Captain Mike Daigle with Cast It Charters (985-331-8548) was smoking the redfish right before the last front blew through coastal Louisiana. The increased winds blew up to 18 inches of water out of Lafitte, and the fishing suffered as a result. However, as the wind makes the shift for this weekend, Daigle says he expects things to get back to normal.
“Things had been going really well down here in Lafitte,” Daigle said. “We’ve been hammering the reds in Bayou Rigolettes and Bayou Perot. We’ve also been hitting a few in the duck ponds. The reds in the duck ponds were the ones most affected by the front because there wasn’t any water left in them.
“However, the reds out in Rigolettes and Perot weren’t as severely affected because those fish were right up on the shoreline. That means the water dropping out won’t hurt as bad because they’ll just move down with the water.”
Daigle reported that the reds in Rigolettes and Perot were feeding heavily on the plentiful bait in the area. These two spots have been full of pogies, mullet and crabs, with the crabs seemingly getting the most attention form the redfish.
“Most of the reds have been coming on spinnerbaits with black and chartreuse plastics,” Daigle added. “But we’ve also been doing some tightlining with the 3 1/2-inch Gene Larew High Tide Saltwater Minnow and the H&H Baby Bull Minnow.”
While Daigle has been sticking with the plastics, he added that a lot of anglers were catching redfish on shrimp fished under a popping cork.
Most of the reds that Daigle has been catching out in the open bays have been running larger than those in the ponds. The open-water fish have been running from 23 to 27 inches, and the pond fish have been in the 16- to 21-inch range.
Anybody looking for some trout action should head up to the northern section of Lake Salvador or Little Lake according to Daigle. In fact, Little Lake was on fire before the last front because it was full of shrimp. The birds were working over the shrimp, and there was some good fishing under the birds.
“If you can get on that this weekend you should be able to catch some trout,” Daigle concluded. “Hopefully everything will get back to normal on the reds and trout. If you’re out there fishing the birds, though, make sure to stay on the outer edges because the little fish in the middle won’t let your bait get down to the larger trout underneath. Staying on the edges will help you put bigger trout in your boat.”