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The Specks Have Arrived
 Keith Lusher
Fall has finally made it to southeast Louisiana and with the cooler temperatures comes an explosion of baitfish along the northern shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain. Corey LaBostrie of Lacombe made a trip to the shoreline between the mouth of Bayou Lacombe and Goose Point in which he caught a box of trout jigging the bottom. He was using a Z-Man Minnow in the Houdini color on a 1/8 oz. jig head.
LaBostrie slings a trout into the boat caught near the shoreline
Corey says the most important factor in finding the trout along the shoreline is to find the bait balls. “The mullet are packed thick right now and those trout are right in the middle of them,” he says. The movement of bait along with the trout present a problem to those anglers who are used to staying put and keying on one spot. Corey says if you come out to fish the area, be sure to have your trolling motor battery fully charged. “Oh you’re going to be moving out here. Be ready to zig and zag all around this shoreline,” he says.
Corey caught this keeper trout using a Z-Man Minnow in the Houdini color
LaBostrie has been fishing the shoreline since he was a kid and says October means a lot to him. “I fish for bass all the time so when this time of the year comes around I go into saltwater mode,” he says. “This is what I wait for because I can catch the trout in the marsh or I can go out into the lake and catch them.” While most anglers aren’t catching limits along the shoreline, it’s reasonable to expect 15-20 speckled trout with a few redfish mixed in when fishing the shoreline.
Sheepshead at the Trestles Mark Sagerholm fishes from a kayak and admits filling the ice chest full of fish for a kayak angler is quite an achievement. He’s done it only twice in his life. “The first time was at Shell Beach in a tournament and the second time was fishing the north end of the Trestles,” he says.
Little did Mark know that on his next trip he would add a third notch to the “The Lid Won’t Shut” Belt. Mark’s usual pattern for targeting sheepshead on the southern end of the train bridge is to start at the turntable and work his way south but Mark jokes on this day, “My Spidey Sense was tingling and I went to the control platform.” He positioned his kayak next to a pylon and dropped a live shrimp straight down. Mark uses a drop-shot rig when fishing for sheepshead and on the first drop Mark felt the all too familiar tap….tap.tap, and set the hook. He reeled up the first of many sheepshead that he would catch at the bridge that day. “Every drop was a bite and every bite was a sheepshead!” Sagerholm says. He ended the day with 18 sheepshead which he later grilled and and gave to his wife for her to make Tex-Mex Fish Tacos. 
Sagerholm lays out his record setting catch from a kayak
 Jake and Bridget Impastato
Tournament Results Liars and Lunkers held their second tournament of the 2020 season at the East Pearl River. 20 teams entered for a chance at cash prizes and bragging rights. Most of the early morning chatter was about the high water caused by recent storm systems in the gulf. The wind finally shifted and the higher-than-normal waters in the Pearl River Basin had fallen just a couple days earlier. However, at the 3:00 PM weigh in it was obvious that there were some lingering affects from the recent storm system as the amount of bass and weights were considerably lower than normal. Only 12 limits of bass were brought to the scales. The team of Jake and Bridget Impastato came away with the victory with a limit of bass weighing 10.65 lbs. Second place went to Lashun Robertson and Kyle Hills with 10.02 lbs. Brandon Craft won third place with 8.90 lbs. Craft also took big fish honors with a 3.02 lb. bass. |
 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!
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Joe Picone joins the NFR Studio by phone to discuss the new improvements to the East Pearl River Boat Launch.
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The Marsh Martian Cory Labostrie joins the NFR Studio by phone to talk "Pushin' for Crabs" in Lake Pontchartrain.
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Dustin Touchet of Magnolia Outdoors joins the NFR Studio by phone to discuss his latest trip to Bayou Cane.
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Keith Lusher and Chris Basey review the past reports on NFR. Also introduce a new drawing for fishing reporters on the site.
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