|
Dodging Showers
 Keith Lusher
The solid week of rain that engulfed the Northshore wreaked havoc on anglers who took to the water. While some were able to dodge the thunderstorms, others were forced to call it quits early.
Ray Miller of Madisonville made a trip with his friend Neil Cary of Covington. The two anglers met at the 4th Ave. boat launch near St. Pauls High School and set out for some summertime slabs.  Danny Owens set the hook just right on this Tchefuncte River slab
They were greeted by a high river with muddy water. “We started checking spots and it was obvious that we were in for a tough day,” he said. “We saw plenty fish but they just wouldn’t bite anything we put in front if them.” The team painstakingly worked to catch eight sac-a-lait and one catfish using Panfish Assassin jigs, when Miller decided it was time to go! “We were fishing by Beau Chene when I looked at the radar and I told Neil - we need to go,” he said. “I had that boat cranked up because the clouds were black and the lightning was flashing.” The friends managed to pull the boat out of the water and tie everything down before the rain hit just as they were pulling out of the parking lot.
Best Weekend in a While
 48 Lake Pontchartrain Blue Crabs
With the crab bite improving Mike Simms wanted to set out a few traps in Lake Pontchartrain.
Simms lives on Bayou Bonfouca in Slidell and made the run down the Bayou and into the lake where he set 10 traps. Simms brought along some live shrimp so he made a quick run to the Trestles after tossing out his last trap. “I had to dodge the rain all the way to the Trestles,” he said. He was greeted with clean water and an incoming tide, He began fishing the train bridge and started catching fish right away. “I looked at the radar and saw that it was raining at my house by Bonfouca so I fished until it cleared,” Simms said. The Slidell angler picked up 10 speckled trout, 2 blue cats, 3 sheepshead, a flounder and a croaker. The next day Simms checked his traps and caught 48 keeper blue crabs and one catfish. “This has been the best weekend in a while,” said Simms. Left Em' Biting Tim Bye of Folsom made a trip to the Tchefuncte River to catch sac-a-lait. With all the rain we’ve been seeing, Bye knew his window to fish would be narrow. “I wanted to take a ride in the river before the sky fell out,” he said. Not long after launching his boat, he was catching fish. “The water was ok and the temperature was a cool 80 degrees. This allowed the fish to setup around the 8-foot mark,” he said. Bye was able to catch 27 large sac-a-lait using a Panfish Assassin Silver Shad. Bye was hitting his stride but had to stop fishing at 10:30 a.m. on account of nearby storm. “I Left quite a few fish due to the weather fixing to hit,” he said. 
Tournament Results
On a sunny hot day, 21 anglers gathered to fish the East Pearl and complete in the Double Nickel Bass Tournament. The tide was falling all morning and in the end it was CJ Mayeux who came out on top with a 3-fish limit weighing 7.52 pounds. Mayeux also won the big fish division with a bass that weighed 4.54 pounds. Mickey Breland took second place with a limit weighing 6.95 pounds. In third was Ralph Williams with a limit that weighed 6.54 pounds.
CJ Mayeux
|
 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!
|
|
Andy Jones of Wicked Charters joins Keith at the NFR Spring Seminar to talk about his latest fishing trips to Lake Pontchartrain.
|
