Keith Lusher For many speckled trout anglers on the Northshore, April is a time to catch big bass who make there way to the shallows to spawn. For others, it can be a time to take advantage of the incredible sac-a-lait bite that happens in our rivers and bayous. And then there’s the bridge fishermen. For anglers who fish the bridges of Lake Pontchartrain, April is the month that they have circled on the calendar, and now is the time to get out on the water and jig the pilings. Unfortunately, mother nature often gets in the way and can limit the days that anglers have to target the bridges. I made a trip to the Trestles with Captain Mike Gallo of Angling Adventures of Louisiana and learned first hand how a swift change in wind direction can affect the lake.
Mike Gallo unhooks one of many male trout caught on the trip Our trip was originally planned for the morning but Mike decided to cancel it due to forecasted 15-20 mph. winds out of the southwest for the morning hours. We held off and decided to put off the trip until that afternoon. Mike says he actually prefers the afternoon over the morning hours in the spring. “I still prefer to fish in the afternoons around this time anyway. The tide seems to push more of that bait in and the fish are coming right in after it,” he says. We left from the Angling Adventures of Louisiana Lodge out of Salt Bayou at 4:00 and made a beeline for the south end of the Trestles. Mike operated the trolling motor and paralleled the bridged about 100 ft. away from the structure. The water was was murky with a 1 ft. visibility. Gallo pointed out an area of water that seemed to be pushing through at a different speed and casted his Deadly Dudley in the Mojo Mullet color. The ripples in the water went unnoticed by me until he pointed it out, but after he casted across the moving water and pulled in the first speck, I quickly identified it and casted into the turbulence. I bounced my Shu-Shu Paddltail in the Chromis color on the bottom and on the third cast, I felt that all too familiar Lake Pontchartrain bridge bite. The thump on the other end of the line was as subtle as the CSX train heading down the tracks. I set the hook and lost my grip on the reel. After re-clutching the Curado, I horsed my first fish into the boat. A beautiful 2.5 lb. speckled trout.
Nothing like that first rout to get the blood pumping! As I unhooked the fish I could feel my blood pumping. It felt like I’d had what is the equivalent of a B12 shot or 5 cups of coffee. Mike and I continued to focus on the change in water speed that was pushing against the wind. This was the first time that I wasn’t focused on the bridge pilings while fishing the Trestles. “I feel that those fish will hide in the eddy’s behind the pilings when its a strong tide, but today it wasn’t a very strong tide so we pulled away from the bridge and found that current line. So don’t always concentrate on those pilings, sometimes they’re two and three cast lengths away from the pilings,” Gallo says. The majority of the fish we caught were male trout. Mike says to pay attention to this. “When the spawning starts to occur the males will find the spawning area first. So when you’re catching all these males you want to comeback around a full moon. So the males are going to tell you where the the bigger females are going to be just a few days before the full moon,” he says.
2016 Northshore Bass Series
The Northshore Bass Series is cranking up for the 2016 season and another tournament angler has signed a sponsor. Shu-Shu Lures will be sponsoring tournament angler Patrick Engerran for the 2016 NBS Season. Engerran moved to the top of the NBS Power Ranking with his 2nd place win in the FPBA tournament at Bayou Lacombe. Patrick put a 5.62 lb. largemouth in the boat using the new Shu-Shu Marsh Craw in the Blackenrage color. If any local businesses are interested in sponsoring a local tournament angler for the upcoming NBS Season please contact Keith at 985-373-5974 for more information.
2016 Northshore Bass Series
The Northshore Bass Series is cranking up for the 2016 season and another tournament angler has signed a sponsor. Shu-Shu Lures will be sponsoring tournament angler Patrick Engerran for the 2016 NBS Season. Engerran moved to the top of the NBS Power Ranking with his 2nd place win in the FPBA tournament at Bayou Lacombe. Patrick put a 5.62 lb. largemouth in the boat using the new Shu-Shu Marsh Craw in the Blackenrage color. If any local businesses are interested in sponsoring a local tournament angler for the upcoming NBS Season please contact Keith at 985-373-5974 for more information.
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