Fishing the wall at Bayou Rigoletts means you might have to sit there a few minutes while waiting on a pod of redfish to move through.
Either that or you’ll be faced with a sudden lack of bites after hooking a fish every cast for 10 or 15 minutes.
When either happens, there is a way to try to turn the redfish back on before giving up on a spot.
“What I do every now and then is take some old shrimp from a couple of days before and break them up into little pieces,” Capt. Lane Zimmer said. “I’ll toss them into the water at the wall to chum up some reds.”
Zimmer likes to use shrimp that are a little on the pink side, after they get a little nasty looking. These shrimp definitely have a stronger smell than fresh dead shrimp, and that seems to get the attention of nearby redfish.
“They’re definitely a little ripe,” Zimmer said of his chum. “But if you let them go too long and they turn black, you might as well throw them away.”
Zimmer most frequently throws a handful of chum when a bite suddenly turns off.
“Those fish might have just moved a little bit,” he said, “and I’m just looking for something that might get them to come back so I can catch a few more.
“And I never throw out more than a handful because I’m just trying to get their attention rather than filling their bellies.”
If you decide to try a little chumming the next time you fish the Bayou Rigolettes wall, Zimmer recommended giving it about 10 or 15 minutes to really let the reds home in on the smell.
“If you don’t have a bite after then,” he said, “maybe it’s time to move on down the road and try the next cut.”