Chris Macaluso is a very good speckled-trout fisherman, but that probably wouldn’t be the case if his dad hadn’t toted him along to Grand Isle during at least one summer weekend a year.
Joe Macaluso, long-time outdoor editor for the Baton Rouge Advocate, would bring young Chris with him whenever he went to Grand Isle to cover an outdoor event, particularly the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo.
“I’d spend hours on this bridge,” Chris said. “I didn’t ever want to leave.”
Macaluso and his brother would fish for white trout, croakers, redfish and crabs, but Chris’ favorite was speckled trout.
Macaluso took a nostalgic trip down the Grand Isle pier last May during a visit to Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island.
He caught dozens of speckled trout during an afternoon jaunt out on the pier, and returned after dark to catch dozens more under the bright sodium-vapor lights.
Macaluso threw soft-plastics in various colors on ¼-ounce jigheads in the afternoon and soft-plastic weightless twitch baits after dark.
