It’s hard to believe with all the sensationalized stories coming out of coastal Louisiana, but there are places that haven’t been shut down to recreational fishing. Take Lake Pontchartrain for instance. This giant water body is hardly a stone’s throw from many closed areas, and it’s prime time for the trout bite.
Captain Eric Dumas with Living a Dream Guide Service and I fished Pontchartrain just a few days ago. As of last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the fish on the bridges were tearing up Opening Night plastics fished on 3/8-ounce lead heads.
However, something changed before Thursday and Friday that slowed the plastic bite way down. Dumas theorized that all the trout had been so bombarded with soft plastics that they were turning their attention to live bait a little earlier than in years past.
“If you can get your hands on live bait right now you’re definitely going to have the advantage on the bridges right now,” Dumas explained. “Get there early and you can have a limit and out of there by 8:00 a.m. They’re still eating plastics, but they’re starting to want something they haven’t seen in a while, and that’s live shrimp.”
Our trip was a perfect example. Shrimp had been hard to come by at the local marinas, so we went out trying to catch a big trout early on topwater before hitting the bridges with soft plastics.
As we struggled to land the few fish that were biting, we ran into one of Dumas’s friends that had a box of trout so full he had trouble shutting the ice chest lid. Turns out, live shrimp fished on the bottom caught most of those fish.
“We burned two hours throwing topwater,” Dumas continued, “and he had a box of fish with live bait. There are two main ways to fish live shrimp on the bridges, but I would use any technique right now that would keep my bait on the bottom.”
The main bottom technique is to rig your live shrimp on a Carolina rig. Dumas rigs up with a 3/4-ounce weight on his main line with about a foot-and-a-half leader to keep his bait close to the bottom where it can kick around.
“You can mainly fish the fire breaks and any structure you know that’s under the water,” Dumas added. “And if you’ve got a spot where you catch a fish or two every time you fish, I would suggested you take some live bait to that area and tie up. Just play the current to your advantage and position your boat on the side of the bridge so that the tide is moving toward you rather than away from you.”
Dumas recommended fishing live shrimp under slip corks if you don’t many bites on the bottom. Sometimes the trout will suspend higher in the water, and a live shrimp hanging below a cork at the right depth will quickly put trout in your box.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Pontchartrain bridges, Dumas says to get on the train trestle around the mile-177 marker and fish up or down the trestle in either direction. 177 to the south shore is a productive zone, but there are times when the middle of the bridge will hold more fish.
“177 is just a good starting point,” he concluded. “It puts you right in the middle of where the fish usually hang out. Then it’s up to you to pinpoint exactly what pilings or firebreaks are holding the most fish.”
And if you’re looking for just one or two big-trout bites, tie on a topwater and find some rocks around the south shore. Although we had trouble hooking them, Dumas and I did pull up four trout in the 4- to 5-pound range before he finally landed one. So, don’t expect a lot of topwater bites, and don’t expect the bite to last very long.
Contact Captain Eric Dumas at www.livingadreamguideservice.com. Follow the author’s blogs at www.chrisginn.com and www.evangler.com.
