 Keith Lusher You may have to turn the pages back quite a bit to recall the last time you caught decent sized croakers in Lake Pontchartrain. Miriam and Rex Davey of Baton Rouge made a trip to the Causeway in search of speckled trout and ended up catching a few, but what they didn’t expect was to box more croakers than trout. “We caught only a couple keeper trout, but put about 8 beautiful silvery-lavendar croakers in the box. I’m hoping it’s a good sign,” Miriam says. The team was using double rigs with Matrix Shad in the Lemonhead and Midnight Mullet color. The croakers preferred a tandem rig tipped with dead shrimp, worked quickly back to the boat. “I haven't seen croakers that big since I was a girl and fished with my cousins in Ocean Springs, MS, in the late 1960's. I think one weighed as much as a pound, which is heavy for a croaker! It’s hard to beat croaker on the plate,” says Miriam. This may be a good sign for the future as large croaker have all but abandoned the lake for the past few years. |  Rex Davey unhooks a Causeway Croaker |
Rigolet’s Red’s
Roy Pengergraft of Covington made a trip to the Rigolet’s with his Wife and Grandson and says there were plenty of redfish in the marshes. “We caught a number of Redfish, kept 6 and released others to fight another day,” he says. Roy’s grandson wanted to try and catch speckled trout, but that just wasn’t in the cards for this day as they couldn’t escape the redfish bite. “My Grandson wanted to catch some speckled trout but all I could put him on was some 18" to 24" redfish. All were happy and I had the boat and fish cleaned by 2:00 P.M,” Pendergraft says. All the fish were caught on Lemonhead Matrix Shad on a 1/4 oz. unpainted jighead bounced off of the bottom along the edge of grass line. “It was a great day to enjoy South Louisiana marsh fishing,” Roys adds.
Trestle Limit
For anyone who has ever fished the Trestles in Slidell, the words “easy” and “limit” are hardly ever spoken in the same sentence. Jerry Fazzio of Slidell made a trip to the train bridge and says “It's not an easy place to get bit. Sometimes it beats all of us, and sometimes we get to harvest a few fish. Sometimes we catch a few and other times draw a blank, but the key is to never give up.” The grizzled veteran made a trip to the bridge and started fishing around 10:00 am. “I started at firebreak #2 on the east side of the bridge and picked up 2 specks. Then I Made a whole lot of moves all the way to the south draw, or where it used to be anyway,” Jerry says. It wasn’t until the tide transitioned when Fazzio started catching. “Fishing was slow until the tide changed to incoming. 80% of fish caught were on the west side of tracks after the wind picked up to about 10-15 mph from the Southeast,” Fazzio says. He ended the day with a limit of 14-17" fish with 2 throw backs all caught with plastics.
Tchefuncte Sac-a-lait
While folks are waiting for the water to clear up on the Tchefuncte River, Martin Duvic is catching white perch. Devic made a trip and say the conditions left something to be desired. “The conditions were perfect! Blue Sky, muddy water and a good wind,” he sarcastically declared. Martin concentrated on lay-downs and managed to catch 40 sac-a-lait, with 20 of them being throwbacks. Martin says the magic bait for this day was a black, green and chartreuse tube jig tightlined along the lay-downs.
Roy Pengergraft of Covington made a trip to the Rigolet’s with his Wife and Grandson and says there were plenty of redfish in the marshes. “We caught a number of Redfish, kept 6 and released others to fight another day,” he says. Roy’s grandson wanted to try and catch speckled trout, but that just wasn’t in the cards for this day as they couldn’t escape the redfish bite. “My Grandson wanted to catch some speckled trout but all I could put him on was some 18" to 24" redfish. All were happy and I had the boat and fish cleaned by 2:00 P.M,” Pendergraft says. All the fish were caught on Lemonhead Matrix Shad on a 1/4 oz. unpainted jighead bounced off of the bottom along the edge of grass line. “It was a great day to enjoy South Louisiana marsh fishing,” Roys adds.
Trestle Limit
For anyone who has ever fished the Trestles in Slidell, the words “easy” and “limit” are hardly ever spoken in the same sentence. Jerry Fazzio of Slidell made a trip to the train bridge and says “It's not an easy place to get bit. Sometimes it beats all of us, and sometimes we get to harvest a few fish. Sometimes we catch a few and other times draw a blank, but the key is to never give up.” The grizzled veteran made a trip to the bridge and started fishing around 10:00 am. “I started at firebreak #2 on the east side of the bridge and picked up 2 specks. Then I Made a whole lot of moves all the way to the south draw, or where it used to be anyway,” Jerry says. It wasn’t until the tide transitioned when Fazzio started catching. “Fishing was slow until the tide changed to incoming. 80% of fish caught were on the west side of tracks after the wind picked up to about 10-15 mph from the Southeast,” Fazzio says. He ended the day with a limit of 14-17" fish with 2 throw backs all caught with plastics.
Tchefuncte Sac-a-lait
While folks are waiting for the water to clear up on the Tchefuncte River, Martin Duvic is catching white perch. Devic made a trip and say the conditions left something to be desired. “The conditions were perfect! Blue Sky, muddy water and a good wind,” he sarcastically declared. Martin concentrated on lay-downs and managed to catch 40 sac-a-lait, with 20 of them being throwbacks. Martin says the magic bait for this day was a black, green and chartreuse tube jig tightlined along the lay-downs.
