An accomplished bass fisherman and lifelong Morgan City resident often takes a break from chasing the bass he loves to go saltwater fishing and target redfish each October.
Barry Henry still fishes like the bass angler he is when he does the saltwater side because he relies on artificial lures the majority of the time. Bait shrimp and his bass boat just don’t mix well.
“I try to get by without using shrimp,” Henry said with a chuckle the first week of September. “I don’t have a saltwater boat yet.”
The 62-year-old filtration supervisor who works offshore for Pro-T Co. Inc. heads south from his hometown in lower St. Mary Parish in the direction of Shell Island to the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area. Or else he takes a left into Deer Island Bayou and heads into Four League Bay.
Where he goes depends mostly on wind direction, as well as on the Atchafalaya River stage, according to Henry. If the wind’s hard from the east he goes into Four League Bay, which offers protection from wind blowing from that direction. If he had his druthers, the wind would be out of the west, so he can fish his way along the river around the east side of Shell Island and the Atchafalaya Delta WMA.
“I go to the closest spots first,” he said. “That way I don’t have to make a long run to Four League Bay. I start close and work my way south. There ain’t no secret spots.”
Go-to baits
The key is to find moving water, particularly along the river, Henry said. It doesn’t matter if the tide is rising or falling as long as it’s moving.
Along the river, before and after getting to Shell Island, points give up redfish averaging 16 to 30 inches long.
At many of his redfish spots he runs into speckled trout “every now and then.”
“But redfish are more bountiful,” he said.
His go-to bait for those reds?
“Me being a bass guy, I like to start off with a purple/chartreuse soft plastic on a spinnerbait,” he said, noting he uses both a 3/8-ounce Strike King model or a 3/8-ounce Delta Lures model. If they aren’t biting those, he’ll pick up a rod with a white/chartreuse tail GULP! soft plastic on a 3/8-ounce jighead.
“If all else fails, I use a Four Horsemen Cork and a shrimp,” he said.
When Henry goes in the other direction, he’s right at home there, too.
“Go to Four League Bay. One of the common spots you have is Halter’s Island. Halter’s Island always has fish for as long as I can remember,” he said. “There are all kinds of spots once you get to Halter’s Island. You can stay south and fish any points past that … Palmetto Bayou, Creole Pass and Shell Point. That’s all protected from the east wind.”
Around Halter’s Island, which has more of a shell bottom, that’s usually when he fishes the most with a shrimp under a popping cork.
