Calcasieu Cleanser

Got the wintertime blues? Then get out on Calcasieu Lake this month for some very good cold-weather action.

Most people in Louisiana relate purging with cleaning a sack full of crawfish by making them vomit out impurities before they are dropped into a pot of boiling water.

Purging and impurities are the key words there because the act of purging is typically associated with getting rid of something bad.

In Southwest Louisiana, purging takes on a different meaning for those who love to fish Calcasieu Lake. According to Capt. Norman Rester with A-Speck Charters, winter rains that fall at the headwaters of the Calcasieu River near Alexandria fill the river with enough fresh water to push the salt water back toward the main lake.

“When that rains start coming in the winter, it sweetens the water in the river,” Rester said. “That sweet water will make its way to Lake Calcasieu pushing the salt water and the fish in front of it as it moves farther south. That sends more bait and more fish into the lake from up north around Lake Charles.”

That isn’t the only thing that happens during the winter to make Lake Calcasieu one of the top cold-water trout fisheries in the nation. Other natural forces are at work at the same time to push bait out of the marsh and into the lake, where hungry trout take advantage of their move to the big water.

Not only does bait from the north move back into Lake Calcasieu, bait that had been spending its time in the marshes and estuaries around the border of the lake is driven out into the open water because of falling temperatures and fresh water moving through the marsh.

I had the opportunity to sample some of Lake Calcasieu’s best cold-water trout fishing recently with Rester. Not only did I learn that the winter is one of the best times to catch numbers of trout on the lake, but January is also a great time to catch a big fish.

As we climbed aboard Rester’s boat at Spicer’s Bait and Tackle in Hackberry, I noticed there wasn’t a whole lot of other activity going on. We passed a boat or two on their way in as we idled out of Kelso Bayou, but we looked like the only boat going out.

“It’s not always like this,” Rester explained. “Anglers are going to be here when the bite is on no matter how cold it gets. In fact, one of my best cold-water trips was on Christmas Eve the year before Rita. There were 54 boats out fishing in Turner’s Bay that day, but not all of them were catching fish. We were one of the few that were, and we wound up catching our limit.”

Rester had it in mind that he was going to show me how to catch fish in the cold water, so he had tied on a couple 1/16-ounce jigheads and even a few that were only 1/8-ounce. We were heading to a couple of Rester’s best oyster reefs, but like any fishing day, we quickly realized that we were going to have to adjust our plan.

The first reef we fished was one on which Rester had been hammering some quality trout in the days leading up to our trip. The reef was on a point where the bayou opened up into Turner’s Bay just to the west of where the pipeline is being put down.

Rester fished a glow/chartreuse Norton Sand Eel, a soft plastic with which all Calcasieu anglers are familiar, and I tried a lure that seemed only too fitting for the occasion, a Calcasieu Brew-colored Saltwater Assassin Sea Shad.

Our efforts weren’t rewarded as handsomely as Rester thought they should, and he just couldn’t keep is eyes off a group of birds that were picking bait in the distance. We abandoned our reef pattern, and headed to the birds. On the way over, Rester explained what anglers could expect during the winter.

“There are a lot of forces at work during the winter that determine what the trout are going to do,” Rester said. “A lot of the bait and the trout move to the Ship Channel during winter because they can always find salt water and warmer temperatures near the bottom. From there, the trout will move out on the flats during warming trends and when the salt water starts pushing back some of the sweet water.”

Rester explained that there would also be some birds picking as long as there were shrimp in the lake. The shrimp that move out of the marsh are easy pickings, and Rester said Southwest Louisiana has such mild winters that he has seen shrimp popping in the lake during January.

“When you take all that into consideration, I’d say that the two primary patterns for January are fishing the oyster reefs and fishing under the birds if they are picking,” Rester said. “Once the shrimp are gone, though, the fish will move to the oyster reefs and hug close to bottom. They become somewhat lethargic, so you have to go light and slow down to catch them.”

Rester shut down his boat several yards away from the birds, and used his trolling motor to approach the action. We immediately started picking up fish under the birds, but the action didn’t last long.

Bird action during the winter tends to be sporadic and short-lived. According to Rester, it’s not unusual to catch just a few trout before having to crank up and head to another group of birds.

“Most any kind of plastic will work under the birds,” Rester said. “Glow/chartreuse, pearl/chartreuse, black/chartreuse and the LSU color Sand Eels are all good at times. Getting a bait in there quickly is more important than what bait or color you throw.”

When the bird action stops, Rester hits a couple of his favorite oyster reefs. This is when his experience on Calcasieu pays big dividends in the form of big trout. His patterns differ based on when he fishes them, but each of his techniques is productive throughout the winter months.

“What typically happens is that trout move out of the Ship Channel on warm days to look for schools of finger mullet on the reefs,” Rester said. “It’s not too hard to find them if you just drift the reefs on the warm days, but you may have to play around with a couple different baits to catch them.”

Rester first tries suspending lures like a MirrOlure Catch 2000 or a Corky. These baits often fool the largest trout during the winter because they closely imitate the big finger mullet on which the trout are feeding. Bone-colored lures probably fool more big trout than other color, but Rester said black/chartreuse can be a killer, too.

If they don’t eat the suspending baits, Rester said the next best thing to do is to fish soft plastics slowly on the bottom. This is why he had his plastics rigged on 1/16- and 1/8-ounce jigheads on the day of our trip.

“You want the bait to fall slowly and let it flutter on bottom,” he explained. “They can get a little lethargic this time of year, and it’s kind of like finessing a big bass with a jig in cold water. Moving a bait fast and jerky isn’t going to look natural in cold water when everything in the water is moving slow.”

Rester makes a few changes during the winter that help him feel the mushy bites typical of cold-water trout. He regularly uses 12-pound-test line, but he switches to braided line during the winter because it helps him feel his bait and the bites better.

While we weren’t worried about water depth while we were fishing under the birds, Rester made it a point to explain that water depth would be a key factor when fishing the oyster reefs during winter.

“Trout move around based on water temperature and the weather,” Rester explained as we returned to the reef where we started. “You’re liable to find them at 4 feet one day and 6 to 8 the next.

“The lake only averages about 6 feet, though, so finding the subtle depth changes can open the door for any angler. And it’s not the oyster reefs themselves that provide the depth changes. Rather, it’s changes in the bottom that you’re looking for.”

As Rester and I idled back to Spicer’s, we talked some more about things anglers need to remember about fishing Calcasieu Lake during January. Rester quickly pointed out that the fish tend to gang up pretty thick in the cold water, so he insisted that anglers should sit still for a while when they get a bite or two.

“Where you catch one,” he said, “you’ll often catch two.”

Two other anglers who spend a lot of time on Calcasieu Lake during the winter are Jeff and Mary Poe with Big Lake Guide Service. Mary Poe said that January is her favorite month to trout fish because it’s a great time to catch a trophy trout at a time when she can have the lake almost entirely to herself.

“We fish a lot in January when the weather is right,” she said. “And the main criteria for the weather to be right is that the wind be 10 m.p.h. or less. As long as we don’t get a lot of hard rain, the water will stay in good shape, and the trout will be looking to feed on mullet.”

Poe agreed with Rester’s assessment that there could still be some birds picking early this month, but she went on to caution that the fish under the birds are more likely to be redfish than trout because they have switched to feeding more on mullet than shrimp.

The way the birds work in the winter is that they are fewer and more scattered in December than they were in November, and they are more scattered and fewer in January than they were in December.

“Shrimp will be in the lake until we get a strong front that has three days of strong north winds,” Poe explained. “That will get rid of the shrimp by pushing them out. Until that happens, you can try the birds.”

Poe said she and her husband rely heavily on the subsurface hard baits during January because they are best for catching the trophy trout. They fish the typical favorites like the Catch 2000 and Corky Devil, but there is no doubt that the jointed Storm Thunderstick has put more fish in their boats than anything else.

“That Thunderstick is something we throw a lot in January because it allows you to fish anywhere from right on the surface down to about 6 inches,” Poe said. “It’s hard to get them to come up and eat on the surface this month, though, because the mullet aren’t up there on the surface like they are during the summer.”

Poe likes to vary the action of the Thunderstick until she determines what the fish like best. Some days they’ll attack it on a straight pull, while other days they’ll eat it best while floating to the surface after a pause. The pattern can change daily, so make sure to change it up until you figure it out.

Having the luxury of being able to pick the days that she fishes, Poe explained that she chooses the second day after a front when the wind gets calm right before the next front. These are the kinds of days that allow the shallow water to warm during the day, and that is what brings these big trout into the shallow water looking to eat.

“And if I could suggest one more thing that I think is important, it would be how critical it is to stay quiet,” Poe added. “Use your trolling motor as little as possible. We like to drift and anchor, drift and anchor. Using a push pole is another good way to stay quiet.”

It’s been said that winter is one of the worst times of the year for getting the blues. The cold weather and gray skies lead to physical and mental sluggishness. There’s no better way to pull yourself up out of the dumps than to purge your body of all its bad feelings by fishing Calcasieu Lake on a warm, sunny day.

The big trout pulling on your line probably won’t hurt either.

Contact Capt. Norman Rester at 337-884-0656 or 318-481-0049. You can also visit www.aspeckcharters.com. Contact Capt. Mary Poe at 337-598-3268 or visit http://www.biglakeguideservice.com.

About Chris Ginn 778 Articles
Chris Ginn has been covering hunting and fishing in Louisiana since 1998. He lives with his wife Jennifer and children Matthew and Rebecca along the Bogue Chitto River in rural Washington Parish. His blog can be found at chrisginn.com.