Glenn Sanchez — owner, operator, chief cook and bottle-washer at Breton Sound Marina (504-676-1252) — said this is his favorite time to fish the long rocks at the end of the MRGO.
“The rocks are already red hot and producing a lot of trout,” Sanchez said. “This time of year you really don’t have to go anywhere else unless the conditions are bad. Any wind is good, as long as it’s not too strong and not from the northwest, which blows straight down the chute.
“But on a decent day all you have to do is work your bait along the rocks. My favorite technique is to troll and toss topwater baits for bigger fish, both reds and trout.”
Sanchez said to position your boat to move with the predominant wind or tide and stay the distance of a long cast from the rocks.
“Toss a Skitter Walk or a Zara Spook or a MirrOlure or a Badonk-a-donk topwater bait and walk-the-dog,” he said. “I like either the speckled trout color or the bone color, and remember not to jerk your line if you get a strike or that bait with all those nasty treble hooks will come zinging back toward you at 50 mph.”
But if those hard-plastic baits don’t work, he’s not above moving to the option most anglers take.
“The most popular technique is to anchor up at a likely spot and fish with live shrimp or live croakers under a cork,” Sanchez said. “First, I let the wind and seas decide for me which side I fish on. Fish the calmer side, and if both sides are calm then it doesn’t matter.”
Deciding where to begin is just a matter of observation.
“Look for the cleaner water. I ride along the rocks and look for something I like: bait in the water, birds diving, water current flowing through the rocks, etc.,” he said. “Then you have to position your boat so you can let out enough rope to get your anchor to grab.
“The most common mistake I see boaters make is they don’t let out enough rope and they wind up sitting directly on top of their anchor, and that won’t hold when the wind blows or they get hit with a boat wake.”
Once you are properly positioned, it’s just a matter of getting that shrimp where the fish live.
“Toss that live shrimp toward the rocks, but you don’t have to get right on top of them,” Sanchez said. “Sometimes the trout hang 5 to 10 feet off the rocks — or even more. Start out fishing 2 ½ to 3 feet under a cork, and also try 4 or even 5 feet under a cork.”
If you have to go deep, don’t even think about losing the cork.
“Bottom rigs are a terrible idea because you’ll lose every cast on the rocks, but a sliding cork will work,” Sanchez said. “Don’t sit there too long waiting for a bite, but don’t be too anxious to leave either. If your spot looks good, give it 15 or 20 minutes or so to produce.
“But if nothing happens in that time you have to move down the rocks and try again. If you have some dead shrimp aboard, anchor up and throw them out for chum. It works.”
Sanchez said that once a good bite gets going you can switch some lines to Vudu shrimp or DOAs or other shrimp imitation lures.
