Specks biting in surf, as well as over main lake reefs, guide says
Despite rainy conditions just like much of South Louisiana has experienced for the bulk of the summer, speckled trout fishing out of Big Lake is on fire right now.
“It’s excellent. Water clarity is a lot better than it has been, and we finally got some good salty water in there,” said Capt. Nick Poe, with Big Lake Guide Service. “Things finally look like they should and the fishing has been fantastic — really, really good.
“I don’t see how it could get any better than what we’ve had in the last week or so.”
Big Lake has caught its share of daily rain, but Poe said they haven’t received massive amounts of river runoff that pumps freshwater into the Calcasieu Lake system.
“We’ve had a lot of rain, but most of it has been down on the coast so it doesn’t affect us as bad as if it rains 20 miles to the north,” he said.
Bait is plentiful now in Big Lake, Poe said.
“We’ve got shrimp, pogies, mullet …. One of my guides was catching fish yesterday and they were spitting sea bobs all over the bottom of his boat,” he said. “There’s definitely a lot of bait in the water.”
Poe said the surf-fishing has been solid, as have some reefs in the main lake, like Long Point and Commissary Point.
MirrOlure Lil Johns in watermelon red and opening night have been hot the last couple of weeks, and Poe always uses a ¼-ounce jighead.
“I’ll throw more topwater in the surf than I normally would, but I use the topwater to find fish in the surf — then once I find them I go back to a jig and catch them,” he said. “Usually, I fish one cast off the beach, and I’ll cast straight off the bow and troll down the beach.”
The bite in the lake has been earlier in the morning, but Poe said on the beach it lasts pretty much all day.
“Most of our tide right now is east to west in the Gulf,” he said. “I like to fish incoming tides on the beach, but at the rigs it’s just a matter of finding where the fish want to hang out.”