Crankbaits certainly whack the speckled trout in the spring, but Arthur Borchgrevink doesn’t put them away when temperatures soar.
While speckled trout move outside for their summer spawn, bass and redfish slip into the same grassy ponds the trout were in leading up to the summer.
“I love to fish the ponds if it’s not too hot,” Borchgrevink said. “I like to stay in stuff that’s not any deeper than 6-feet deep.”
Borchgrevink uses the same crankbaits for redfish and bass that he does for speckled trout.
But he moves closer to the banks.
“I fish both the grass edges and the points,” Borchgrevink said. “I try to parallel my bait to the shoreline. It gives me an ability to keep the bait in the strike zone longer, as opposed to throwing it perpendicular to the shore and cranking it away.”
If you’re not a fan of a mixed catch, fishing the ponds in Delacroix is most definitely not for you. Borchgrevink finds a good mix of redfish and bass roaming the grass — and he even occasionally finds a few speckled trout that didn’t get the memo to move outside.
In fact, it’s kind of hard to target either reds or bass because they’re so mixed.
Borchgrevink finds bass and reds hang out best in grass just below the surface.
“I prefer the ponds to have grass that is sunk under the water, as opposed to those big matted beds of grass — but if it has the matted bed, I fish on the outer edge of it, and the fish come out from under the thick grass and kill the bait,” he explained.
Time of day you fish doesn’t seem to be all that critical.
“I think the bite is equal in the morning and in the evening,” Borchgrevink said. “It just depends if there is bait in the area. If you see bait in the area, you can believe you’re going to get a strike.
“If you see the shiners, shad or shrimp popping, there’s definitely fish in there — and you’re going to get strikes all day as long as the bait is in there.”
However, Borchgrevink said it certainly doesn’t hurt to set your alarm clock.
“If I had my druthers, I’d go either in the morning or in the evening when that sun is at a different angle and the temperature cools down a little bit,” he said.
