Captain Eddie Berthelot with Spots & Specks Charters (985-637-3177) has a good cure for fishing during the north winds we’ve had the last few days. He’s been fishing the surf side of Grand Isle, and the initial groups of trout that have moved in have kept him more than busy.
“I started hitting the Grand Isle beach last week,” said Berthelot. “There have been some nice trout on the beaches… one to two pounds… and they’re just sitting there waiting to spawn. I think it’s got to be something like 80 degrees for them to start, and the water right now is 78 to 89.”
Berthelot says he’s been wading the Grand Isle surf to catch these trout. And rather than roam aimlessly up and down the beach, he’s been concentrating on the areas where he’s seen some birds dropping into the water.
Realizing that shrimp season has just recently opened, Berthelot decided to try the Berkley Gulp! shrimp to see if the trout would eat it. After trying a few different colors, he finally settled on the natural color, as the trout wouldn’t eat any of the others.
“And they’ve been biting it straight tightlined on the bottom,” he added. “I tried the Gulp! under a popping cork, but they wouldn’t eat it like that. With the tightline, I was catching a trout every three to five casts. I caught some in the first break, but most of them were right after the first breakers.”
A couple of late afternoon trips to the surf have also produced some good topwater action for Berthelot. Finding some slick water has been key to the topwater bite, and Berthelot has been doing best on the MirrOlure Top Dog in some of the natural colors. Although he’s been favoring the topwater, he did mention that some of the suspending baits have been working well, too.
“On the west side of Leeville below Cocodrie, there are some trout down around places like Pelican Island and Brush Island,” Berthelot went on. “The Timbalier Islands have also been pretty good. Those trout are doing the same thing – waiting to spawn, and you can catch some fish on a combination of live shrimp, topwaters and the Gulp! shrimp.”
When he’s fished around these islands, Berthelot has made it a point to look for slicks on the surface. Even when it’s been windy, he’s been able to find some that pointed out the way to some hungry trout. His advice was to get a couple quick bites around the reefs and the island points then put out the anchor.
“I think the next couple of days, this north wind is going to turn from the north to the east with that low (pressure system) we got coming,” Berthelot concluded. “The surf and island fishing should continue to be pretty good throughout this coming weekend, and it should stay really good for the next two months.”
