Keith Lusher Jr They say the best way to tell the future is to look at the past. It’s no secret that last summer was miserable for Lake Ponchartrain anglers. Add to it the unseasonably cold winter that all but slammed the door on a good fall fishing season last year and your left with and indicator of what’s to come in the next few months. Much like last summer, we have seen the beloved east winds that bring Lake Ponchartrain to life, give way to the wicked winds of the west. These winds block the much needed salt water from intruding in from the Rigolets. Meteorologist Bob Breck of Fox 8 says that the same feature that is causing the change in summer wind direction is at the same time bringing us colder winters. “Basically, we have seen a return of a Great Lakes/East Coast upper trough, a pattern that was established during the winter. This depresses the usual Bermuda High that builds in (giving us SE winds) and pushes it farther down over the Gulf producing WSW winds across the northern Gulf,” Breck says. It may seem early to be thinking about fall fishing but if things shape up the way they are forecasted, we should see an early fall giving way to an even earlier winter. “If we see another deepening of the East coast trough in another 2-3 weeks, I would not be surprised to see a REAL front between September 1st-19th and the hard cold coming early December,” Bob says. Jeff Kreller is an avid kayak fisherman that patrols the lake weekly and has been catching flounder, a definite sign that fall may be closer than we think. “I saw many good signs in the area and found plenty of action. I feel confident that it's only a matter of time before the switch is flipped,” Kreller says. On Jeff’s last trip he ended up with 3 flounder and says that all the ingredients is there for a spectacular fall. “The water looked really nice with a dark green tint and visibility over 2 feet. Make no mistake, our Northshore Pontchartrain shorelines are shaping up very nicely for a great fall run. I'm going to go ahead and jinx myself now by stating that there's an inside voice telling me this Fall will be as good or better than 2011's and 12's when I was blessed with some of my best catch days ever on the Lake,” he says.
Rainy Day Frog Bite
It’s human nature for one to try and figure out a pattern when fishing. Tides, winds, water temperature, and water depth are just some of the factors that go into catching fish on any particular day. Leo Moore of Covington recently made a trip to Salt Bayou with a friend and quickly found out that rain factored into the equation of figuring out the bass. “We got a really early start, launched in the dark and starting rolling down the bayou as the sun came up. We got to the first spot with very little daylight, first cast with a Shu-Shu - a bump and a miss! Second cast - bump and a miss! Then my friend in the front of the boat lands one on a Shu-Shu. About that time the rain started. Drizzling for the first 10 minutes or so, then the skies opened up. From about 6:45 till almost 8:00 it was a sideways, torrential downpour!” says Moore. After the rains slacked up the team switched over to top-water frogs and Leo says that was a good move. “I kept hearing that slurping sound from under the hyacinth so I decided to tie on a frog. BAM! That was the ticket! I landed two before my friend could change his lure. That was the first time I ever fished a frog and what a blast! Cast into the thick hyacinth, walk it across the thick algae and BAM! Water explodes! We only came home with seven bass but it was fun catching them on frogs,” Leo said.
