the river is low. Still in the single digits and not forecast to get into the double digits.
It’s not like 2019-2021 when the river was high and all those fish got pushed to the west to Grand Isle. Like it or not, they’re closer to the river.
I guess you can look at how the guides in GI did. If they’re posting limits to social media for 9am then there’s your clue.
I’m sorry it was tough, but this report is still a good one. Knowing where NOT to go is key! Thank you for posting!
