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Northshore fishing guru Jeff Bruhl is most know for his freshwater fishing expertise. Whether it’s the Pearl River System, Bayou Bonfouca, the Tchefuncte, Bruhl knows how to put bass, sac-au-lait, and perch in the boat. So when I got the call to do some trout fishing this week, I had to make sure it was really him on the other line. Jeff said he had been catching speckled trout in Bayou Liberty this past week and wanted to make another trip. We launched at Bayou Liberty Marina on Hwy 433 and within 5 minutes of putting the boat in the water we were catching speckled trout. But it wasn’t in the middle of the bayou like expected. We were casting towards the shoreline. “Early morning is a good time to target the trout in Bayou Liberty.
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Cast along the grass line and let it fall or throw a topwater lure right outside of the grass line,” Bruhl says. We kept trolling the shoreline towards the lake and while the action was relatively slow, it was steady which allowed us to put together a healthy box of fish. Jeff says don’t stay in one place when fishing Bayou Liberty right now. “You’ll go along and catch one here and catch one there, but then all of a sudden you’ll run into a patch of them where you’ll put 5 or 6 in a matter of minutes, so it’s all about constantly moving around,” Bruhl says. The hot bait right now is the Shu-Shu in Gunmetal color. The bait holds true to it’s slogan of being the most versatile bait in South Louisiana as the new trend is to split the tail when fishing for speckled trout.
Quick Trip
When James Bransfield of Slidell got off of work he decided to stop by is favorite tackle shop to stock up on some lures. James was planning on fishing this weekend but could resist trying out his new lures. “After work, I stopped by Gus' to make sure I was ready for this weekend. While there, I saw a Zoom Tiny Fluke bait fish. Having never seen these before and remembering that split tail baits were hot right now, I picked it up,” Bransfield says. James just couldn’t wait till the weekend to try them out so he stopped by the Hwy 11 Canal on the way home and made a few casts. “I could only stay a few minutes but using these on a 1/4oz white jig head - they seemed to like it,” James says. Bransfield caught 4 speckled trout in 10 minutes. All of them being 14”-16” long.
Causeway Shoreline
Quick Trip
When James Bransfield of Slidell got off of work he decided to stop by is favorite tackle shop to stock up on some lures. James was planning on fishing this weekend but could resist trying out his new lures. “After work, I stopped by Gus' to make sure I was ready for this weekend. While there, I saw a Zoom Tiny Fluke bait fish. Having never seen these before and remembering that split tail baits were hot right now, I picked it up,” Bransfield says. James just couldn’t wait till the weekend to try them out so he stopped by the Hwy 11 Canal on the way home and made a few casts. “I could only stay a few minutes but using these on a 1/4oz white jig head - they seemed to like it,” James says. Bransfield caught 4 speckled trout in 10 minutes. All of them being 14”-16” long.
Causeway Shoreline
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Will Henry of Mandeville made a trip out to the shoreline near the Causeway and winded up with 11 trout between 14” - 17”. Will says the trout seemed to tire of the same bait. “I was throwing all hard baits either floating or suspended and I would catch a couple on one lure then if they stopped, I would switch and catch a couple more,” Will says. After paying attention to the way he was working the baits, Will says “I had to vary the cadence and how hard you snap the bait to trigger strikes. Sometimes I would just kill the bait mid-retrieve and let it sit still for a few seconds - then start the retrieve again and they would smoke it!”