Cold Temperatures? No problem!
Keith Lusher Jr Meteorological winter has official begun and the temperatures that have blanketed Lake Pontchartrain are dictating a totally different kind of fishing style for anglers seeking to put fish in the boat. One good thing about fishing during this time is you don’t have set your alarm clock to go off earlier than you would get up on a work day. As the sun rises, so does the water temperature. 53 is the all-important number to remember when fishing for speckled trout in the winter months. When water temperatures dip to 53 degrees or lower speckled trout enter into a lethargic state that render them virtually un-catchable. Speckled trout have been feeding ferociously this past fall in preparation for these conditions and now that the time has come, these fish can afford to shut down for small stretches until the water temps warm up. Anglers should target deep holes on cold overcast days. These deep holes hold water that is slightly warmer than the water near the surface and could make all the difference in the world to a school of cold blooded speckled trout. On sunny days you should try and target flats where the sun has warmed the water. A few hours of mid-day sun can often be enough to entice trout into the shallows to feed.
MRGO WALL
Built in 2009, the wall that was built to close of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet has steadily evolved into one of the premiere fishing spots for those who frequent the Lake Pontchartrain and Borgne. Covington resident Chris Suchand has been fishing the MRGO a lot lately and has been having great success despite the tough weather conditions. “On the last trip I made I woke up at 6:30 and checked the radar for rain. I didn’t see any rain on radar so I decided to head on down to the Rigolets Marina to pick up some bait. When I pulled into the marina I was only one truck and trailer in the parking lot so I wasn’t feeling too good at that point” Chris said when got on the water he could barely see through the fog and steam rising off of the water. “The water temperature was warmer than the air so there was steam rising off of the water and mixing with the fog.” Chris tried fishing along the Lake Borgne shoreline toward Alligator Point but only caught one speck. “The tide was supposed to be falling until 10:30 but it petered out around 8:30 so I decided to make a run through the marsh and fish the MRGO because there is always clean water in there and even if there’s no tide movement the canal typically produces for me.” Chris says he knew it was going to be a good day when he looked down and saw multiple poles with fish on them. He talks about his unconventional fishing style. ”My friends all laugh at me because I fish with more than one pole when I am by myself. I grew up fishing from the bank in Port Sulphur off of the twin pipelines so I in the back of the boat I had two poles rigged with corks just drifting and in the front of the boat I had one rigged on the bottom. At one point I had all three off them with fish on them.” Chris says that he caught 25 trout in one hour and the size of the fish where exceptional. “Through all the fish I caught that day I may have only had to throw one back so the size of these fish was really something.” Chris says he likes to use a #6 treble hook from his days of fishing Seabrook. He uses a fluorocarbon leader and rigs it deep when he fishes the MRGO. “These fish are really deep so I had my bait about 10 feet below the cork and I was fishing about two cast length off the rocks that line the shoreline and casting into the main channel. Like always, live shrimp is your best bet but plastics seem to be producing bigger specks on a consistent basis. “I spoke with some guys out there who were trolling with plastics and I saw some of the fish they were catching on the bow of their boat and it looked like they had even bigger fish than I had so it seems plastics are producing more quality fish,” Chris said.
Local angler wins second straight tournament
Ponchatoula resident Richard Bennett has been on fire recently. Richard competed and won first place in the RP3 Bass King Tournament on Bayou Liberty last week and this past week he won the Manchac Bass Tournament with a 5-fish limit weighing in at 8.8 lbs. Richard says he realized he had a shot at winning when he got back to weigh in his fish and heard everyone complaining about how tough the conditions where. “When I got back to the launch I heard everyone bellyaching and complaining that they couldn't get any good fish or even a limit. That’s when I really got excited! I couldn't wait I bring my fish up to the scales!” Richard said.
