Capt. Lee Daughdrill caught monster speck in West Cove on a 5-inch ruby red Slick Lure
Westlake’s Lee Daughdrill and his wife Carrie were waiting out a Tuesday afternoon thunderstorm at Calcasieu Point Marina south of Lake Charles.
They sat for two hours — and there were some big reasons behind their patience on April 11.
Big — like 9 pounds big.
Daughdrill, the 29-year-old owner-operator of Calcasieu Point Charters LLC (337-540-2382) and his clients had been on a great run of huge speckled trout for a couple months — and fish size had been increasing.
“They have all ranged from 3 pounds up to my 9.2-pounder taken Tuesday,” he said. “We’ve taken lots of 5s and 6s, and I’ve taken five over 8 pounds.
“When including my clients, we’ve had 12 over 7 pounds taken so far this spring.”
The guide said the cycle of big specks had occurred at several locations on Big Lake, including Deatonville, Commissary Point and the Old Settlement area.
On Sunday, there were several huge trout taken in West Cove, including a 7 ½-pounder caught by his client Sandra Wash of Westlake. Cody Wash also caught a 7-pounder the same day.
Carrie also scored on a hefty trout – a 7 1/2-pounder caught on an Egret Baits chrome-chartreuse Kick A Mullet.
Daughdrill fished the area all week as big trout continued to feed there.
“I actually lost a couple of giants earlier during the week,” he said.
After the storm passed, both anglers started casting topwaters and suspending baits, namely Egret Baits’ Zombie Ghost Walker and the Zombie R.I.P. Stik.
On another rod, Daughdrill had tied on a ½-ounce, 5-inch ruby red Slick Lure, a suspending plastic currently distributed by Egret Baits. The Slick was hooked weightless to an Owner Beast EWG 4/0 hook with a twist lock attached to the eye.
The rest of the angler’s tackle included a 6-foot 6-inch, medium-light fast-action Duce rod equipped with a 8:1 Concept C 13 Fishing reel spooled with 20-pound moss green PowerPro braid with a 20-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader.
As Carrie was dog-walking her topwater, a trout swirled at the bait at approximately 5:45.
“I knew it was a big fish when it swatted her bait,” Daughdrill said.
He immediately cast the Slick Lure under her topwater, and wound up hooking the huge speck.
“I let her run with it,” the angler said.“Carrie put her rod down to get the net as the fish made a run to the right of the boat.”
After a strong initial thrust, the huge speck made its way straight to the boat where she netted the fish.
When they returned to Calcasieu Point, Daughdrill put the fish on a scale and it weighed 9.2 pounds. It measured 29 ½ inches long.
Daughdrill’s trophy speck is actually a pre-spawn trout, as more and more larger sow trout are moving in and will be spawning on the southwestern end of Big Lake from May to September.
And the best may be yet to come as Louisiana records indicate three Top 10 trophy trout were taken during the month of May.
You can visit thhe Calcasieu Point Charters Facebook page for more photos of huge trout taken by Daughdrill and his clients.
