If you’re not taking the time to look for these thin oil sheens, you’re not catching as many fish as you could be.
I had been watching the ever-expanding oily slick on the surface of Calcasieu Lake for 10 minutes or so. Capt. Jeff Poe acted like he didn’t even notice it. We had been discussing slicks and what causes them for much of the morning. Heck, we had already pulled in several trout off what Poe called little popcorn slicks. If those small slicks were so productive, why, then, weren’t we casting towards the large one I had been eyeballing?
Curiosity got the best of me, and I heaved my Catch 2000 to the edge of it. Poe began to chuckle, but otherwise paid me no attention. He continued hauling in trout after trout from the little slicks he was targeting.
I continued hauling water.
“You aren’t going to catch anything off that big slick,” Poe said with a grin as he bent over and reached for a rectangular can at the bottom of his boat. “Most of the time, big slicks aren’t that good anyway. But that one in particular doesn’t have any fish under it.”
I’m not from Texas, but I had to assume if a small slick was good a big one had to be even better. Poe explained the intricacies of slick fishing to me then reached his hand out and showed the can to me.
“That slick was my lunch,” he said while shoving an empty sardine can in my face.
The joke was on me, but what wasn’t a joke was the big old trout we caught around those smaller slicks. It got me to wondering about how these oily slicks are created, what creates them and how they are best fished.
Slicks can be found all along the coastal water of South Louisiana any time of year. They are essentially created because of a scientific principle we all learned in elementary school — oil and water don’t mix.
Freshwater anglers sometimes see slicks when their oily Fish Formula creates a sheen on the surface where their bait entered the water. They may also see them after draining a can of Vienna sausages into the lake.
Saltwater anglers, on the other hand, see slicks that are more often that not created by fish that are feeding on oily bait like pogies or mullet. Several theories abound about exactly how slicks are formed — the most famous of which is trout regurgitating after a heavy meal of oily bait.
None of the theories make more sense than the one presented by Capt. Erik Rue of Calcasieu Charter Service.
“I just don’t think a trout or redfish is going to puke up what he just ate,” Rue said. “That would kind of defeat the purpose of eating. I guess they could gorge so much that some of it would have to come back up, but I think it has more to do with the natural flushing motion of water through the gills of feeding fish.”
Rue’s slick theory is that the oil from a baitfish like a pogie is released when a trout or red gets it way down in its throat or in its crushers. The grinding or crunching makes the scales and oils from the bait release, after which it is flushed out the gills.
Therefore, it’s easy to see that slicks are important clues in finding feeding fish. While slicks are typically thought of as signaling the presence of speckled trout, they can also reveal the location of hordes of hungry redfish.
Figuring out which slicks to fish, how to approach them and how to fish them will go a long way in ensuring the success of saltwater anglers this summer.
As Capt. Bill Lake of Bayou Guide Service & Charters put it, “You need to look for signs of feeding fish to have success during the summer, and there’s no better sign than a slick.”
Pick Your Slick
Slicks can pop up any time anywhere. They can range in size from a hubcap to a swimming pool, and they can have hundreds of fish around, or they can have none. Although just about any slick can have fish under it, and they all deserve a cast or two, there are some slicks that should get your undivided attention.
“I like to see more than one slick in an area,” said Rue. “One is fine, but that one could be an old one, and the fish could have moved on. Finding two or three in a row of varying sizes is a pretty sure indicator that the fish are still right there.
“You’ll sometimes see a line of slicks with a big one at one end and a smaller one at the other. The smallest one is the freshest one.”
Lake said he looks for the little popcorn slicks in the surf around Last Island. He tends to stay away from the large slicks because experience has taught him the larger they get the staler they get.
“As a slick floats with the wind or current it spreads out and gets bigger and bigger,” he said. “It’s not always the case, but a big slick has usually moved off where it was initially formed, and it likely doesn’t have many fish under it.
“A moving slick doesn’t necessarily mean moving fish either. That’s why I like to find slicks that have just popped up. Those kind are just about guaranteed to produce some trout.”
One of the things Lake has seen time and time again in the surf is anglers fishing the slicks out in the second and third gullies. They’ll hit the brakes and run to the deck only to come up empty-handed because these slicks have already moved away from the first gully where they were formed.
“Look for them when they’re at their smallest,” he recommended. “Two to 3 feet in diameter is just about right. If you’re lucky enough to be there when they first pop up, you can maul them.”
Lake said big slicks sometimes indicate the presence of large schools of bull reds off places like Raccoon Point. Giant reds feeding on the flats form these huge slicks, and they are guaranteed places to get your string stretched by a big red in July, August and September.
Sizing Up Slicks
A line of varying-sized slicks is a good sign, according to Rue, because you can get an idea of which direction the fish are going, with the smallest one indicating the direction of movement.
“You can tell if they’re going against the tide or heading in a certain direction,” Rue said. “You know which way they’re moving without actually seeing the fish. You’ve got to use this knowledge to your advantage, and use the wind to help you come in from upwind.”
Rue said coming in upwind gives anglers two specific advantages. First, it allows anglers to stealthily approach the fish without having to use the trolling motor. Second, anglers can cast farther with the wind. Both mean anglers can approach the slick and fish it without the fish ever knowing they are there.
“It’s kind of a judgment call as to whether you approach the big end first or the little end,” Rue continued. “Just because there’s two or three small ones in front of a big one doesn’t necessarily mean much because you don’t know how many fish are there to create those slicks.
“I like to come up slowly and fish the entire area. Those small slicks could be a few fish in front of a big school. Therefore, I cast to the old ones first depending on how fast they’re popping and how far apart they are. Then I hit them all in succession believing that the most feeding action is going on where the newest slicks are.”
Rue added that treating slicks like a group of feeding birds would go a long way in helping anglers learn how to approach them. Shut down away from the slick, troll in using the wind as much as possible and keep your eyes peeled for fish.
Fishing Slicks
Thinking of a slick as a group of birds should also help anglers understand that it doesn’t really matter what kind of bait you throw on a slick. The fish are actively feeding, and they will attack just about anything that gets in their face. They key is to get a bait in there quickly.
“I really use just whatever I have tied on,” Rue said. “Those fish are already in an active mode, and I think the most important thing is to get a bait in front of them. They’re usually feeding on pogies and mullet, so minnow baits can work very well, although I’m not going to take the time to change if I don’t have one tied on if a slick pops up right in front of me.”
Rue said that minnow baits like a Catch 2000 are extremely productive and that sometimes these feeding fish can be pulled up with a topwater.
“If you’re sitting on a reef and a slick pops up, those fish are probably not moving that fast,” Rue said. “In that case, you have time to pretty much do what you want. But if you see slicks popping in open water, and you see them moving, it’s important to have a bait tied on that you can cast a long way. That will allow you to work the water faster and cover ground.
“Don’t pull up to a slick and get out your popping cork and shrimp. They’ll eat it for sure, but you don’t need a stationary bait in this situation. You need to keep moving and keep casting.”
Lake also believes catching fish from slicks has more to do with getting something in there quickly rather than what you get in there.
“We’re usually running on the trolling motor parallel to the beach when we’re fishing slicks,” Lake said. “Trout will get in the guts, so that’s where we look for the slicks.
“I don’t take the time to try to mimic the mullet and pogies that the fish are eating. I throw whatever I have tied on. More often that not, it’s an LSU Bayou Chub. But if we’re fishing live bait, I throw live bait in there. I don’t have a secret slick bait because there isn’t one.”
Specks or Reds?
While an angler doesn’t really know what’s making a slick until a fish is actually landed, there are a few gut feelings and clues Rue uses to determine what kind of fish are there before he even makes a cast.
“I kind of get this feeling because I’ve been fishing slicks for so long,” he said. “Of course, you never know for sure. One of the things that makes me think it’s reds is when I see slicks spread out by 30 or 40 yards or more. You’ll sometimes see a slick pop up 30 yards away from another slick that isn’t even up good yet.
“Most of the time, that’s reds that are chasing pogies, and they’re swimming really fast. You literally won’t even be able to keep up with these fish. It’s funny, because everybody will run to the front of the boat and get hooked up, and before those fish are even in the boat you’ll see another slick pop up several yards away.”
In the end, it doesn’t really matter how slicks are formed or why they form. What’s important is that they point the way to hungry speckled trout and redfish that are more than willing to eat just about anything they see.
They’re a great way for anglers to beat the sizzling summer heat. As Rue cautioned, though, just don’t get hung up on one slick and think you’ve got to sit right there and keep pounding it if you aren’t getting bit because you could be on a slick that doesn’t have any fish under it.
Slicks are a great way to put fish in the boat and to catch some big fish. Rue and Lake both agree that whether they are driving around actively looking for slicks, or they just happen to come across a couple, there’s no better way to put summer saltwater fish in the boat.
