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
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