The Mississippi River will be a key determinant on how the trout bite shapes up this month out of Delacroix, according to Capt. Mike Wittich.
Last June ,the river was high and fresh muddy water flooded much of the normal areas where the trout usually show up, said Wittich (who can be contacted at 504-577-4774).
“It was an everyday hunt for clean water,” he said. “We’d search all over for pockets of clean water and whenever we found good water, we found the fish. But they were a constantly moving target because the winds kept changing and moving the river water in different directions. It’d push the clean water elsewhere, and the trout along with it. We rarely got to fish the same area two days in a row because of it.”
But this year, he said hopefully, will be far better. Wittich usually concentrates his efforts on three big bays: Oak River Bay, Lake Campo and Bay Lafourche. By late in the month, he’ll start moving farther out into Black Bay and target the islands and various structures there (if the water is clean).
“But those three bays are where the trout will show up first,” he said. “I target points, islands, reefs and on some occasions, birds, but only when I’m not finding fish elsewhere because you catch so many throwbacks under the birds in the spring.
“Anywhere you get a good current line off a point or around an island, those are the places to toss a live shrimp about 2 ½ to 3 feet under a cork.”
Wittich likes hard plastic corks, and either a kahle hook or a small treble hook for your live shrimp.
If plastics are your preferred bait, he likes the lemonhead or shrimp creole Matrix Shad, or a salt and pepper shrimp worm tight-lined on a ¼-ounce jighead.
“Worse case scenario, we get lots of fresh water in the Delacroix waters, I just fish farther east toward the MRGO rocks and even Bay Eloi,” he said. “We’ll go wherever we have to go to find the fish.”
