Fish these Lafitte hotspots in March, and your arm will feel like you just spent six hours on your Bowflex.
This month, I’ll be fishing the Delacroix area, near the east side of New Orleans, and trying to stay warm. The Caernarvon Diversion there lets Mississippi River water run out through the marsh, which has helped rebuild the marsh and caused a big boom to the bass fishing. Although this area has been affected by the recent tropical activity, it still holds high numbers of bass (1 1/2 to 3 pounds) and other species. You won’t necessarily catch a big bass here, but in March, you should catch a lot of fish — plenty to release and numbers to eat.
This area will be warmer than any other section of Louisiana with 70- to 80-degree weather. The bass here generally start the spawn about the first of March, or as soon as the weather becomes stable. The only drawback to fishing this place this month is it’s susceptible to cold fronts, which blow the water out the marsh.
Places to fish
I’ll primarily be looking for bass in the dead-end canals at this time of year. The bass will be holding on the edges of the few ponds inside the marsh, looking for places to spawn around any structure, including pilings, vegetation, logs, stumps, crab traps, brush and sometimes even on the bare bank.
Marsh bass seem to prefer a hard bottom. So I’ll take a push pole or a boat paddle and test the bottom as I move down the bank. If I feel a mushy of bottom, I’ll fish somewhere else.
Louisiana is the only place in the world where I can throw toward a stump and catch a bass on my first cast, a speckled trout on my second cast and a flounder or a redfish on my third cast.
I prefer to fish for marsh bass because they’re very aggressive. In most freshwater places, the largemouth bass is the apex predator fish. But in the marshes of Louisiana, the bass shares that position with the redfish, the trout and other species of fish. Since there’s more competition for the bait, the bass have to be much more aggressive in the marsh than in many other places.
Also, unlike in other regions where the bass won’t bite in bad weather, the bass will bite in the marsh. They always want to get something to eat before the other predators find the fish.
Lures to fish
In March if you fish a lipless crankbait, like Strike King’s Red Eye Shad, you can cover an abundance of water quickly, and find bass.
But my favorite bait this time of year in the marsh is the Strike King Redfish Magic, a clothespin-type spinnerbait with a jig that catches bass, speckled trout and redfish. The Redfish Magic resembles every type of baitfish that lives in the marsh. It has the flash of a spinnerbait blade and the profile and action of a jig.
Although I earn my living by catching and releasing bass, I also like to catch and eat most any fish, and redfish and speckled trout are very tasty.
On dark days, I prefer to fish a black-colored bait, and on brighter days, I like chartreuse or pearl. The darker the water, the darker the bait I’ll fish, and the more clear the water, the more natural-colored bait I’ll use.
I’ll mainly be fishing down the bank this month, casting the Redfish Magic around any type of cover I spot.
This month, I’ll also be fishing a Strike King Rage Lizard in either watermelon-red or junebug colors, or a Strike King tube bait, like the Flip-N-Tube, in black neon or black/blue, especially if a cold front has come through the area.
Bass in the marsh are very target-oriented, meaning they like to hold on one piece of cover and attack when the bait passes in front of it. If I can get the bait around to where the bass are holding, they’ll eat it.
I’m primarily a jig fisherman, but at this time of year, at Delacroix, the bass seem to prefer plastic lures like the lizard and the tube more than they want the jig.
I’ll be throwing these plastic baits on a light 1/8- or 1/2-ounce Tru Tungsten slip sinker because I want my bait to move slowly.
On some March days, the speckled trout will be hit or miss, since the places where you’re fishing have more fresh water than the speckled trout prefer.
However, I easily can catch a limit of redfish at Delacroix. Generally when you’re bass fishing in that area, on most days, you accidentally can catch a limit of five redfish and expect to catch 25 to 30 bass, or maybe
more.
