With Lake Fausse Pointe fishing smaller, as they say, and smaller compared to the 2000s and 2010s, bass anglers go to extra lengths in the winter and spring months to cover as many potential hotspots as possible, even if they don’t pan out one day to the next.
While Grand Avoyelles Cove is, perhaps, less notorious and much, much smaller than Sandy Cove, a storied spawning area that has given up many “hawgs” over the years, it has certainly had its moments. One of those moments was Feb. 19, 2023, when Mike Sinitiere and Mike O’Brien, both of New Iberia, successfully defended their Louisiana Bass Cats Open title with 15.98 pounds, including a 7.13-pounder caught on a Senko early in the morning by O’Brien.
Sinitiere never will forget that $1,000 payday, plus big bass winnings, and is hopeful for more bountiful days and bassin’ action like that, tournament or non-tournament, this February.
“I’m hoping so,” he said. “It seems like the lake is starting to go down size-wise. They don’t have big ones like they had five years ago. (But) every now and then they have a 5 or 6. It was very common five years ago.”
Grand Avoyelles Cove
The 64-year-old business development manager for Coca-Cola United knows better than anyone about the fickleness associated with the bass bite, or lack of it, in Grand Avoyelles Cove. It is a shallow, cypress-tree lined waterbody a short boat ride south of the lower end of Lake Fausse Pointe.
Sinitiere has been fishing it for approximately 30 years, he said, and realizes Grand Avoyelles Cove isn’t the most consistent fishin’ hole. Also, it’s a “community hole,” hardly a secret as “people go in and out of there,” according to Sinitiere.
“You can go in there one day and catch them good and the next day go there and not get a bite,” he said. “That’s why I never pass it up. You’ve got to keep checking the area.”
Bass usually start moving into the cove in late January or early February, he said. Typically, a stretch of a few warmer days corresponding with warmer nights prompt bass to move to shallower areas to spawn.
There’s plenty of habitat for the fish to do their thing, i.e. cypress trees, cypress knees and vegetation (mostly lily pads and some underwater vegetation). With an average depth of 3 feet shoreline to shoreline, it’s a magnet for spawning bass when water temps get right.
There are a few bayous in the back and several trenasses to target as well as the cypress trees. Naturally, he avoids brown water, which heavy rains and flooding can cause, but fishes stained, tea-colored or, even, very clear water.
“I don’t let it discourage me,” he said.
What to use
Sinitiere said he usually starts at the big point on the north at the mouth of the cove and fishes his way to the back hitting cypress trees and any green stuff with a 1/4-ounce chartreuse/white Stanley spinnerbait, a 3/8-ounce chartreuse/white Delta Lures Thunder Jig and/or a 5-inch pumpkin-colored GYCB Senko. If those artificials don’t trigger a bite, he’ll flip a June bug/red Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw.
Boaters should be aware that a cold front’s hard north winds can lower the cove’s water level and, because it’s tidal influenced, a low tide can drop it even lower. There are some underwater hazards — old stumps away from the cypress tree line. Even the middle of the cove can get very shallow, enough to make it difficult for some boats to get on step.
