Keith Lusher Ray Miller of Madisonville is an admitted sac-au-lait addict. “Oh yeah, I got it bad,” Miller says. The 67 year old fisherman says he started fishing for sac-au-lait at an early age and got really good at fishing the lakes in Henderson Louisiana, but since moving to the North Shore in 1998, catching crappie on the Tchefuncte has taken him to a new skill level. “That was a rude awakening for me. It was almost like I had to learn how to fish for sac-au-lait all over again. The Tchefuncte River is an adventure to say the least,” Miller says. One of the biggest adjustments for Ray was getting used to the tide that affects the rivers here on the North Shore. “In Henderson we we didn't have to deal with tides so after moving here and fishing the Tchefuncte, I knew I was going to have to get used to dealing with moving water,” he says. Ray talks about a recent trip in which the tide played a crucial part in finding fish. “We were fishing in the river and there was zero tide. Nothing! After 2 1/2 hours we only had 2 fish in the boat. Then the tide started to move and we stopped at one more spot.
Ray Miller shows off one of his many "slabs" caught this day on the Tchefuncte River We were fishing a drop-off where it went from 14’ to 23’ and we started catching fish. On our way back we fished the same spots that we fished when there was no tide and we caught fish at all of them,” he says. Like most predatory fish, sac-au-lait feed when the bait presents itself and Miller says a moving tide helps stir the baitfish up. “There’s one spot where if it’s an outgoing tide I’ll catch them on one side of the brush pile and if it’s an incoming tide I’ll catch them on the other so it just depends on where it moves the baitfish,” he says. Miller has been fishing the main river but says it’s almost time to start move back into the dead end canals. At the end of February you really need to start working back into the canals. The fish move back into the shallows to spawn so the dead end canal will start producing,” Ray says. With the abnormally warm winter, anglers are reporting sac-au-lait chock full of eggs all across the North Shore which suggests the fish may be in the shallows earlier than normal. Ray says it’s a simple rig that he uses to fish the canals along the Tchefuncte. “I fish with a 1/64 oz. jighead. Something that’s going to sink really slow. I put a really small cork about 2’ above that and I’ll pitch it close to the shore and pop it and just let it settle. They’ll get excited when they hear the pop and then they’ll see the jig drop down slowly,” says Miller. As far as what color jigs to use. Ray says it’s all about what type of water he’s fishing. “If it’s clear water, I like the Monkey Milk color by Bobby Garland. If it’s muddy like it’s been recently, I like to use a mixture of orange, chartreuse, and white,”he says. When it comes to what type of day to fish, Ray says he tries to stay away from the sunny days. “I love to get out there when it’s an overcast day. If I have to fish on a sunny day I’ll get out there really early in the morning when the sun isn’t at a high angle,” Miller says.
