There’s no shortage of hotspots this month, which may be the best of the year on Calcasieu Lake.
It’s 5:55 a.m. on a weekday morning, and veteran saltwater fishing guide Erik Rue is heading out in his 24-foot Triton. It’s mid-May and it’s going to be a windy day, hard out of the southeast, so it’s too early in the year and way too windy to go fish for speckled trout at a place he considers the No. 1 hotspot for them during July at Calcasieu Lake.
But he’s cool with that, the time of the year and what Mother Nature has thrown him here in one of the best speckled trout fisheries along the Gulf Coast.
He knows the fish are biting somewhere. That’s his unofficial creed.
So while he talked about that hotspot the water and weather conditions combined to keep him away from, he went to some reefs on the open lake with hopes of nailing some speckled trout on his trusty limetreuse Norton Bull Minnows before the wind blew too hard and whipped the salty water of Big Lake.
But even at the crack of dawn it was too late because, even though the fish were there, it was difficult if not impossible to fish them.
Rue had caught speckled trout there a day earlier before the wind kicked up. As he looked around, he also noticed the wind-whipped water was dingier, as well.
“One of the amazing things about this place is it changes every day. Catch fish in one spot one day and the next day it looks like you could never catch a fish there,” he said.
Still, he was confident he could get on the fish without going to the summertime hotspot.
“As a friend of mine said, ‘You’re after an animal with a brain the size of a pea. Don’t let them outsmart you,’” he said.
The 39-year-old Lake Charles angler cranked up the horses and headed south, the boat slicing through pods of pogies acres wide. He smiled at the sight of all those baitfish on the surface.
Rue started guiding on the lake and surrounding marshes he grew up fishing — mostly with his maternal grandfather, the late Phil Ribbeck — soon after he graduated from St. Louis High School in Lake Charles. He played junior college baseball at Lee College in Houston before a shoulder injury cut short his career. He graduated with a degree in microbiology from McNeese State University, which “is real handy in guiding,” he said with a grin.
“I was going to go to medical school but got tied up in this. A couple friends talked me into it. Of course, they’re rich doctors now,” he said with a chuckle after he stopped the boat to fish one of his favorite areas on the east side of the lake — the mouth of Lambert Bayou. He guided on his own that first year, 21 years ago, then hooked up for about 1 1/2 years with Jeff Poe’s Big Lake Guide Service before opening his own Calcasieu Charter Service.
Today he runs four boats (and as many as six) consistently out of Hebert’s Marina near Sweet Lake along the eastern shoreline of Calcasieu Lake. He has a nice two-story lodge a few blocks away that accommodates fishing parties and gives them all the comforts of home.
Like everyone else around here, Rue is recovering from Hurricane Rita, which dealt a devastating blow to the region in September 2005.
It caused $90,000 worth of damage to his lodge, he said, which was repaired in six weeks. Each of his boats were taken to safety before the storm hit, he said.
Hebert’s store was wiped out, but the restaurant has been reopened. The boat ramp, which has fuel (credit card only), remains popular as evidenced by the dozen boats putting down that weekday morning just before sunrise, a testament to how good the fishing has been since the hurricane, Rue said.
“Even though I had damage at my camp, it was minor in my mind compared to others,” he said.
Rue was back on the front deck of his Triton making deft casts with his limetreuse soft plastic on a 1/4-ounce leadhead. He was fishing a place where there was a weir controlling water flow to Lambert Bayou before Hurricane Rita. The hurricane rearranged that and reopened the natural mouth of the waterway. The hurricane did the same thing at Grand Bayou.
Rue said he doesn’t mind at all. He has access once again to the marsh he fished as a boy.
“I grew up in that marsh. It changed very little until Rita,” he said.
He fished outside in front of the weir and around the point, where there are some reefs, and into the bayou itself. Other boats there were doing the same.
The spot was on the lee side of the wind, which made it extra popular that day. Speckled trout after speckled trout up to 2 pounds started swinging into the boat as Rue got into a rhythm. He also introduced his guest to what he calls “Rita reds,” a vast number of rat reds that have filled the lake since September 2005.
Those redfish, averaging 14 inches long, were everywhere, it seemed, and hungry enough to smack the Norton Bull Minnow. He caught and released at least four five-fish limits of them on a day when he was just keeping speckled trout.
The speckled trout were a little more finicky, probably because of the number of boats. Rue made long casts and worked the soft plastic back with sweeps of his 6 1/2-foot-long Quantam fishing rod.
When Rue reels in a fish, which is often, people in the boat hear a steady zzzzzzzzzzzzz. That’s because he uses braided line, something he’s glad he made the move to years ago.
His Quantum baitcasting reel is loaded with Sufix Braid 30, which is heavy for a braided line but casts better than lighter braided lines, he said.
While fishing, he uses a 4- to 6-foot 20- to 25-pound-test flourocarbon leader that he joins to the braided line with a uni-knot.
Castability is the main thing, no matter what kind of line an angler has spooled on the fishing reel.
“Most people can’t cast far enough. The No.1 problem is not casting far enough away from the boat,” Rue said.
He wound up easily with his 15-fish limit for speckled trout, a regulation that he heartily endorsed and believes is best for the fishery on Calcasieu Lake.
As he fished, he talked about his No. 1 spot for July. Hands down, he said, it’s the Cameron Jetties.
“If the water’s clear, there’s fish there. Period. You just have to wait on the tide,” he said.
And what’s the best tide, the right tide for triggering the speckled trout bite that hotspot is notorious for?
“Usually, you want an incoming tide. I would say it’s better than an outgoing tide, if it’s light, where it’s not blasting in. Any time it’s super, super strong, it muddies up the water,” he answered.
Put on a live shrimp down there around those rocks, he said, and the speckled trout will try to rip the fishing rod out of your hands when they inhale it.
There are purists who wouldn’t dream of such a thing, and stick with artificial lures. Rue understands that and can put fish in the boat with either.
“You can catch fish all year long on artificial. But with shrimp, at times, fish really want to eat shrimp,” he said.
How often will he make a trip to the jetties this month?
“Every day the water’s clean. You’ve gotta go look at it every day. That’s just a personal thing. You can catch fish in the lake,” he said.
Which set of jetties to fish? It isn’t set in stone, the fishing guide said. Both sides can be good, inside or outside. It depends on the way the tide is moving, where the baitfish are and other factors.
Most of the time Rue, will impale a live shrimp on a lightweight kahle hook, and crimp a small split shot — just enough to get it to the bottom — about a foot above the hook.
His hooking method is a little different than others, he said. He likes to hook the shrimp under the head at the little spot some use to hook from on top of the head. He said the shrimp seem to stay on better that way and live about the same time as shrimp hooked any other way.
For those who prefer artificials, Rue recommended using a soft plastic that imitates a shrimp or mullet on a 1/4- to 3/8-ounce leadhead.
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist supervisor Jerry Ferguson, who works out of the state agency’s Lake Charles office, said this is the peak time for speckled trout fishing action at the Cameron Jetties.
“It’s historically a good spot in the early summer, say June and July. The water conditions are usually good out there, trout are moving back and forth and there’s plenty of bait, plenty of food, for them. They just catch fish on those rocks. It’s pretty crowded, especially on weekends,” Ferguson said from his office a few days after Rue’s trip.
Many fishermen switch over to live bait and also fish at night during the dog days of summer, he said. He believes high water temperatures are the main factor.
“It seems like July is probably the tail end of the season for the bite you get on artificial lures,” particularly at the jetties, he said.
Ferguson said a department project in conjunction with LSU began in April that could tell more about fish movement in the region, including the jetties. The telemetry project involved implanting a transmitter in 51 speckled trout and placing 50 receivers around the lake system.
If one of the tagged fish (one was an 8 1/4-pounder caught the morning of the implanting part of the project) swims within 300 yards of a receiver, the implant will ping and be picked up by the receiver.
“It’ll tell us which fish it is. We’re trying to find out day-to-day movements, like how far they move on a given tide … from the jetties to Turner’s Bay? Where do they go in the summertime when the heat gets really bad? The Ship Channel? Offshore? Those questions we ought to find answers to. I hope it works well,” he said.
If the jetties are messed up by muddy water, there are other places that can be relied upon to catch speckled trout this time of year in Big Lake. Rue pointed to the points and ledges along the Ship Channel.
“They’re pretty obvious. East and West Pass is a main area,” he said. “I would just say look for the bait. You can see the mullet and stuff jumping out of the water. You’ll notice the bait in that channel. Of course, you know the fish will follow that bait.
“There’s tons of spots that have oysters on them. It just takes a little fishing. Those fish will be on the bottom. That’s where they’re going to be.”
That means targeting the fish in 5- to 15-foot depths, he explained. He advised that fishermen fish with a heavier leadhead than they normally do.
“Those fish just tend to hang more in the deeper water. It’s probably a little cooler,” he said.
For sure, one way to locate the speckled trout is to find the boats.
“When the fish are really in the channel good, you’ll see boats lined up and down it. There ain’t a single hotspot,” he said. “There are lots of good spots up and down the channel, the points and ledges, especially with live bait. Just find the clear water.”
There’s more this summer to catching speckled trout on the lake system.
“Don’t forget about the reefs in the lake down here, especially before the second shrimp season opens,” he said.
And there’s even more.
“Hell, if you don’t want to run all the way to the jetties, you can catch in Turner’s Bay,” he said.
Or, he pointed out, people can fish “under the birds.” Birds pick over feeding fish all over the lake.
“The thing about July is that there’s good water everywhere. Fish are aggressive. It’s a great time to take the kids,” he said.
Ah, kids and Calcasieu Lake go together, he has discovered. Rue and his wife, Tina Falgout Rue, have two children. Kristy, 19, just finished her freshman year at MSU and enjoys fishing. Phillip, who will be 6 in July, is getting into the sport big time and picking up on many of the finer points of angling already, his father said.
Fishermen of all ages can enjoy the fact that the beach to the west and east of the Cameron Jetties also serves up speckled trout consistently — weather and water conditions permitting — in July. Actually, speckled trout fishing along the coastal shoreline often starts getting good in late June.
Most people fish the surf from their boats. The water must be clear, with water clarity at least a foot or more, and baitfish must be in the area, Rue said.
“Watch for slicks in the surf. That’s usually a dead giveaway” that speckled trout are marauding and feeding on baitfish.
Sometimes the speckled trout will be right up against the shore or off it quite a way. Fish with popping corks to get the fish up in the “bars.”
Also try topwaters such as all the MirrOlures — Top Dogs, She Dogs, He Dogs, etc.
“You have to find one you can work well and have confidence in,” Rue said.
Another potential hotspot in the summer is any oilfield structure off the beach in near-offshore waters, one in 25- to 30-foot depths. Some popular ones include the Superior Rigs to the east of the Cameron Jetties and the Johnson Bayou Rigs to the west. Fish with artificials or natural bait, and hold on.
“They’re always biting somewhere. You can bet on that,” he said.
As a regular on the Redfish Tour (he fishes with Larry Puckett, a Triton rep from north Texas), Rue applies what he has experienced in tournaments to that insight. He’s learned it in tournaments that last two or three days because someone catches the fish somewhere every day, even if your own boat doesn’t get into the fish you’re targeting.
It’d be wise to remember that this month if you can’t get to the jetties, or if the fish aren’t cooperating at all around those rocky structures. There’s the oil rigs, the beach, the reefs and the Ship Channel to choose from on any given day to catch fish on Calcasieu Lake.