Grand Isle “jammed up” with nice trout

Greatly improved habitat conditions increase ducks for 2009

Anybody that keeps up with saltwater fishing in Louisiana knows that Grand Isle has been on fire the last couple of weeks. The reports don’t really do it justice, though, as Captain Mark Scardino with Hard Times Fishing Charters (985-787-3529) says the trout have been all over.

“And when I say all over, I mean all over,” he insisted. “We got trout all over the bays, on the rocks… Elmer’s Island has been good, and Caminada Pass has been doing good. You got the reefs inside Barataria Bay between Saturday Island and Bird Reef. They’re all over.”

Scardino says he’s been fishing four days a week right now, and he’s been catching from 50 to 70 trout every morning. This past Wednesday morning, two of his boats came in with 175 trout combined. And while you might expect this many Grand Isle trout to be popcorn trout, that’s definitely not the case.

“Our trout are running much nicer than they have the last two years,” Scardino continued. “They been averaging about two pounds, and that’s some nice size fish. We’re jammed up with trout that size right now.”

The trout have been biting the typical live baits like shrimp, cocahoe minnows, croakers and pogies. However, Scardino says he’s also catching a lot of fish on chartreuse split-tails, Hot Chicken plastics, root-beer sparkle beetles and the chartreuse and green Tout Tail with the black stripe – what he called the Tiger Tail.

“We’re mainly throwing the plastics under a cork,” he added. “The way I’ve been doing it, though, is fishing the live bait on bottom with a Carolina rig while the tide is running then I’m switching to the plastics and live shrimp under the cork when the tide slows down.”

One thing that Scardino has been doing that he firmly believes is helping him get more bites is fishing with a fluorocarbon leader. “That stuff’s nearly invisible under the water, and it’s kind of like fishing mangroves – when they see a line they’re gone. They don’t want to see anything around them, and I think these trout can be the same way.”

If you’re planning on heading to Grand Isle to get in on the speckled-trout action, Scardino said to make sure you get there before Monday. He says there’s a primo 1-foot tidal range all the rest of this week through Monday.

About Chris Ginn 778 Articles
Chris Ginn has been covering hunting and fishing in Louisiana since 1998. He lives with his wife Jennifer and children Matthew and Rebecca along the Bogue Chitto River in rural Washington Parish. His blog can be found at chrisginn.com.