Spend September in Dularge
While waiting for speckled trout to finish their transition from offshore to inland waters in south central Louisiana, specifically the Dularge area, saltwater fishermen don’t sit idle and their boats don’t collect dust.
Late August and through September is a prime time to put redfish in the ice chest by targeting them in deep spots in waterways between lakes, such as Bayou Racourrci, Bayou Decade and Goose Bay, and other areas that are relatively close to one another. No one knows that better than charter boat captain Brady Giroir, who owns Cajun Waters Fishing Charters (985) 870-0311.
Giroir, who lives in the Bayou Black area near Houma, has been fishing the region most of his life and for the past six years as a saltwater fishing guide. He said this is the time speckled trout transition from the near-offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the coast to inside, where anglers will catch up with them and catch them consistently again in mid-September or so.
Until then, he said, “We will be fishing redfish in the deep holes in the canals between the lakes, anywhere from 17- to 25-feet.”
A few of the more productive redfish fishing areas year in and year out are at the mouth of Bayou Decade and Boss Canal and at the mouth of Goose Bay and Lake Mechant, the 38-year-old outdoorsman said from beau coup experience.
Giroir goes after the redfish, which usually range from 18 to 30 inches, with Carolina-rigged cracked crab most of the time. Occasionally, Carolina-rigged cocaho minnows are effective.
He rigs up with a ¾- or 1-ounce weight above a 2 ½-foot 80-pound monofilament leader with a No.3 hook. He uses a barrel swivel to connect the leader to the main line, he said.
The key is to position the boat over a ledge found with the use of marine electronics, specifically an area that goes from about 6-foot to 17- to 20-feet depths.
“They’re stacked there a lot of times,” he said.
“You want to keep your boat where the dropoff is and you want to keep your bait on the bottom in approximately 17- to 20-feet deep,” he said.
The best time to catch redfish like that all depends on the tide. If it’s too strong, too fast, it’s curtains for some successful redfish fishing, according to Giroir.
“It doesn’t matter what time of day. It has to do with the tide. If it’s falling too hard or rising too hard, you won’t catch them. It’s got to be a slow tide. It’s best one hour before and one hour after a slack tide,” he said.
If you’re in a hole getting an excessive amount of bites from hardhead catfish, just move, he advised. And if you’re in a hole where a majority of the redfish you’re hooking and boating are longer than 27 inches, you’ll probably want to move to find smaller fish to fill out your limit.
Drum also will be caught using cracked crab for bait.