Dugas says live shrimp are effective, but with lots of smaller fish to weed through
Capt. Gene Dugas summed up his thoughts on a speckled trout fishing report out of Hopedale with his first two words of the conversation.
“It’s tough.”
Dugas, who operates Rather Be Fishing/Hunting Adventures, said this year has just been different than most for specks.
“It’s way different. Normally this time of year I’m catching 75 or 100 trout every day. Now if I can get 50 in a day, I’m doing good,” he said. “It’s just one of those years.
“We’re catching fish, but it’s all over. You’re over here one day, the next day they’re not there. You’re doing this one day, you’re doing something else another day. Every day is different. I can’t stay on them. It’s hard right now.”
The fish seem more spread out, and there seems to be more smaller fish than usual, he said.
“They don’t have that many big fish,” Dugas said. “I don’t know what it is.”
He’s fishing for specks exclusively now with live shrimp, either under a cork or Carolina-rigged on the bottom.
“The MRGO rocks have probably been the most consistent producer,” he said. “You just have to work your way up and down the rocks until you find some bait and find some fish.”
For redfish, he suggested working the edges, shorelines and points of outer bays from Lake Robin to Bay La Fourche with either live or dead shrimp under a cork.
“On the inside, the grass is so bad right now, it’s really taken over,” he said. “A lot of the places you’d normally fish for redfish, you can’t fish. It’s grassed up.”
Birds are finally starting to work, and Dugas said the wind switched out of the east on Wednesday, which is a welcomed change.
“The east wind definitely makes things better,” he said. “Things might get to normal next month. Usually everything kicks off in May, and May was pretty tough. And June got a little better.
“Maybe July will be our June.”
