Fishing for Delacroix winter specks heats up

Finding deep water along Oak River can pay dividends in limits of speckled trout.

With this past cold front the speckled trout have begun to settle in deep holes of the lakes, bayous and canals around Delacroix, demanding a slightly different method of presenting baits. Anglers just have to be smarter than the fish they are catching and utilize their depth finders and fishing instincts.“The fishing has been phenomenal for the past three weeks,” Capt. Jack Payne with Sweetwater Marina and Guide Service said today (Dec. 12).

According to Payne, having live shrimp has been helping out a lot with this. Since the water temperature has been so shaky over the past few weeks, all that has changed has been the bait presentation.

“When we had that warm weather I would just put the shrimp about 3 feet under a popping cork,” Payne said. “Now that the front has come through we’ve been keeping them on the bottom with ⅜-ounce jigheads.”

There are plenty of fish all over Delacroix right now but, according to Payne, they must be fished slowly. A slow retrieval on the bottom is always important during cold-water conditions. During warmer weather, the trout can be caught in the tied lines under a cork.

“From Orange Bayou, along Oak River and any of the cuts and pipeline canals coming off of it (Oak River) are holding fish,” Payne said. “Some of those river and canal corners that the current pushes against are up to 20 feet deep. It pays off to use your depth finder because you can find honey holes and underwater structures all over the place.”
Payne advised to keep some bait shrimp for chum to keep the specks in your area.

“There are so many places to catch fish in Delacroix it’s not even funny,” Payne said. “Little Lake, Lake Batola, Four Horse Lake and Point a la Hache have all been producing.”

When the middle of January rolls around anglers won’t be able to find live shrimp, and artificial lures will have to be used. So fishermen should get to Delacroix with some live shrimp as soon as possible and get in on the winter action.

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