Keith Lusher Jr I had the pleasure of making a catfishing trip on the Tchefuncte River with Ponchatoula resident and all-around Northshore sportsman Todd Oalman. Todd has lived on the Northshore his whole life and knows the back waters like the back of his hand. From hunting woodies in the swamps near the Abita River, to running alligator lines on Bedico Creek, Todd has done it all and much like the Louisiana’s festival calendar in the spring, Todd’s annual calendar is always packed! March is the month when Todd starts running his catfish lines in the Tchefuncte River and says that this is the month when they start to run. “I’ll start running them in March because the bigger fish migrate back into the river from the lake and it's usually warming up so the catfish begin to feed more aggressively as they prepare for the spawn. Mid-March to mid-May is a really good time overall.” Oalman says because of the below normal temperatures on the river this winter the bait scene has been all but non-existent and he could tell by what the catfish were eating. “When I cleaned the first few fish I caught this month I noticed that there was a lot of vegetation in their stomachs. If these fish don’t have any bait to chase, they’ll turn the vegetation in the water in order to survive.” The Channel catfish found in the Tchefuncte River have a food conversion of approximately 2 lbs. of eaten food to 1 lb. of weight gain. Todd says that they are slender right now but this month he is starting to see more bait and by the end of April the fish that he’s catching right now will have added another 5-10 lbs. to their body weight from feeding on shad, shrimp, and crabs.
Todd Oalman If you’re running lines Todd recommends targeting the bends in the river where the deeper holes are located. Don’t be afraid to run your lines across the entire main channel of the river. House bricks work great as weights and tying them to the lines is easy because of the holes in them. Todd uses #48 tarred lined as his main line and uses #18 line as his drop lines with hooks at the end of them. He says it’s important to keep the hooks just off the bottom so he ties a brick every 50 or 60 ft.
For those of you who want to target catfish with a rod and reel Todd says to choose a bait that gives off a lot of scent. “On a rod and reel I would use something stinky, something that puts a trail in the water. I like to use cut bait like cut perch or cut mullet. Shrimp also works well. When I can’t get good cut bait I’ll sometimes use hotdogs. That’s a really good bait that people may overlook,” Todd says.
For those of you who want to target catfish with a rod and reel Todd says to choose a bait that gives off a lot of scent. “On a rod and reel I would use something stinky, something that puts a trail in the water. I like to use cut bait like cut perch or cut mullet. Shrimp also works well. When I can’t get good cut bait I’ll sometimes use hotdogs. That’s a really good bait that people may overlook,” Todd says.
MRGO
Luke O'Neal The MRGO is producing steady numbers of trout and redfish with the recent warm-up. Mandeville resident Luke O’Neal recently made a trip out to Chalmette to fish the wall with minimal success. Luke says when the wall didn’t come through he made a move and that did the trick. “We started deep jigging the wall but when that didn’t work out so we headed over to Bayou Bienvenue and caught one rat red. We then ran over to the MRGO and the sun came out. I think that’s what did the trick because it managed to heat up some oyster beds. We drifted across these beds and we found speckled trout, redfish, and flounder,” Luke said.
