|
Mister Flounder
 Keith Lusher
15-year-old Rhett Bernard of Covington is no stranger to freshwater fishing. His family's property contains a small pond in which the teen catches bass, catfish, and perch with regularity. So when Rhett was invited to his friends camp for fireworks and to fish Lake Catherine, he jumped at the opportunity. “This was my first time fishing saltwater so I was eager to see what I could catch,” says Rhett.
 Rhett with his first flounder of the day
The day started out slow for the teen as he could only manage a few hardheads using dead shrimp on a Carolina rig. Then, things started to pick up after a friend made a quick run to Island Marina off of Chef Menteur Hwy for a bucket of live shrimp. Within a few minutes of using live shrimp, Rhett was reeling in slowly and felt his hook snag something. “I was just reeling in a he hit it! I thought I was hooked on the bottom until I felt the line tug,” he says. Bernard reeled in his first saltwater fish; a 15-inch flounder. Rhett put the fish in the cooler as his friends gathered around trying to give him advice as to how to prepare it. As the discussion ensued, Brett repeated with another flounder around the same size and after hoisting in on to the wharf, Brett was quickly labeled “Mr. Flounder” by his kidding friends. At the end of the day not only did Rhett add a saltwater notch to his fishing belt, but earned a nickname to go along with it.
The Main Highway Bayou Lacombe bass angler Corey Labostrie has fished every piece of water that’s that connects to Bayou Lacombe in his 40 years of life on the bayou. The intertwining ditches and trenasses that meander through the duck ponds and marsh resemble a road map for anglers in search for traveling fish. But Corey says while the “back roads” that are located off of Bayou Lacombe hold numerous kinds of fish, it’s the main bayou that serves as the major highway. On his latest trip he paddled his 13-foot Coleman Canoe into a duck pond and was catching largemouth bass. He had 9 fish and was one away from his limit as he drifted out into the main bayou. That’s when the fun started. Corey casted out a 2.5 inch Z-Man Slim Swim on a 1/16 oz jig head and felt a few aggressive thumps. After setting the hook he reeled in a white bass. “Those white bass feel different from a regular bass. These fish are aggressive and when they hit, they thump it numerous times. Like a bump-bump-bump,” Labostrie says. Corey honed in on that one spot and caught 16 white bass within 10 minutes. “There’s a little ledge out in the main bayou where they where and they were schooling up right on that ledge,” he says. 
Labostrie caught this white bass on a Z-Man Slim Swim in Bayou Lacombe
At first glance, white bass resemble small striped bass with faint lateral stripes. But the two can be distinguished by tooth patches on the tongue and the head on the white bass is fairly small and pointed. Labostrie says there’s no telling what your going to catch especially when your fishing the main bayou. “There’s all types of different fish that congregate here and the main bayou is a major highway for these fish to get to where there going,” he says. |
 Keith Lusher
I created NFR.com in the spring of 2012. Since then it has helped link Northshore fishermen to valuable information and has filled the void of absent information on the web about fishing on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Northshore Fishing Report has morphed into a brand name and can be found not only on the web, but on radio and newspaper. As NFR grows I will continue to work hard at keeping NFR local focusing on local anglers, reports, seminars, and fishing tournaments in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parish. I hope you enjoy the website and If you have any questions please email me at: Keith@NorthshoreFishingReport.com
Look for the Northshore Fishing Report publication every Thursday in The Slidell Independent Weekly Newspaper!
|
