Devin
Forum Replies Created
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That is amazing. What in the hell are they doing all the way out there still? LOL Hey man, if they’re there, then they’re there. Most water, least fish.
Sounds like an epic trip! Great report, thanks for posting!
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It ought to be good. Tide looks great. Martello will be bumpy, Doulut’s should be about perfect. The east side of Lake Borgne ought to be good, too.
East side of Lake P could be covered in birds.
Venice will be slam-jam-home-run friggin amazing.
I’m 99% positive I’m not fishing.
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I’m pretty sure I found it via GPS tracks from 2016:
30° 3.671’N 89° 38.819’W
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A picture for your convenience.
In return, I want fishing reports. 😀
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I have no idea how I didn’t see this, but welcome to the forum!
Well, triple tail in Mississippi Sound and Biloxi Marsh are pretty straight forward. I wrote about it some here and shot a video of it here.
But those fish get raked over pretty often and you will find mostly throwbacks.
The king ding-a-ling of TT fishing is Venice! I’m sure you knew that already. East Bay is where you want to go, but anywhere north of Venice in Breton Sound is also worth your time, as close as Battledore Reef or as far as Central Rig.
But East Bay is where it’s at and navigating there is tricky. I understand folks are taking Joseph Bayou to get into there, but that’s all I recall off the top of my head. So, do this: knock out 101 so you’re gravy on what to look for and, when you come to fish, let us know and which route you want to take and maybe we can vet it for you.
Tight lines, and thanks for saying hi!
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Oh, and one more thing: any soft plastic would work for Texas rigging, but I like Missile Baits D-Bomb like in this video.
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“I’m also newer to planning for these trips, so still learning a ton!”
Thank you so much for posting this!
“But I’m guessing this is an indication of less river water and more gulf water.”
There’s a stiff southeast wind that’s been blowing. Saltier water has been blown in, it will leave once it stops blowing and the water levels out.
“Am I correct that this would be a good indication of clearer water?”
It could be. Open bays roughed by the wind will probably be dirty.
I wouldn’t read into the salinity or water clarity too much, I would look at the wind and water levels. You will want to be protected, and fishing that area you pretty much are protected from the predicted SE wind. You will have plenty of water to get into those ponds, or anywhere else it would be deemed “too shallow”.
I think your best bet is to fish the rocks and ponds, as depicted in the attached graphic. Jig the rocks with a light jighead, like 1/8oz, and jig the deeper edge of them with something like 3/8 oz or 1/2 oz if the current is really ripping.
For the ponds fish whatever you like to use to fish shallow for redfish.
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Talk about consistency and sounds like a solid win on a non-shrimp spot.
Great report and thanks for posting!
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Some more info:
Bass are in the Biloxi Marsh are gone. Kiss them goodbye, they weren’t there before the Freshening, they won’t be coming back unless there’s another one (hopefully not).
If you’re looking for them in Lafitte, go back to Blue Canal if it’s not posted, or even the north end of the Pen. I’d also look hard at Salvador and Cataouatche.
As for Venice, find canals with a steep shoreline, especially any that have trees growing on them with their roots going into the water. Undercut banks are great. Long, shallow, sloping shorelines are not worth your time. You want to flip on something that has a little depth that bass can get in but still have something to relate to.
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Yeah, they’re back to the way they were.
Forgive me if I sound like a broken record: The proliferation of bass we had before Hurricane Ida was made possible with the additional viable habitat for them made available by the record amount of river water we had from 2011 to 2020 (which I wrote about extensively here).
I doubt Hurricane Ida had much to do with their decline, no more than previous hurricanes. But that storm does coincide with the same time we stopped having record river water, which I wrote about extensively here.
This is a shining example of Captain Ty Hibb’s Shifting Baseline Theory: a “new normal” arises when people forget how things used to be. All those bass you were catching were never supposed to be there. They were a response to an ecological fluke, and that fluke has been over for a few years now. In their stead, we are catching more croaker, flounder, speckled trout, spanish macks, pompano, channel mullet, etc.
And I’d rather have those fish over bass. I don’t think the bass fishing during the Freshening was that great. Sure, there were 20lb bags caught, but those guys are grinding all day for five fish. We were mostly just catching ditch pickles anyway. To each their own, but if that’s your flavor, then spare yourself the aggravation of salt and just go to the Tennessee River. Catch consistent 3-5lb+ bass deep cranking ledges or skipping docks and you’ll say “f&#k Louisiana!” Or don’t go even that far and head to Lake Okhissa or Percy Quinn in MS and catch three pounders on a multitude of different techniques. Or maybe just the nearest golf course pond.
Now, this is specifically aimed at a general audience reading this because if people don’t know what happened to the bass then they probably don’t know this: I understand that most people catching bass during the Freshening were doing so with a popping cork.
Look back at the Classics during 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2011 (all of which were held in Louisiana). Watch them and you will not see a single one of the field throwing a dumbass popping cork. I know people were catching a lot of smaller bass on them during the Freshening, but that was only because there were literally that many of them.
But if you can flip a Texas Rig, which is the most staple way to catch bass anywhere they swim, then you will catch more quality and quantity. Not cast a Texas Rig. Not tie it on spinning tackle. Flipping with casting tackle.
If you got back into some reeds in Venice with a Texas Rig you stand to demolish the bass. But if you cast a cork at that same spot you’d wonder if they even exist. We smashed them last year. It was easy, but we also know how to work a foot pedal and flip.
Going back to those Classics: they were held at the height of our last Saltening and the year that the Freshening began AKA years we didn’t see bass everywhere in the marsh. But yet those guys were somehow still finding and catching them in places like Venice, Delacroix and Lafitte. I’m not counting Cataouatche because it’s too far inside.
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“along that same line of thought…do you think it’s possible we’ll start seeing 6-7lb+ trout in the pontchartrain estuary now that the freshening has been over for a few years?”
I hope so. That would be great. But I still think that trout are struggling to get back to where they were because Louisiana folk at large kill everything they come across. The proof in the pudding for me was last year when everyone complained of the 11.9″ throwbacks then the limit changed and it turned into 12.9″ throwbacks. Well, river water, freezes, “porpoises” and discard mortality limit don’t select for length, but we do.
If/when people catch a four pounder, they usually kill it. Well, that’s a surefire way to make sure it never gets to be an ounce heavier.
But maybe with the Saltening and the new limit we can get back there or get back there faster. It depends on which day you ask me. Some days I’m optimistic, other days not so much.
The thing here is that I don’t know what happens after a Freshening of the magnitude we experienced because I never lived through one before. And all the old timers really only talk about the usual “we used to count the coolers we caught, not the fish” and “there was more land”, blah blah blah. There’s some old fart somewhere who distinctly remembers the last time we had a freshening (whenever that was, I don’t recall off the top of my head) and could shed more light on it. Maybe Kenny Kreeger Sr. or Dudley Vandeborre or Chink Sumas. But if anyone does they have not written it down somewhere.
I know it’s been a few years, but in that same few years the fishing still sucks compared to what it used to be. If you go catch 20 trout with two people today, that’s a good box. If I only caught 20 trout by myself pre-Freshening then I would have said the day sucked, or it would have been a “grind”, a massive cold front hit the day before, my arms were taped behind my back, or whatever.
“I’m hopeful that with the increased awareness of releasing 20″ trout / size and creel limit changes / higher salinity, we’ll start seeing them. I’d much rather catch an 8lb trout in my back yard than have to drive to Texas or Florida.”
Me, too! That would be amazing. It could happen.
While the general mentality of Louisiana folk is “fill the box”, the RO20 movement, CPR, etc. is pretty much new and has to have a positive impact. All we can do is hope.
Also, quick disclaimer: there’s nothing wrong with keeping fish to eat.
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“but I did enjoy the surprise bass every now and then.”
For sure! I think most did.
What changed is that it got salty again. It unequivocally became saltier across the board. I have some good graphs for this in the Saltening blog post linked earlier.
10-12 ppt is high for bass. You may be recalling 10-12 ppm, or parts per million. Even if bass could withstand 10-12 ppt, they certainly don’t spawn in it.
I couldn’t give you a read on what the exact salinity was from before the Freshening, during and after in the Biloxi Marsh, but I can tell you that milfoil prior to 2015 was pretty much non existent. There were no grass mats in the Biloxi Marsh. You won’t find them on GED, either. But they did grow with the Freshening. Same thing for a lot of east Lake Pontchartrain, Rigolets, MRGO, etc.
Venice is just indeed a different animal, a lovely beast with that beautiful river (well, when she’s low lol). We did really well flipping last year and I can’t wait to get back out there!
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“Admittedly, that may largely be due to the fact that I’m in a kayak and limited in terms of how far I can travel.”
Now is the time of year to really capitalize on the fish being closer. I commented on your Delacroix planning post. I hope that helps. The best thing you can do is leverage this forum. Get help. Let us know what you need.
I understand that you can’t get on plane at 50mph in a kayak, but you really don’t need to. Play to the strengths of the kayak and enjoy not burning $$$ on the boat note, insurance, truck to haul it, gas, etc. lol
I think fishing those rocks in Terre aux Beouf could be banger.
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+1 on this
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If you look at that first lagoon/pond you come into on GED, you will see a duck blind sitting in it. Probably not good to run through once duck season kicks off, or at all, as it could be too shallow at times to reliably run. You didn’t mention why you’re taking this route, where you’re coming from, but if you’re coming from Lake Borgne I would take Grande Bayou or Bayou Biloxi in.
