The Northshore Fishing Report

Trestles Heating Up!

5/1/2017

Keith Lusher

John Mayeaux of Slidell, took a day off during the week to take his kids Kathryn and Christian fishing while they had some time off. After a short boat ride he decided to stop and fish on the west side approximately a half-mile south of Trestle drawbridge. He rigged the kids with a sliding cork and armed them with live shrimp. “Sliding corks at Trestle are a new thing for me, but it gives the kids something visual to rely on rather than just the feel,” he says. It didn’t take long for the action to start. “My son caught keeper trout on his first two casts,” John says. The trout action didn’t last long but luckily the family started catching croakers. “We caught fish from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and the wind picked up big time and the waves got pretty bad. Then the trout bite died off and croakers showed up,” John says. Mayeaux decide to call it a day and the team finished with 10 keeper speckled trout and several small croakers.

Christian Mayeaux is all smiles with a speckled trout caught a the Trestles

Kathryn Mayeaux caught this speckled trout at the Trestles on live shrimp

Justin Bowles made a trip with a friend to the train bridge and says the boats were thick during the morning hours but dissipated when the winds picked up to 15 mph. They ended up with 27 keeper trout but Justin says they should have had more. “We missed several trout at the boat due to conditions, but we also landed some nicer ones. From my experience the bigger ones bite the rougher it gets out there,” Bowles says. All the fish were caught on Matrix Shad in the Holy Joley color.

Alan Guenard about to clean his catch from the Trestles

Buddy Hereford and Alan Geunard made a morning trip to the bridge. They launched at Bayou Liberty Marina and made their way to what buddy refers to as his “favorite 5-mile-long reef.”
Upon arriving, the friends quickly learned that they weren't the only ones who favorited the bridge. “We expected to find a few boats along the track, but not the numbers we encountered,” says Hereford. They found an opening in the boat traffic around the 174 mark and started throwing Matrix Shad in numerous colors and finally found the best bite was on the “Tiger Bait” color. “Allen boated a nice 15” speck on a Tiger Bait Matrix, Then I followed suit, and it was on!” he says. The tide was falling but Buddy says the bite was best on the west side of the bridge. “The best by far was west side of the bridge, we casted parallel to the bridge about 20-30 feet out and let the tide move the lure to the pilings, some of them were caught off the bridge and we caught some close to the pilings,” he says. The team ended the day with 38 speckled trout that measures 12”-18” with 5-10 throwbacks.

Spring Fishing Seminar

4/17/2017

Keith Lusher

The NorthshoreFishingReport.com Spring Fishing Seminar was held at T-River’s in Madisonville. The seminar included numerous guest speakers from the North Shore and the overall opinion was that the saltwater fishing this spring should be outstanding with the caveat of the turbulent fronts the pass through. Captain Andy Jones of Wicked Charters spoke specifically about fishing the Causeway and said “I don't think we’re going to see the numbers at the Causeway but I do think we’ll see some bigger fish caught,” he said. Andy reminded people that speckled trout aren’t the only fish out there. “The Causeway was producing redfish when we were actually targeting trout this fall and then the Trestles heated up and that got most of the attention of anglers so the redfish are there and there are some good pockets of them right now,” He said.

Andy Jones talks Causeway fishing

Gallo says the majic temperature for tripletail is 74

Mike Gallo of Angling Adventures of Louisiana reminded fishermen that the time to catch triple tail is nearing and it’s all about water temperature. “The earliest I’ve ever caught a triple tail was in May. I’m very conscious of water temperature so I can remember seeing a triple tail, immediately looking down at my depth finder and it read 74 degrees. Now the latest I’ve ever caught one is in October and coincidentally the temperature was 74 degrees. So I believe 74 degrees or higher is the key to these fish coming into Lake Borgne,” He said. Brooks Levy of OfFISHial Charters concentrates on the Lake Borgne and Biloxi Marsh area and spoke about favorable winds. “The good thing about the Biloxi Marsh is you can fish a variety of areas where you can get out of the wind. If the wind is blowing hard out of the south east you can work that outside portion of the marsh. If the wind is blowing out of the west you can move into that protected area of marsh and fish the banks inside the canals,” he said. The seminar also feature guest speakers from two local rivers that are always front and center in the world of freshwater fishing on the North Shore.

Brooks Levy talks Biloxi Marsh

Jeff Bruhl spoke about sac-a-lait fishing in the Tchefuncte River this month. “I think the spawn is pretty much over for the sac-a-lait. There are a few little spawning areas left but when this water starts heating up and we get closer to summer what I’ll do is switch over to shiners and work a few tree tops until I catch one and when I catch one that’s usually were I’ll find more, on the same tree,” He said. Local Bayou Lacombe angler Forrest Green has been fishing the bayou since he was 6 years old and said Bayou Lacombe offers great sac-a-lait fishing near the launch. “If you launch at the Main St. Launch and you head south you’ll find a canal on the right, it’s a dead-end canal. Concentrate on the bushes that line the canal. The crappie will get in there around this time of year,” he said. The good thing about Bayou Lacombe is the access anglers have to the whole lake. Mr. green talked a little about speckled trout fishing and his normal spring routine. “Those trout will start showing up in the spring at the Trestles first. I’ll make the run out to the Trestles and do really good out there but they’re going to typically move west so I’ll run out of Bayou Lacombe to those reefs and do well there. Then when everybody catches on to that I’ll run even more west to the Causeway and do well there so these fish have a pattern in the spring and you’ll see them moving west up until the summer,”he said.

Mr. Sensitive

4/3/2017

Keith Lusher

In the world of sac-a-lait fishing, there is one sought after trait in a fishing rod that all anglers will agree is important to catching more fish. That trait is sensitivity. Sac-a-lait are unarguably the most subtle biting fish that an angler can target here on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. They are known to hide in submerged branches and underneath tree trunks that line the rivers and bayous and often suspend at depths that most fisherman never attempt to fish. The anglers that target them are a rare breed and the rods they use are the most important tools in their arsenal of equipment.
I witnessed this first hand when I recently made a fishing trip with a gentleman that is one of the best crappie fisherman on the North Shore. John Guillot lives in Kiln, Mississippi and fishes the Pearl River Navigational Canal between Lock #1 and Lock #2. I met John at the boat launch on Lock #1 Road and upon entering his boat noticed what looked like fly rods in the holders that spanned the entire side of his boat.

John fixes a black and chartreuse skirt to his jighead before making his first cast

I pointed them out and he confirmed that they indeed were fly rods. 9’ graphite saltwater poles strung with fluorescent yellow monofilament line that ended with a 2’ leader of clear mono filament line. As John opened up the engine and headed north of Lock #1, my attention went from the poles to the amount of boats fishing near the shoreline. John pointed their way and shook his head. “They're fishing too shallow, those fish are deeper,” he shouted over his wining 90 Yamaha. We passed the cluster of boats and settled near a stretch of shoreline that was peppered with fallen trees. John dropped the trolling motor in the middle of the canal and used the quiet battery powered engine to slowly maneuver to his destination approximately 20’ from the shoreline.

Guiloots Hummingbird helix 7 shows sac-a-lait suspended 5 ft down

He pointed at his Hummingbird and confidently pointed out all of the fish that were layered around a submerged treetop. “They’re here, we just need this sun to come out,” John said as he looked to the sky. “I’ve found that if we have sunlight and the suns bright, the fish are more active, they’re more aggressive, and there’s more baitfish. The brighter it is, the better the fishing out here,” he said. I reached down to grab my rod and John stopped me. He told me to use one of his.

John slings a crappie in the boat that hit near the surface

I unhooked the black and chartreuse jig and lowered it into the water about 6’ down. I watched John lower his jig into the water but he only lowered it 2’ down. “What you want to do is lower it about 2’ down. What this does is it let’s the more aggressive fish have a chance to come up and strike the bait without disturbing the school. There may be 3 or 4 fish in that school that will come up and bite before I’m forced to put my lure down into the actual school of fish,” he said. As we both stood quiet I felt a few ticks on my line. I tried setting the hook but nothing was on the other end. John told me that I was feeing the fish swim by the line. “It’s incredible what you can feel with these rods and the new rod tips that I switched over to,” he added. He went on to explain how he ordered a new rod tip to replace a broken one on his Rojo Grande Fly Rod. They were thicker and fatter than what he thought he ordered and was first disappointed when he attached the new tip to the pole. “What started out as a mistake became a huge improvement. The tips are so small in diameter that there’s zero flex or deflection of the ring.

Guillot pulls a sac-a-lait from the branches before netting it.

The entire bite is transferred to the blank itself,” he said. We continued to fish and John picked up a small one but the sun was still blocked by the tree line. “Just wait. Wait till that sun peeks over those trees and into the water,” he excitedly whispered. We continued from tree to tree and right on cue, as the sun started shining on the spots we fished. We caught more fish. It wasn’t fast action by any means, but we picked up 4 or 5 fish on every tree. “You have to work at it. Most people come out here and if they don’t find them within an hour they think they’re not biting, but you just have to keeping working at it,” he stressed. As we worked down towards the camps on the canal we approached our final fallen tree. An old pine that’s canopy was half submerged. John said “I’ve pulled some real slabs from this spot. This trees got some monsters on it.” We eased in and started fishing. John snagged one and flipped a 9” fish into the boat. I started to get excited but what happened next will be permanently burned into my memory. I looked back and lowered my line into a 1’ opening between some branches. I lowered it 2’ down and left it there for about 12 seconds. I then lowered it down 5 more feet and felt an ever so subtle tap. I instinctively whipped the rod up and the rod drag “eeeeked” as if I set the hook on a log. I felt it pull back and knew I had something special. It didn't take long to see the fish as we were fishing near the boat, but when it surfaced John called out, “Your gonna need the net.” He grabbed the net and scooped the slab into the net. I unhooked the fish and held it up with two hands in amazement. John broke out the digital scale and hooked the fish on.

a 2.11 lb. Lcok One Sac-a-lait caught on a Bobby Garland all black jig

“2.11 lbs. That’s a slab right there!” John called out. It was the heaviest sac-a-lait I’ve ever caught. We ended the day soon after and counted up a total of 28 sac-a-liat. John says the bite at Lock #1 isn't over by any means. “These fish are still chock full of eggs, we’ve still got a long ways to go this month,” he adds.

Eden Isles Under the Lights

3/31/2017

Keith Lusher

Brain May fishes the Eden Isles canals numerous times this month and says for fishermen who want to escape the wind, Eden Isles can produce a nice box of bass. Brain has a monthly report that summarizes the pattern that he’s figured out in the canals. “The bass in these canals are everywhere! I usually do very well for bass in the canals during the day. Early morning I’ll throw topwater baits towards the bank and as it gets warmer during mid-day, I turn to plastic and work the rock piles or under the docks.

“The bass in these canals are everywhere!"

The best bass seem to come from the canals along the Oak Harbor side, however I have snagged a few fatties from this side as well,” Brian says. The great thing about Eden Isles is it’s proximity to the lake which means a mix of saltwater and freshwater fish. Brian says in the afternoons he turns his attention to speckled trout. “Later in the evening I’ll turn to trout but they are hit or miss. I’ll throw the Victory Red Shu-Shu Slug or the yellow color and do well on the trout,” May says.

Bayou Bonfouca
George Nunez’s original plan was to fish the Trestles but with the high winds on the lake, he decided to stick with the bayou and chose to fish Bayou Bonfouca. “I had a notion of heading to the Trestles but it was way too windy for me by the time I got out there so went to my ‘plan b’ which was to fish for perch and bass. I hit my favorite spot and it was on! I got a bite on virtually every cast on a variety of plastics,” George says. Nunez fished from 11:00 to 2:30 in the afternoon and ended up with a limit of bass and 12 perch all caught on black and chartreuse colored plastics.

NFR Spring Fishing Seminar
The 2017 NorthshoreFishingReport.com Spring Fishing Seminar will be held on Friday, March 31 at T-Rivers in Madisonville. There will be a live band, raffles, and guest speakers including Mike Gallo of Angling Adventures of Louisiana, Andy Jones of Wicked Charters, Brooks Levy of OfFISHial Charters, Bayou Lacombe angler, Forrest Green, Tchefuncte River angler Jeff Bruhl, Todd Shultz of Dixie Trolling motors, and Jeremy Thebault of Jeremy’s Marine. The event starts at 6:00 and the admission is free.

Bonfouca Perch Jerkin'

3/13/2017

Keith Lusher

The warmer weather has sent the perch into the shallows on Bayou Bonfouca. Daniel and Roger Sissac of Pearl River recently made a trip to the bayou where the father and son team fished a mixture of plastic and crickets. “We had our usual crickets and Sexee Shad with us but this time I convinced my dad to try the lures since I was catching more than he was,” Daniel says. Daniel has been using strictly plastic on his trips with great results while his father, Roger, is a tried-and-true cricket fisherman. But on this trip, Daniel managed to talk him trying out the artificial. “Dad managed to get a few on the Sexee Shad but gave up and went back to crickets, Daniel says. The perch weren't as concentrated as they are used to seeing but Daniel says they still managed to put together a good box of fish. “We had to move around some but were able to put around sixty bream and a couple catfish in the ice chest. The Sexee Shad probably caught as many good fish as the crickets - although the crickets caught slightly more fish, they also caught small fish.”

Roger Sissac poses with his Bayou Bonfouca catch

Pearl River
John Guillot fished Lock 1 and says the sac-a-lait were hungry. An indicator of this is obvious by the way the fish were swallowing his jigs. “I had to use needle nose pliers to remove the hook without killing the fish for several fish,” John says. All his fish were caught using black jigs on a black jig head. John says he makes these himself and does it because he likes the way the head rolls over the wood structure. “I cast my own heads with a 2X Fine wire hook. This jighead is a Do-it Bullet 1/8oz. After casting, I powder coat and bake the finish on. These heads roll over limbs making it easier to fish in the limbs,” he says. None of the fish came in less than 7’ of water and the surface temperature was 66 degrees.

Bayou Liberty

Hunter Parrett shows off his Bayou Liberty sac-a-lait

Chris Parrett and his son made a quick trip to Bayou Liberty and says the fishing was tough because of the strong west winds and bluebird skies. We tried to get on a sac-a-lait bite. We picked up one bass on the main bayou, north of the bridge on a Road-Runner. Then we ducked into a small cut and started throwing a tube jig,” he says. In addition to the tough conditions, Chirs’ trolling motor wasn’t working properly. “The trolling motor plug was giving me issues so I decided to call it a day. We ended up with 2 sacs, 1 bass and a goggle eye. It was a very short trip but I was glad I was able to get on water even for a little bit,” he adds.

Lure Thieves
Neither Slidell Sheriffs Department nor the LDWF wants to pursue the case so Sam Coco Jr. of Slidell is taking his story to the public. Sam was fishing the Oak Harbor inlets near his home and says numerous garfish made off with some of his very expensive lures. “Monday was an expensive day of fishing. I Managed to catch one speck but in the process, lost 3 Mir-O-Lures. They were all the 32m-18 model. There may be reward for return of these lures and the garfish do not have to be attached,” Sam jokes.

<<Previous

Forward>>