If there’s one thing I've learned from all my years of fishing is that you never guarantee fish. Baton Rouge kayak fisherman Andrew Green recently made a trip to Bayou Cane and made sure to let his girlfriend Ava, know that it wouldn't be like the last trip they made together. “My girlfriend and I decided to bring out the yaks for the first time in a few weeks and try to get on a bass bite. I'd been telling her about Bayou Cane since I fished it for the first time this past November and she has been dying to go. I promised her it would be nothing like the trip we took in August to Delacroix,” Andrew said. On their last trip to Delacroix the couple launched at Sweetwater Marina and ended up limited out on bass with a few 3 pounders mixed in. Andrew knew their trip to Cane probably wouldn’t yield the same results but he had been hearing about how the bass seem to come alive in the colder months on the small bayou in Mandeville, and wanted to give it a shot. His optimism, however, was quickly dampened at the start of the trip. 

“When we got to Cane the water was very low, and very muddy. There wasn't much water movement close to the launch, so we started off towards the lake. About halfway down I decide to stop and fish a bend in the bayou and she paddled on. 30 minutes went by and I didn't get a single a bite. Then I got a text that says I should come and check out what's down a ways,” Green said. Andrew wasn't expecting anything fishing related to be the subject of Ava’s discovery but was quite surprised when he paddled to see what the fuss was all about. “We met up and she told me she found some current coming from a ditch and that the water was clear. Now, I'm proud - Whether or not I catch a fish from the drain! We paddled to the spot and I've got to tell you the tide was flat ripping out, and bait was everywhere! First cast in with a watermelon worm yielded a solid thump and a chunky 11 inch marsh bass,” He said. It took Andrew a total of 45 minutes to put 10 solid bass in the boat from that one drain that spilled out of the marsh. As the sun set, the couple made their way back to the launch but Andrew decided to try one more tranasse. But this one didn't quite have the water movement like the first one. “I paddled back to a drain I had seen that didn't have a really strong current and decided to throw a 1/2 oz. chrome rattle trap. First cast and wham! A solid 14 inch fish! Next cast - another pound and a half fish!” he said. Green ended the day with 14 beautiful Bayou Cane Bass which proves while you can’t guarantee fish, you can come pretty close to it when fishing Bayou Cane in the winter months.

Picture the scene: it’s a beautiful February morning.  You get to the boat launch just as the sun peeks over the horizon. After backing down the boat you hop in and crank the engine. You look around and make sure everything is secure for blast off. Then you gun it and feel the torque as your prop rips through the water. You don’t quite know where you’re headed, as long as it’s away from the launch.  But why? Why is it that the vast majority of fishermen consider the boat launch area unfishable? Maybe it’s just a psychological thing. You have a powerful engine and a tankful of gas and by gosh – you’re going to use it! Or maybe it’s a simple case of thinking the grass is greener, or shall we say, the water is bluer on the other side. Whatever the reason is, the fact remains that anglers are passing over fish every day only to search for fish in a more esthetically pleasing backdrop. Here’s something that might just make you think twice before you slam that throttle down. Let’s say you like to bass fish on the Tchefuncte River.  The 4th Avenue boat launch in Covington will serve as a weighing station for a total of six bass tournaments this month.  Now let’s say 10 anglers fish each tournament and bring back an average of 3 fish to the scales. That’s 30 bass released back into the water at the boat launch for one tournament. Multiply that times six, and you get 180 largemouth bass released at the launch in one month!

Covington angler John White lives near that very boat launch and says he recalls a trip in which he and his two sons had plenty of success along the shoreline by the launch. “We put the boat in at 4th Avenue and were in a hurry because we got a late start. We had engine problems so I popped the top off of the motor and started tinkering with it. My boys dropped the trolling motor and started pitching the shoreline. I was concentrating on fixing the motor when my attention was broken by a solid 2 lb. bass flipping on the floor of the boat,” John says. It took John a little over 45 minutes to fix the motor and by that time his sons had managed 14 bass. Then the team made the mistake of leaving the launch. “I finally got the motor running and wanted to fish a spot that I had success fishing a few days ago,” John said. The father and sons made a 15 minute run to John’s “hotspot”. “We started fishing that canal and after 30 minutes I knew we had made the dreadful mistake of leaving fish to find fish. We couldn’t catch a single fish in that canal and was forced in by the darkness. My boys still talk about that trip and blame me for fixing the motor!” he says.

 


Upcoming Tournaments

Florida Parishes Bass Anglers are having its next tournament on Saturday, February 7th on Bayou Lacombe. For more information about becoming a member please contact Kevin Williams at 985-502-6146 or Patrick Engerran at 985-474-6112.

Liars and Lunkers kicks off its 2015 season with a tournament February 22nd on the East Pearl. For more information please call Chad Hartzog at 985-502-3217.

Slidell angler Nick Church is the first to admit he is a bass fisherman first and foremost. But when his father Kevin came down to visit from Michigan, he couldn’t help but try and get him on some bigger fish. Then he thought, what could be better than hooking up with the big, bronze beauties that are known for their fight no matter what the temperature.  “We wanted to go to Lacombe and do some bass fishing but I wanted to make sure my dad got to feel a good fight that day so we decided to head out to the Rigolets,” Church said. The father and son team launched out of Rigolets Marina and headed straight to Double Bayou Lagoon where on a previous trip, Nick found redfish. “Three weeks prior I went to the same spot and caught redfish so I knew we had a good shot at catching a few,” he said. The team was on the water by 10:00 a.m. and Nick says the fog was thick. “The fog was ridiculous that day. You could see the cars on the bridge going up and then they would disappear. It was unreal,” he said.  

After reaching their desitination it wasn’t too long before after Nick’s pole bowed over and his first redfish was on the line. “We were fishing in about 14 ft. of water and I casted out to the deeper water with a KVD Crankbait, and within about twenty minutes I had the first redfish in the boat,” Nick said. Crank- baits are not usually first on the list when it comes to catching redfish in South Louisiana and Nick says his dad couldn’t believe what he was using. “My dad was throwing a big Berkley 4” Power Bait but he was stunned when I tied on a deep crank bait shad color.  I knew what I was doing and sure enough that is what they hit,” he said. After a few minutes Nick hooked another and handed the rod over to his dad and the fight was on. His dad got this one in the boat and switched over to the crank-bait also. Nick said that made all the difference. “He turned around said ‘ooooo!’ He fought that thing and fought that thing and it just wouldn’t come. He had a bull! He fought that thing for 10 minutes before it came up and showed himself. He was huge! He made one last run and we heard SNAP and my dad let a big ‘awwwww’ because he lost it,” he said. The duo ended the day with three redfish and a hand full of bass that they had picked up along the way. Nick warns when fishing for redfish with crankbaits, “Those hooks aren’t made for redfish so you really have to let the fish do what he wants for a while,” he said. 

 
Eden Isles Bass

For anglers looking to put a few bass in the boat, the canals along Eden Isles are holding bass along the many wharfs that line the protected water. Roger Sissac has been fishing the finger canals and says there are fish holding to the piers and bulkheads but the bite is very soft. “I couldn't feel some of these fish pick up the worm. When I started to reel in slowly, the line would be taught,” Roger said. Sissac lost quite a few until he made a change in his hook-setting technique. “After losing a few, I realized there were fish on, so I started setting the hook when the line was taught and started catching fish,” he said.  Roger started the trip at 2:30 p.m. and managed to fish two of the canals. He ended the day with 8 bass that he caught on a 4” tequila sunrise worm.

It’s not too often that a fisherman will share information whether it is a location, technique, or lures used. Simple questions such as “where did you catch those fish?” are often dodged by anglers who have learned to skirt these questions with snarky one-liners such as “in the water!” Ronald Pierre is the complete opposite of this, “Once someone gets me started I can talk fishing for hours,” he says. Ronald has been experimenting with new bait on Bayou Bonfouca that most anglers shy away from -The Umbrella Rig. This setup contains multiple wire arms extending from a central point that allows fisherman to fish with more than one lure on one cast. The rig resembles a school of baitfish and Ronald says that’s the exact thing these bass are feeding on right now. On a recent fishing trip to Bayou Bonfouca, Ronald and his brother-in-law, Shaun started catching fish immediately. “I started throwing a crank-bait and I quickly hooked up, but the fish jumped off mid-flight and my lure went air born. As my lure hit the water I began my retrieve quickly to make another cast but as I was pulling the plug out of the water a bass inhaled it. This fish was a good one as I battled it to the boat and over the rail,” Pierre says. Only a few casts into the trip Ronald had boated a solid 2.5 lb. bass and says he didn’t waste any time getting back into the action. I quickly made another cast to try to get the school fired up.  The rod loaded up again and up came another chunky shad filled fish,” he says.

 Then Ronald noticed something that gave him an idea. “As I started to unhook the fish and release it back into the water, I noticed a small bait ball come through the water. It was a small school of shad maybe 6 or 7 in a hurry near the surface running quickly - in a straight line. As it got over to the area where I was casting they were quickly in trouble. A huge school of bass surfaced and got into a frenzy chasing after that tiny school of shad. That’s when the idea struck me - Umbrella Rig!” Pierre said. Ronald quickly tied on an RP3 Finesse Umbrella Rig and casted out “I started my retrieve and I quickly hooked up and missed a nice fish. I made another cast to hook up immediately with a nice chunky fish. Well about 20 casts later and over a dozen nice sized fish swung over the rail, I looked back at my brother-in-law. His hands were on his hips and his jaw was dropped. The facial expression after seeing what this rig can do was priceless! Before his next words came out of his mouth, I quickly chimed in and said ‘I have two’. We caught fish with reckless abandon from the time I picked it up until the time our wives started calling wondering when the heck we were coming home!” Ronald said. With the lack of rainfall this winter the water in the bayou is tremendously clean. Ronald advises to stay away from braided line when using a Umbreall Rig. “The water in the bayou has been extremely clear and the fluorocarbon line has worked best in the clear water. If you used braid, the bass would just follow the bait or get spooked easily,” He says.If you are looking to make a trip in search of bass on Bayou Bonfouca, Ronald says “The bass are staged along deeper drops where they had harder bottoms in about 8 to 10 ft. of water.”



Tournament Results

The Florida parishes Bass Anglers hedp their first tournament of 2015 on the Tchefuncte River and it was the team of Dereck Paternostro and Darren Welch who came out on top with a 5-fish stringer weighing 7.11 lbs. In second place were Patrick Engerran and Wayne Richardson whose 5 fish came in at 5.13 lbs. The father-son team of Jason and Trenton Pittman took third with a combined weight of 5.8 lbs. Scott Andrews hauled in the big fish of the day and won the big fish division with a bass that weighed 3.13 lb

The ICW area near the Great Wall of Chalmette has undoubtedly been the hot-spot for anglers in search of cold water trout. In fact, the fishing has been so good that it has sidelined what is usually known as deer stand time for Ponchatoula resident Lawrence Lemoine. “This is the first year of really fishing hard in winter time for bass and specks - I kinda like it! I’d much rather try to make something happen while fishing instead of waiting in a stand for something to happen,” Lemoine says. On his last trip Lawrence and his two sons ventured down the Intracoastal Waterway and headed for the wall. At first glance the conditions that morning didn’t look promising. “We got out there early and wasn't happy about the water clarity - the water temperature was 56 degrees with a slow outgoing tide so we knew we had to fish slowly,” Lemoine said.  

The doubts faded quickly as the team began hauling in redfish left and right and after moving to deeper water, Lawrence and his sons started catching big speckled trout off the deep drop-offs with the help of his electronics. “The fish were a lot deeper than last time I was out there - about 25’ to 30’ deep. Watching my electronics I was able to concentrate on pockets of fish on ledges,” he says. After putting 33 specks in the boat, Lawrence says the bite slowed and they turned their attention to bass. Before the winds ran the anglers in they had boated six largemouths by using speed-craws on the bottom. Lawrence says the specks were all nice sized with a few three pounders mixed in but the biggest was caught by his son, Lawrence Jr., who managed to boat a 4.5 lb. yellow- mouth. With the action this good, Lemoine says it will be tough getting him off the water this winter. “Yea, those deer may get lucky this year!” he says.


Sac-au-lait on the Ponchitolawa

What is arguably the most popular sac-au-lait fishing destination on the Northsore, the Tchefuncte River is starting to produce good numbers of these “white perch”.  Nolan Knight lives on the Ponchitolawa Creek which feeds into the Tchefuncte River. It’s around this time that Nolan starts targeting these delectable fish from his wharf that is located on the creek. In one afternoon Nolan and his sons caught over 30 sac-au-lait using minnows as bait. The family also caught 10 catfish from the wharf which Nolan served up that afternoon. “I cleaned them that afternoon and fried them right on the deck!” Knight said.   January is a good time to start targeting sac-au-lait. While February and March are better months for slabs, getting a jump on finding some holes where these fish congregate will pay huge dividends in the spring when these fish really turn on. Cover a lot of water using small jigs or minnows on the bottom. When you put a slab in the boat, hunker down and find the structure that they are holding to. It’s more than likely that they will be there in the spring when the bite really turns on.

 

Tournament Results

The Pearl River Teams Trail Tournament held their event on the Pearl River and it was the father-son team of Morgan and Phil Schutte who figured out the fish. The duo weighed in a total of 5 fish for a combined weight of 14.4 lbs. They also won the big fish division with a lunker that tipped the scales at 5.25lbs. In second was Brett Sellers who brought in a 5-fish limit that weighed 13.5 lbs. Steve Hadely took third place with a total weight of 10.6 lbs.


Upcoming Tournaments

Florida Parishes Bass Anglers will be kicking off their 2015 season with a tournament on the Tchefuncte River, January 11th. For more information on becoming a member contact Kevin Williams at 985-502-6146 or Patrick Engerran at 985-474-6112.

Liars and Lunkers is holding their last tournament of the season on January 11th at Lock One.  Anglers will be allowed to launch on either side of Lock One. For more information, please contact Chad at 985-502-3217.