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Castnetting Shrimp
 Keith Lusher
As anglers anticipate a fantastic fall of fishing, the signs continue to point to an exciting season of fishing in Lake Pontchartrain. Even with the heavy rains we’ve seen through the end of August, the shrimp are appearing in big numbers in the canals that line the shoreline in Slidell. Will Shober has been taking advantage of the shrimp by throwing a castnet off of his dock located on Carr Drive near Hwy 11. “They’ve been running right around dusk until 9:30,” he said.
Shober has underwater lights rigged to the pylons on his wharf which he says is important to attracting the shrimp. He also uses rabbit pellets as bait. “The rabbit food bunches them up in large numbers so we catch more in each cast,” he said. Shober has been catching over 15 pounds of shrimp a night on average. “The shrimp are definitely running right now,” he said.
Will Shober caught this ice chest of shrimp from dusk until 9:30
Stacked Up Flounder
As the flounder numbers continue to improve anglers are taking advantage of what’s left of open season. The new regulations that ban the recreational harvest of flounder in Louisiana are set to go into effect on Oct 15. That’s a date of importance to Chad Majoue of Covington. Mojoue has been catching flounder along the northern shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain. On his most recent trip he caught 7 flounder over 13 inches. “I found the flounder stacked up this morning,” he said. The closed season for flounder is set to go into effect on Oct 15 and will last until Nov 15. LDWF said the closed season is projected to create a 50% reduction in mature female Southern Flounder that are harvested. “The closed season is an attempt to help the stock recover to a healthy biomass target by 2028,” said Rene LaBreton. 
Chad Majoue caught these flounder along the northern shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain
Croaker Beatdown Jason Legaux of Kenner has been fishing the Rigolets train bridge in Lake Borgne for years but his past two trips have turned up something that he's never seen: Croakers. And lots of them! On his latest trip he was fishing the bridge and caught over 30 keeper croaker using crappie jigs tipped with Fishbites EZ Shrimp. "Right now they are everywhere from the Rigolets train bridge, all the way to the Mississippi line were've been catching croaker," he said. "It's been a croaker beatdown!" Legaux recommends other spots for anglers who want to catch croaker. "A bank spot that's usually pretty good is the East Pearl boat launch but the river is raging right now,” he said. “Also Irish Bayou from the casino to the dead end.” The emergence of croaker this summer is another signal that the the fall season will bring healthy catches of saltwater fish typical of what the area produced before all of the spillway openings. 
Tournament Results
The Double Nickel Bass Club fished the East Pearl River. It was a day that saw cooler temperatures with a high of 85 degrees and low humidity. The river was high with a very weak tide, however, the guys still caught fish. Leading the pack was Ralph Dunn who brought in a tournament limit of 3 fish that weighed 8.41 pounds. Dunn also caught the biggest fish of the day which was a 4.75 pound bass. Tommy Watkins took second place with a 3-fish limit weighing 5.93 pounds. In third was James Harris with a limit of 5.76 pounds.
The Florida Parishes Bass Anglers had 17 teams that competed in their tournament at the Tchefuncte River. It was a mixture of sun and overcast with the occasional shower during the day. In the end it was Bryan Wolfe and Brad Bankston who came out on top with a 5-fish tournament limit weighing 9.94 pounds. In second place was the team of Jeffery Barcia and Keith Abbot who weighed in a 5-fish bag of 7.07. Wayne Richardson and his son Wayne Jr, rounded out the top three with a 5-fish limit that weighed 7.06 pounds. Wendall and Melvin Myers caught the big fish of the day: a 3.33-pound bass. PRTT held its monthly tournament at Crawfords Landing with the Pearl River raging and over flood stage. At the end of the day, the father and son team of Rustin and Cristian Beaudette came in with the impressive winning weight of 20.11 lbs anchored with the big fish of the day at 6.5 lbs. Second place went to Eric Ciko and Ryan Howard with 9.3 pounds. Third place went to Charles and Jordan Dauzat with 8.5 pounds. |
 Keith Lusher
I created NFR.com in the spring of 2012. Since then it has helped link Northshore fishermen to valuable information and has filled the void of absent information on the web about fishing on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Northshore Fishing Report has morphed into a brand name and can be found not only on the web, but on radio and newspaper. As NFR grows I will continue to work hard at keeping NFR local focusing on local anglers, reports, seminars, and fishing tournaments in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parish. I hope you enjoy the website and If you have any questions please email me at: Keith@NorthshoreFishingReport.com
Look for the Northshore Fishing Report publication every Thursday in The Slidell Independent Weekly Newspaper!
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Andy Jones of Wicked Charters joins Keith at the NFR Spring Seminar to talk about his latest fishing trips to Lake Pontchartrain.
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