It would be hard to imaging the lower Mississippi River offering fishing as good as it did this time last year, but that seems to be exactly what’s shaping up for the approaching cool-water time. Trout have been making their way in, and Capt. Owen Langridge (225-978-1136) has been romping on them the last couple of days.“The trout are moving into the passes,” Langridge said. “Tiger Pass and Red Pass have been working for me, and I’ve heard some good reports from Baptiste Collette and Yellow Cotton Bay. These have been some pretty decent trout with most running from 1 1/2 to 4 pounds.”
Live shrimp have been doing most of the damage, but Langridge said soft plastics are holding their own. Avocado with red flake has been a hot color recently.
Whether you’re fishing shrimp or plastics, it is important to know where to throw either.
“A lot of trout are holding on the shell beds where the water comes out on a shelf and drops into deeper water,” Langridge said. “They’ve been moving onto these shelves as they move into the river.”
Redfish have also been demanding a little attention, and one of the better bites is happening near the bottoms of South and Southwest passes. Anybody wanting to tug on a 24-inch or bigger red should bump a jig on the bottom or float one under a cork.
“The only problem I see the next couple of days is that we might get a slight rise in the river,” Langridge added. “I talked to a buddy of mine in Baton Rouge who said it was pretty ugly up there. It’s been pretty and green down here, but my gut feeling is that we might jump from 3.2 to 4 or so. It’ll probably just get a little more muddy than anything else, but everything should get back to normal once it falls back out.”
Langridge also reported that the water temperature had fallen almost 10 degrees within the past two weeks. The last time he checked it, the temperature was 80 degrees. With the water cooling off like that, and the river remaining low, it’s hard to imaging not pounding the fish again this fall.
