Keith Lusher It’s no secret that saltwater anglers have been struggling here on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain for the past year. Last fall saw a marsh restoration project at the mouth of Bayou Bonfouca decimate the speckled trout run that normally occurs in October and November. Add to it the opening of the Bonnet Carre’ Spillway in the spring and what you get is a noticeable absence of specks in anglers ice chests. There is a popular theory that saltwater fishing excels 6 months after adverse conditions occur in the lake. It happened with the last three spillway openings and it’s safe to say we are in the midst of it happing this fall.
I made a trip with Bayou Lacombe angler Forrest Green to investigate recent reports of fishermen claiming that the amount of bait in the water hasn’t been seen in the past three years. We launched out of Bayou Lacombe and headed east to the mouth of Bayou Bonfouca. As we approached the shoreline I can honestly say that I underestimated just how much bait was in the water. While the wind was calm and the water was smooth the amount of surface action was incredible and I got the feeling that we were sitting smack dab in the middle of a feeding frenzy. Mullet running across the surface attempting to escape from jack’s, shrimp popping out of the water trying to escape trout, I even witnessed a small lady fish chasing a shrimp while at the same time being hunted down from behind by a redfish. To top it all off we saw a family of otter come from the shoreline to get in on the action.
I made a trip with Bayou Lacombe angler Forrest Green to investigate recent reports of fishermen claiming that the amount of bait in the water hasn’t been seen in the past three years. We launched out of Bayou Lacombe and headed east to the mouth of Bayou Bonfouca. As we approached the shoreline I can honestly say that I underestimated just how much bait was in the water. While the wind was calm and the water was smooth the amount of surface action was incredible and I got the feeling that we were sitting smack dab in the middle of a feeding frenzy. Mullet running across the surface attempting to escape from jack’s, shrimp popping out of the water trying to escape trout, I even witnessed a small lady fish chasing a shrimp while at the same time being hunted down from behind by a redfish. To top it all off we saw a family of otter come from the shoreline to get in on the action.
Forrest Green points out shrimp popping all around the boat It’s safe to say that Mr. Green and I couldn’t grab out poles fast enough. We casted out rigged with a Zoom Fluke Jr. in the Arkansas Shiner color under a popping cork and within seconds both of our corks disappeared. Mr. Green retrieved his cast swung a croaker into the boat. I retrieved mine and had a ladyfish. It was clear that this wouldn’t be a typical speckled trout trip and that the amount of baitfish and shrimp in that water meant that ever species of fish that inhabited Lake Pontchartrain was getting in on the action. We continued to fish under a cork and managed 5 or 6 trout but we realized that we were wasting valuable time with the ladyfish.
Mr. Green slings a shorline speck into the boat
We decided to make the change to jigging the bottom without a cork. That made a big difference as the ladyfish seemed to hover along the upper level of water. Once our bait hit the bottom we found that the ratio of speckled trout to ladyfish improved. As we trolled west down the shoreline of the lake there was no concentrated pockets of trout that we normally encounter when fishing for small trout. “There’s just so much bait in the water now that these trout don’t need to be in one spot, the bait’s everywhere so they’re going to be everywhere,” Mr. Green says. With the trout not being concentrated in one are it did force us to constantly move but still we managed to continually put trout in the boat with the occasional keeper white trout and croaker.
Forrest Green and Keith Lusher display their catch in at the mouth of Bayou Bonfouca
We ended our day at 11:30 with a box full of fish but more importantly with the assurance that the worst seems to be behind us and things are setting up for this to be one of the best fall trout runs that we’ve seen in quite some time. “Oh yeah! It’s just beginning! We haven’t even had our first cool front yet. Just wait!” Mr. Green adds.
