Tropical Storm Lee puts redfish in feeding frenzy.
This time last week, residents of Lafitte were praying for a north wind to blow all the water out that fell from Tropical Storm Lee. Only six days later, as I drove to Joe’s Landing, I wouldn’t have known the effects of the storm had I not seem them in the news.
And the number of boats leaving Joe’s was a sign of just how quickly things get back to normal around these parts.
I jumped in with two anglers at the landing who were gearing up to make the short run to Little Lake. Captains Donavon Hinton and Jason Shilling didn’t have much more than some market shrimp, a couple of spoons, and a spinnerbait or two, but according to them they didn’t need anything else.
“I’ve always noticed that fishing is off the charts right after a tropical storm like Lee,” said Hinton as we passed through Bayou Perot on our way to Cloverly Canal. “We get a big push of water from the south, and then the north wind blows it all back out. Salt water pushing in and then draining out puts the redfish in a feeding mode.”
Before Hinton even put his trolling motor in the water, we could tell it was going to be a productive day. Giant balls of mullet were running the rocks on the southern side of the Cloverly Canal cut, and prowling redfish had made them extremely nervous.
Every few minutes, a redfish would slash through the mullet, sending them skipping across the water’s surface in a frenzied panic.
The water was still falling out as a result of Tropical Storm Lee, and it was curling around the southern rocks on the Little Lake side in a giant eddy.
Hinton and Shilling started out trying market shrimp under corks and on the bottom. Based on the action Shilling was getting, it was obvious that the redfish really wanted it on bottom. We all switched to fishing the bottom in about 3 feet of water about 3 feet in front of the rocks.
“It’s no secret what we’re doing or where we’re doing it,” Hinton said later, as we wrapped up our three-man limit of 15 redfish at 7:20. “It’s a good time of year, anyway, but it’s always good after a storm.
“Lee blessed us with some fresh water, but it cursed us with a bad weekend last weekend, but we’re making up for it this week, and next week will be the same.”
After securing our limit of redfish, Hinton and Shilling ran to some other banks around Little Lake to see if they could locate some reds willing to bite a spoon or spinnerbait. They found some just north of the point that forms the northern boundary of Bay L’ours.
We also checked Turtle Bay and the Pen, but the water was muddier in these two spots. Although the east side of the Pen had cleaner water, the west side looked really bad, with rotting mats of vegetation that put off a funky smell.
All those other spots don’t matter right now, anyway. Get a couple pounds of shrimp and fish them on a jighead on bottom at the mouth of Cloverly Canal. If you find it as good as we did, you’ll be back home before breakfast.
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Editor’s note: Contact Captain Donavon Hinton with Lagniappe Charters at 504.382.4487 and Captain Jason Shilling with New Orleans Style Fishing Charters at 504.416.5896.
