This bridge is like a 24-mile artificial reef that’s holding oodles of speckled trout right now.
Tedious. Boring. Congested. Long. Time-consuming. Commuters use all these words and more to describe their daily 24-mile trek across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway into the Big Easy.
But those who fish under the long double spans have a few additional words to describe it, such as incredible, fantastic and unbelievable! It’s a vocabulary I’m just beginning to learn as I try to fish the waters of the notoriously fickle lake more often.
Last winter, I made quite a few successful trips along the Causeway and rarely made a trip elsewhere because I just didn’t have to. And while I didn’t limit out on the Causeway, I always caught enough to keep me going back instead of making the long haul to my normal winter haunts in Delacroix, Hopedale and Shell Beach.
I was eager to find out what this winter would have in store, and finally, after what seemed like weeks of blustery winds, we had a window of opportunity to make a trip.
My cousin Brian Graves and I launched my 20-foot Polar at the Williams Boulevard backdowns, and made the 15-minute run to the south side of the long spans. I figured we’d fish from 4 to 9 miles out from the south side, which is where we did pretty well last winter.
And once again, I was set up to do some trolling with lead line along the spans. I’ve seen a number of boats trolling both the Causeway and the bridges on the east side of the lake, and it seems like everybody has their own favorite gear and technique.
I’ll tell you my technique, not that it’s superior to any other because it may in fact be less effective than what is employed by others. But this is the way I learned it from the old timers who’ve lead-lined the MRGO for decades and done so very successfully, and it has produced in the lake as well.
I spool up an Ambassadeur 5500 or 6500 with about 90 feet of 18-pound lead-core line. I tie the lead core line to a monofilament backer of 14- to 17-pound test. I tie a barrel swivel to the business end of the lead-core line, and to the other end of the barrel swivel, I tie an 18-inch leader of 30-pound mono to a MirrOlure 52M. I use the same 30-pound mono to add an 18-inch stinger to the end of the MirrOlure. For the stinger, I prefer to use a treble hook buried in a B2 squid, but those have been hard to find in our post-Katrina world, so I either modify a tube jig or just use a soft plastic grub or Cocahoe in glow or chartreuse on a 1/8-ounce jig. I attach the reel to a stiff 6-foot rod, and I’m ready to troll.
Through the years, I’ve seen at least a dozen variations of trolling rigs. Some folks substitute Rat-L-Traps or other lures, some use wire line instead of lead core and a wide variety of reels and rods. And some anglers simply cast out a ½-ounce jig with their favorite soft plastics, and troll with that, and they do so successfully, so there is no single right way to troll.
Probably the easiest way to get started is to buy a trolling rig already set up at Gus’ Tackle on the northshore. He sells a complete outfit for about $60, and it’s all set up and ready to fish.
So armed with four complete trolling rigs as well as our normal lake tackle, we headed for the long spans. We only fish two rods at a time, and I bring two extra for backup in case we lose a lure or some line.
I slowed the boat to its slowest possible speed in the middle of the two bridges, and we let our lures run out as we putted toward the north. I let the 90 feet of lead core line run almost completely out before I clicked the reel and put it in the rod holder.
This is the easiest way to fish in the world. We just sit and watch our rods as the outboard putters us alongside the bridge. You don’t even have to set the hook because when a fish strikes the moving lure, he hooks himself, and the rod jerks spasmodically to let you know you’ve got one on the line. All you have to do is lift the rod out of the rod holder and reel the fish in. Easy!
At least in theory. In practice, it can be an entirely different matter.
The night before we left, I called Capt. Herb Sale (504-640-2893), who fishes the Causeway regularly, often trolling with lead-core line just as we were doing. I was looking for a report, wanting to know if he’d been catching any fish along the long spans yet.
Sale said he had caught some fish on the north end, but he was mostly fishing the bridges on the east side of the lake. He did offer a good suggestion: Troll until you find some fish, and then try jigging that area to see if the fish are gathered up in that spot in some numbers.
With that plan of action in mind, we trolled. Fifteen minutes or so later, we had one on! It took the inside line, and put up a nice struggle, the action heightened by the fact that we keep the boat moving even as we’re reeling in a fish; otherwise, you run the danger of having a wild-running fish wrap all up in the other line.
We put the 2 1/2-pound fish on ice, and kept trolling. Three hours later, we returned to the dock with seven specks and a redfish to show for our efforts. Not what I’d call a banner day by a long shot, but at least we caught some fish, and any day on the water is a good day, whether you catch plenty or few.
Now I’ve said all this because, just two nights later, I was reconsidering our Lake Pontchartrain strategy for the winter when I got a phone call from my old friend and Lake Pontchartrain angler extraordinaire, Terry Googins.
Googins fishes the lake at least three days a week, and is a reliable source of good information whenever I want to know what’s biting and where. And every once in a while he calls to invite me along on one of his lake excursions. I’ve fished with him enough over the years to know better than to turn down such invitations, so when he said the fish were biting on the north end of the Causeway and he invited me aboard the next morning, who could refuse?
Googins said he was putting a spanking on some big speckled trout on the north end of the lake, from between 4 miles and 12 miles out. We met just after daybreak at the Mandeville Marina and headed to the long spans. Googins’ son, Terry Jr., came along on the trip, and said they’d limited out the last two mornings in a row, and this morning should be more of the same. Big Terry said the larger trout had definitely made a move to the long mid-lake bridge, leaving mostly smaller fish and lots of throwbacks on the east bridges.
We left the dock in a very light fog on one of the colder mornings of the year so far. I was bundled up in a jacket for the cold boat ride, while Googins was dressed as he typically does all year round — in shorts.
The sun, as predicted, warmed things up pretty quickly, and by the time we got into the fishing mode, I had shucked the jacket and started casting toward the legs of the bridge. There would be no trolling with the outboard motor pulling lead-core line on this trip because such a technique is just not a part of Googins’ arsenal. He is a cast-and-retrieve or cast-and-jig master, and when he fishes along the bridges, his method doesn’t vary.
Naturally, Googins sat at the trolling-motor control on the bow of the boat and worked his bait from the prime vantage point. Little Terry stood behind him in the mid-ship position while I stood on the rear deck to sweep up anything they missed, which can make for some slim pickings.
But the good thing about the Causeway is that the fish aren’t always right up against the pilings. Sometimes they hang off the pilings by 20 to 40 feet, and that makes it easier for those of us fishing sweep-up to get into some action.
And the action started soon after we arrived. Within minutes, Googins reeled in a hefty trout, and after missing several good thumps I reeled one in as well.
Googins says the trout are in constant motion right now and they tend to hover in an area in small pockets. The key to success is to keep moving until you get some action, and then work that area thoroughly. We started out fishing the west side of the southbound lanes. Googins used the trolling motor to keep us close enough to cast right up alongside the legs of the bridge because that is generally where they are. He is in no hurry to get to the next set of legs, but takes his time to work each side of each leg as well as the middle section between the legs. Once he’s convinced nothing’s there, he trolls to the next set of legs.
If after working several sets of legs in that fashion he has no action, he moves to the other side of the bridge. In this case, we passed under the southbound lanes and trolled along the east side. The good thing about that is it puts the boat between the two spans, and you can actually fish both the northbound and southbound lanes at once.
Then if he still doesn’t get into any good action, he pulls up the trolling motor and runs a mile or two to try another section.
“The bridge is so long the fish could be anywhere,” he said. “But instead of working hard on a section where I get no action, I move to another section of the bridge. Sometimes you’ll get into a school of smaller fish in a section, and you might want to move again a mile or so to see if you can locate some bigger fish.”
The water in the lake was almost crystal clear, and the visibility was a solid 6 feet. I did my best to mimic Googins’ technique. He uses a 3/8-ounce jig and a Hybrid lure in the key lime color, cast up close to the legs of the bridge. He gives the bait a few seconds to sink, and then tightens up the 17-pound Stren mono, and gives the bait a slight bounce or two off the bottom.
Initially, the fish gave our baits a decent thump, so you knew when they hit it. It wasn’t anything like the summer slam they hit with in the warmer months, but it was enough of a tap to let you know what was happening. He repeats the bounce, each time working the bait slowly back to the boat and keeping the slack out of the line.
Googins and his son are well practiced in the technique, and were putting some very nice fish in the box. I wasn’t doing too badly myself off the rear deck, and while I missed some nice fish, I also put quite a few in the boat.
For the most part, the action followed a pattern. We’d catch several fish in one section of the bridge, and then the action would die off. He’d move us to another section or another side, and we’d catch a few more.
The good news is that at almost every stop we caught fish. Some were small, and a few were throwbacks. But most were hefty. We also caught a few flounder, a couple barely legal reds (we threw back) and a bunch of gaspergou we also returned to the deep.
Googins says the fish have definitely taken up residence at the Causeway, and he says they’ll stay there all winter.
“If it gets real cold, the bite will be slower and you’ll have to slow down your presentation, but these fish have moved in here for the duration,” he said.
Which is something I’m glad to know because whether trolling or jigging, I’m planning to be on their welcoming committee.
