Capt. Cade Thomas and I began our day catching bass on worms and jigs flipped to the edges of the cane in Delta Duck. We finished up about 7 hours later by releasing a big bull red that had inhaled Thomas’ Bayou Chub. Between those times, we loaded the boat with 50 speckled trout, 48 of which came from Redfish Bay.
Word was going around that there were some bass biting in Venice Marina, but Thomas wanted to go see if some of his old honey holes were recovering from Katrina. I was expecting to basically just bide our time until the tide started coming in around 8:00 that morning, and I was more than excited to find that the gnats weren’t the only things biting by the canes.
The bass were way back in the canes, and they bit Texas-rigged tequila sunrise worms. While the bass proved to be more than just a warm-up, the dead-calm wind allowed the gnats to come out in full force. It was a little early to catch the incoming tide, but we were forced to move just to get a little relief.
We wound up in Blind Bay because Thomas had caught a few trout there in an earlier trip. The wind had messed him up the next day, though, so he wanted to check to see if they were still there. We immediately started getting bites against the north shoreline of Blind Bay, but the trout wouldn’t eat plastics; they would only eat live shrimp. We also had to wade through some black drum and a few sheephead.
“Let’s get out of here,” Thomas said. “We can catch fish here, but we’d have to pick through a lot of junk just to get the trout. I got a spot in Redfish Bay that was holding some fish a few days ago. The only problem, though, is that we’re going to have to join the crowd.”
Thomas wasn’t lying about the crowd. There were already several boats fishing the northeast side of Redfish Bay, and we could easily see that the fish were biting. We rigged avocado/red ReAction Bayou Chubs with chartreuse tails on 1/4-ounce jigheads, and we put them about 2 1/2 feet under Old Bayside Paradise Poppers. The results were immediate – for Thomas anyway. I couldn’t buy a bite.
After racking my brain to figure out why I wasn’t getting bit, I realized that my cork didn’t sound anything like Thomas’. In fact, my cork kept pulling under water rather than causing a commotion on top. A quick inspection of our gear showed that he was fishing braided line while I had on fluorocarbon.
“I bet that fluorocarbon is sinking and pulling my cork under,” I told Thomas.
Thankfully, I had another reel spooled with braided line, made the switch, and immediately began to keep pace. I made a mental note right there to always fish a popping cork with braided line because it floats on the surface, and it helps give the popping cork the seductive splash needed to attract the trout.
We stayed in the same spot and caught 50 trout from 14 to 17 inches. The bites weren’t fast and furious, but they were consistent. According to Thomas, the key to finding the most productive areas right now is to look for areas where the big motor or trolling motor churns up clearer salt water from below the muddy fresh water on the surface.
For more information or to book a trip, call Thomas at 985-515-0687.
