It didn’t take Capt. John Pellegrin with Top Water Charters (985-852-9560) very long to sum up his fishing fortunes for this past week.
“Redfish, redfish, redfish,” he repeated. “Finally, the water came up with a high tide, and we’ve been chasing them around in the duck ponds.”
The hot spot for redfish around Cocodrie has been all the duck ponds from Madison Bay to Pointe Aux Chenes and around Lake Tambour. According to Pellegrin, the reds have been holding right up against the grass so they can feed on all the little craps and shrimp that try to use the grass as protection from predators.
“We’ve fished every day this past week, and we’ve limited on reds every day,” Pellegrin said. “Our best bite has come from anchoring up on the points and in the pockets and throwing popping corks with live minnows. The fish are scattered a little bit, but everywhere we’ve been stopping they got fish.”
Given his druthers, Pellegrin would love to be throwing the Terminator Redfish Spinnerbait rigged with a black/chartreuse Cocahoe tail. With the high water pushing in to the grass, it’s a situation tailor-made for spinnerbaits.
As for the best time to go, Pellegrin says the tide has been coming in strongly during the morning, and it’s been turning around and going out around 10 or 11 a.m. When asked if they’re only biting on an incoming tide, Pellegrin couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I don’t know if they’re biting when it’s falling or not,” he quipped. “We’ve been done by 9 or 10 every morning, so I couldn’t tell you. Hard to argue with limits of 17- to 25-inch reds, though. We’ve even caught a few up around 31 or 32 inches. The good thing is we haven’t had to measure any of them.”
After seeing strong winds predicted for the foreseeable future, Pellegrin expects to be able to do the same thing again for the next several days. He’ll chase specks when the winds let him.
“We’ve caught a few trout in the ponds on the minnows,” Pellegrin said. “They’re really scattered, though, so our main focus has been on the reds. Also, if you’ve got some market shrimp, you’ll pick up some sheepshead and black drum.”