Terry St. Cyr might be sittin’ on a bucket when he road fishes, but he ain’t a-usin’ no cane pole.
The fact is that he’s kinda particular.
For this kind of fishing, he abandons his standard level-wind baitcasting equipment in favor of spinning tackle.
Rods are 6-foot, 6-inch medium-weight sticks, but he is very careful about spooling his reel correctly.
“The key is to fill your spool with line to the top,” St. Cyr said. “You might have to cheat by partially filling the spool with tape before spooling the line.
“You need to be able to cast as far as possible to reach the deepest water — 30 to 35 yards.”
He uses 10-pound equivalent diameter PowerPro braided line.
St. Cyr’s claim to fame as a summertime trophy trout fisherman is based around his skill at fishing with live croakers or pogies. But he doesn’t use live bait in the winter. For years his favorite road-fishing lure has been blue moon Deadly Dudley Mauler Shrimp stuck on 1/8-ounce jigheads.
More recently, he has experimented with Vudu Shrimp set 30 to 36 inches under a popping cork.
“They are really tough,” he said. “I caught 90 fish on this bait last week.”
It still looked perfect.
Noch Camardelle’s favorite lure for road fishing is an H&H plastic cocahoe minnow in opening night with or without a chartreuse tail.
He also sometimes uses split-tail sparkle beetles and, like his friend St. Cyr, has been recently using Vudu Shrimp.
At times, Camardelle also tosses a ½-ounce silver Mr. Champ spoon.
“A lot of people make the mistake of using too heavy line,” he said while launching a rocket cast 45 yards. “Don’t use anything heavier than 10- to 15-pound-test line.”
Grand Isle resident Billy Ramagos uses an entirely different approach.
While the rest of the fishermen stand on the bank and cast soft plastics, his tactics include wearing waders, getting in the water with the fish and throwing topwater lures to them.
MirrOlure She Dogs are his favorite wintertime lure.
