Man-made reefs make it easy for anglers to find the fish.
There is an old saying in fishing circles that 10 percent of the anglers catch 90 percent of the fish. In other words, one out of 10 anglers catch nine out of 10 fish. If this theory is to be believed, that means that 90 percent of the anglers catch only 10 percent of the fish.
I’ve been around the fishing world long enough to know that these figures stand up to investigation. I’ve also been around it long enough to know that I fall in with the nine
anglers who are competing for that one fish.
What does that 10 percent know that allows them to catch all the fish? Is it that they are privy to insider angling tricks? Hardly. The technical competitive edge between anglers has narrowed considerably over the years. Professional anglers have educated the masses through stories, videos and traveling universities to the point that anybody who can read, listen or watch television can catch fish with the best of them.
Why, then, do certain professional anglers consistently rise to the top of tournament leaderboards no matter which lake they fish? The answer can be found in an old real estate adage — location, location, location.
The reason 10 percent of the anglers catch 90 percent of the fish is that they know where the fish are. Anybody can catch fish nowadays. It’s the finding them that’s difficult.
Finding fish in a sprawling reservoir or on a saltwater flat can be intimidating to the uneducated. There are so many likely looking spots that we try to fish them all to no avail.
Thankfully, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has implemented programs that will help the 90 percent of us who don’t know where to fish find a productive spot.
Productive anglers know the key to finding large populations of fish is to find a good combination of structure and cover. The best places often are the most difficult to find, and many anglers resort to making their own hotspots by sinking manmade cover on key structure areas.
The LDWF has taken that concept and applied it to several freshwater lakes and saltwater locations throughout the state. The idea is to help anglers catch more fish by creating locations that concentrate fish — and that’s the key to joining the 10-percent club.
The freshwater reef program was actually the result of one of the most famous collapses in Louisiana fishing history. Caney Lake in Jackson Parish went from one of the most prolific lakes in the country to one of the most barren in just a few years. Hydrilla, the primary cover in the lake, disappeared, and all the giant bass disappeared with it.
“The end result was that there was little cover for the fish to hang out on and for anglers to target,” said Region 2 fisheries biologist Mike Wood. “We had to bring the cover back to bring anglers success. We tried a lot of different types of cover, and we observed them closely to determine what worked best.”
Wood said the LDWF tried wooden pallets, brushpiles and even tires. All that turned out to be a major undertaking, though. Wood and his staff wound up hauling 30 to 40 tons of concrete over the water just to sink the wooden pallets.
“It takes 100 pounds to sink three pallets put together,” he said. “And we were sinking them by the acres. Some worked great, some didn’t. Some were more accepted by anglers than others, and some were more accepted by fish than others.”
Somewhere along the way, the Cargill Nutrena Feeds Plant in Lecompte had plastic pallets that they had to dispose of. Some of the pallets showed up at a LDWF meeting, and the plant wondered if there was any way Wood could use them.
“They had thousands of them,” said Wood. “They use them to stack feed sacks, and the pallets that get bent or broken are unsuitable for their automated system. As a result, the company was going to have to dispose of several hundred pallets per month in a solid waste landfill.
“We got some guys on it to see if we could make a structure out of them,” Wood said. “We worked through one idea after another, and eventually came up with a pattern that works great. It’s a simple stem with air in it so it is self-righting. If you happened to pull one over because you hung your lure on it, which, by the way, is hard to do, or if one gets knocked over by current, they will pop right back up like a Weeble Wobble.”
Wood said anglers who target the reefs do catch fish. However, he has figured that they aren’t as utilized in lakes where anglers are already catching fish. Take a lake like D’Arbonne. The LDWF put them in even though the lake didn’t need them because the D’Arbonne Lake Commission requested them, and, consequently, they aren’t fished very often.
In this situation where there is already good, natural cover in the water, anglers don’t think about the reefs because they’re catching fish in other places.
“Any fish that likes cover can be found on the reefs, Wood said. “Fish just want to be under something because, for the most part, a lot of danger comes from overhead. Think about how many fish you’ve seen spook in the shallows because of wading birds. They’ve evolved that way, and it doesn’t matter how big or small a fish is — they all get under those pallets.
“We’ve observed some that had thousands of fingerling bluegill stuffed in between the pallets like bread on a shelf. We’ve also seen bass on the reefs that just don’t want to leave. They’ll move out to the edges when you approach it, but they don’t leave entirely.
“These things are great for bass, sunfish and crappie. Anything that likes cover can be found around them.”
Fish relate to the reefs much like they would to natural brush. On certain days, they’ll roam around the edges where they’re easy to catch. On other days, they bury up underneath the pallets, where they’ll only bite a lure presented right in front of their noses.
The bite on the outer edges of the reefs is typically best early in the morning and late in the day. This bite is also good on cloudy days. Any situation that would have the fish roaming around and looking for something to eat is when anglers should try coverage baits like crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwater.
Factors that will push fish deep under the reefs include bright sunlight, fishing pressure or cold fronts. Anglers who determine that the bite is “off” should probe the reefs with slow-moving baits like Texas-rigged soft plastics or jigs. A Carolina rig would also be a good choice during these down times.
“The trick to attracting crappie and bass is to put them in areas where fish want to be anyway, except there’s no cover,” Wood said. “Another important factor for any artificial cover is to be aware of where the thermocline develops during warm weather. The thermocline is a product of how far the sun can penetrate the water. The sunlight warms the water and allows plankton to make oxygen.
“Take Caney for example. The thermocline usually runs about 12 feet deep. Anything down to that level is warm and has oxygen. Anything deeper than that is cold with no oxygen.
“Bass and crappie like to get close to that cool water, but still have oxygen. We put the reefs out at different levels depending on the lake and its water clarity.”
These reefs have so far been put in Toledo Bend, Caney Lake, Lake D’Arbonne and Lake Rodamacher. Most were marked with buoys, but many have probably floated off over time. Wood said anglers can get GPS coordinates for the reefs by calling their local LDWF offices.
Freshwater lakes aren’t the only water bodies that have seen improved fishing through the use of artificial reefs. The Louisiana Artificial Reef Program was established in 1986 to create habitat from obsolete oil and gas platforms.
Cover-loving offshore species flock to reefs that have been created thanks to 40 different petroleum companies donating the jackets of 141 structures. The world’s largest artificial reef was created in 1995 form the Freeport sulfur mine off Grand Isle. The sulfur mine is made up of more than 29 structures and spans 1.5 miles.
But offshore anglers aren’t the only saltwater fishermen who can take advantage of artificial reefs. The program also developed reefs in Louisiana’s inshore waters. These are primarily low-profile reefs composed of shell.
However, one inshore saltwater lake has taken it a step further. In early 2000, the Lake Pontchartrain Artificial Reef Working Group, a partnership of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, sportsmen, private groups and local and state agencies began the creation of artificial reefs in Lake Pontchartrain.
Five artificial reef sites were developed and donated to the LDWF between 2001 and 2004. The main purpose of these reefs is the same as those created by Wood — to provide more productive fish habitat while enhancing recreational fishing.
“Those first five reefs were part of Phase 1,” said John Lopez, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation Director for Coastal Sustainability Program. “Four of those were created with reef balls that were placed around existing shell pads. The fifth was created with limestone rubble placed on a mud bottom.”
The limestone reef was the first one created in the summer of 2001. It is located about 2.1 miles east of the northern end of the New Orleans Lakefront Airport. Three ball reefs were created in the summer and fall of 2003. These are 3 miles west of the Causeway and 2.5 miles north of the Jefferson shoreline. Almost 600 reef balls were deployed on these three sites.
The last of the Phase 1 reefs was constructed of 80 reef balls, and it was completed in early 2004. This reef is located about 5 miles south of Fountainebleu State Park. All five reefs are marked with yellow buoys for easy identification.
“From the anecdotal information we have received,” said Lopez, “anglers were catching fish within a month of first deployment. There have been lots of good reports from the Jefferson Parish sites, but like fishing anywhere else, the productivity of the reefs is somewhat seasonal.”
Lopez said the reef balls have been used all over the world, but they have generally been used more in marine conditions. They were designed for hard rock coral reefs, but the conditions his group put them in are different than other types of locations where they have been used before.
“They still work, though,” he added. “They don’t grow hard coral here because of our salinity and the water clarity, but they have reef-like characteristics because they attract fish, add to the food chain and they create local habitat. They are similar to natural reefs in that they have a higher density of fish and a greater diversity of fish.”
Lopez said these five reefs can get a little crowded at times when there are more boats wanting to fish than what’s available. The sites range from one to one and a half acres, and are suited for only about six boats. The crowding should be addressed during Phase 2, which will see the creation of an additional three or four sites depending on funding. All the new sites will be created with reef balls.
“I’d like to ask anglers who fish the reefs to visit our web site at www.saveourlake.org,” Lopez requested. “There’s a survey in there (www.saveourlake.org/fish_survey.htm) that people can fill out to help us learn what they think about the reef program in the lake. You can also get a map and the GPS coordinates for each location from the site.”
Artificial reefs provide great cover whether they are placed in fresh water or salt water, and they are receptive for anglers of all skill levels. They are dynamic underwater ecosystems that have anything a fish could ever want. Perhaps more importantly, though, they give us all a chance to join the 10-percent club.
