 Keith Lusher
Bayou Cane can be very deceiving In the month of February. The shallow, narrow bayou muddies up quick with a good downpour, but don't let the waters appearance discourage you. Bayou Cane is a proven cold water hot spot for wintertime bass. I like to break Cane down into two scenarios when fishing in February. When the water is fair to clean, target the shoreline along the northern portion of the bayou near the launch. Texas rigged worms and craws in black and blue work best. I've had success with the RP3 Blue Sapphire and Shu-Shu Marsh Craw in Blackenrage color. Fish your way south to the marsh and then focus in on the drains and fish not only the sections where the marsh empty into the bayou, but the center of the main bayou. Often times that is the deepest section of the bayou and marsh bass will be gathered there. The other scenario is when Bayou Cane is muddy. Throw chromed colored Rat-L-Traps, not only along the shoreline but down the middle of the bayou. Use the muddy water to your advantage. The fact is, these fish are there it's just they need a little help finding your lure. That rattle may be just the thing they need to find it. After working your way south to the marsh, once again target the drains but find that clear water line that is spilling out from the marsh. Fish that line where the muddy water meets the clean water. Bass will hold along the muddy side waiting to ambush baitfish that are in the clean water.
On days with below average temperatures this winter anglers need to go deep. For those targeting bass, focus on itersections on Bayou Castine where two major channels connect. These intersections will be the top spots for finding schooling bass on the bottom. Throw jigs on the bottom or deep-running crankbaits. Anglers might have more luck targeting catfish this month with rod-n-reel or lines. It's not quite time for the frog scene but for those frog throwers, spring looks as if it's coming early this year. Maybe next month we'll be able to bust out the Spro's!
The Causeway should produce late winter trout for trollers. Keep an eye on the water temps as a slight warm up could be the thing that flips the switch. Look for boxes of 10-15 fish in late February with the way the water is looking. If you do fish the Causeway your best bet will be trolling as the trolling bite picks up when water temps are in the upper 50's and low 60's.
 Daniel Sissac Roger Sissac
Wow, how do you follow a month like January, which had six to eleven inches of snow,
depending on where you live? We are forecasted to start February with temps reaching
70° and more (last week was in the 20s!), so the water temps should have recovered
from the “snow week”. With normalized water temperatures, the fish will start to
be a bit more predictable. Look for bass to be on the shoreline in the morns once
the sun has risen. Concrete and rip-rap will transfer to the water the heat they
absorb from the early-morn sun, so this is a good place to begin your trip. Once the
sun has been up for a couple hours, the fish will start to move off the bank. A lot
of the shoreline of Bonfouca has a ledge just outside the grass line. The fish will
move to this ledge once the sun starts to climb the sky; there are two reasons for
this. Firstly, the shallow water at the shoreline will become uncomfortable as it
heats, so slightly deeper water is a little cooler. Secondly, it is easier for
overhead predators to see fish in the shallows. There are many osprey that
“fish” Bonfouca, so the piscatorial residents know they should not be in shallow
water, especially on clear, sunny days. A soft plastic, such as a worm or fluke, can
be fished from early morns to late evenings with just a slight adjustment of weight.
I usually start the day with a 1/32 ounce bullet weight; once the sun has risen and
the fish move to deeper water, I will go up to a 1/4 ounce weight. This may not seem
like a lot of weight to you, and it really isn’t. I try to use as little weight as
I can, but just enough to help me cast a little farther and keep the lure where I
want it. The lure will fall more naturally and stay in the strike zone longer with
less weight. Regarding colors, I really only fish two - I always have a
Luck-E-Strike electric-blue and/or a tequila-sunrise worm on my rod. I have fished
electric-blue worms for over thirty years in every (air and water) temperature,
water clarity, and condition, in several states; this color has never let me down!
The closest thing I can say it resembles in nature is an eel - I don’t really know
why it works, but it does. The tequila-sunrise color is what I grew up fishing in
the 1980s, and it has put thousands of bass in my ice chests. This color closely
resembles earthworms and crawfish. Actually, I have caught largemouth and spotted
(Kentucky) bass, bream, redfish, flounder, walleye, catfish, white bass, freshwater
drum, and speckled trout on both the colors I previously mentioned, but specks LOVE
the electric-blue worms (specks are known to eat eels, so I guess that’s why they
love it). As I said previously, use just enough weight to get the lure where it
should be.
Moving on to bream, these guys are scattered, but they can be found. Finding
structure is the first bit of advice. Structure can be grass, pilings, shells, or
the knees of the trusty Cypress trees. There are some knees just after the first
bend, if you’re heading toward the lake from Heritage Park, that consistently hold
bream, many of them! Sexee Shad in black/chartreuse is pretty much the only color
combo I use for bream. I fish the body on a 1/16 ounce jig head, tight-lined (no
float) 95% of the time. Cast it, let it sink to the depth at which the fish are, and
slowly retrieve it - to find the depth where the fish are, vary the time you let it
sink until you start to get bites. When I do fish it under a float, a slight twitch
is all that’s needed. If lures are not your thing, crickets will surely give you
some action. The most popular way to fish them is under a float with a small
pinch-on sinker; a weighted “cork” will help to cast farther. If the fish are
deep, a cricket can be fished with no float and a slightly larger pinch-on sinker.
Catfish are very frequently a bycatch when fishing for bream, so make sure your drag
can handle them. If you are interested in targeting catfish, the Cypress knees
always hold cats. Crickets and Sexee Shad, as I stated earlier, will entice some
fish, but cut bait or “catfish dough balls” should help to attract the targeted
species.
 Ronald Pierre
February on the Tangipahoa River can be a productive time to target the river for spawning bass, given the right river stage and weather conditions. Anglers should pay close attention to weather trends, approaching weather systems and plan trips accordingly. If we have a warming trend near the New and Full moons anglers should see a wave of bass wanting to push to shallow backwater areas to start their spawning rituals. Target areas away from the main river flow for example smaller sloughs, creeks, off canals etc. These areas will have warmer, clearer, and more stable water for bass to spawn. Look for areas with harder bottoms or hard cover when in search of spawning bass in these backwaters. For example backwater areas with old lily pad stems usually mean that there is a shallower flat in that area. Also this type of vegetation needs a lot of sunlight in order to grow, so the water in this area will usually sustains heat from direct sunlight making for a perfect breeding ground for spawning bass. Other things to look for are hard cover such as wood or rock. This cover or structure can come in two different forms such as manmade or natural. Manmade structures usually consist of docks, bulkheads, rock walls, boat launches, and bridges to name a few. These hold relatively deeper water and will position fish tighter to the cover, while natural hard cover such as cypress trees, lay downs, brush piles, and vegetation will be relatively shallower and hold fish more scattered around the cover. While both are different in some ways they both hold the same major ingredients that draw bass to these areas for the spawn. These ingredients are hard bottoms, protection from prey, ambush points for feeding, and they also hold heat. These are some of the main ingredients that I look for when fishing backwater areas during this time of year.
Lures: Bon Temps Rouler Thumper series in the Chartreuse Rumbler color is my favorite lure to throw first thing in the morning. This lure makes a great search bait when I am trying to cover water. It has a lot of thumping action and vibration that is very intrusive to bass while on beds. This mimics a Bluegill perfectly, and bass hate Bluegill during the spawn. They will strike at this lure out of reaction when protecting their beds. RP3 Nest Raider Series Bladed Jig is my go to lure if the water is muddy in the back water areas. After a rain muddies up these areas bass will still generally be in the same areas, but may be positioned tighter to cover or buried deeper in vegetation. This lure has a heavier thumping action that calls fish out of the cover during muddy conditions. This is great search bait especially if the water has some color to it. RP3 Nest Raider Swim Jig is another one of my favorite lures to use during the spawn. This lure isn’t like the latter of the two because this lure is a more target oriented bait when dissecting spawning areas. If I find bass that are holding on a certain stretch of bank with the first two lures. I’ll make other passes in the same area sometimes even fishing the same piece of cover I caught fish off of earlier with the other two lures. I will fish slower and more methodical picking every piece of available cover apart with this jig. This will allow me to pick up bass that I may have passed up on the first pass of fishing the area. The main thing I would look for during this time of year is weather trends. Mother Nature has a big impact on what bass do during the spawn. It dictates if bass pull up shallow to backwater areas, or if they continue to stage deep waiting for warmer, stable weather to arrive. Watch the weather closely to plan trips and tactics accordingly. |
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