Last February saw Lake’s biggest bass
For decades, Lake Dauterive/Fausse Pointe has been giving up bragging-size bass, especially since the late 2000s. Starting in February, it’s time to hook them while the hooking’s good.
After 43 years fishing the lake system almost in my back yard, the perennial hotspots each year at this time have engraved themselves into my memory banks. These include places like Sandy Cove, Texaco Field and, at least until a few years ago, Coon Slough.
But lately, anglers are catching more and more hawgs from a relative new hotspot, the borrow pits. They sit along side the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee from Lake Fausse Pointe State Park south along what is locally known as the Borrow Pit Canal.
This series of borrow pits holds the deepest water in the lake system. It starts across from the lower part of the state park’s RV pads and stretches for miles until it ends in the last deep borrow pit, where a strip of land separates it from another borrow pit that parallels the levee.
Those borrow pits, including one on the west side of the Borrow Pit Canal, gave up the lake’s biggest bass of the year, both in February 2018.
Zachary Brazda of Arnaudville caught one of those bass. He hit on a winning tactic last Feb. 17 and reeled in a giant from one of those borrow pits while fishing a Carencro Bass Club tournament out of Lake Fausse Pointe State Park. The park has a boat ramp right at the Borrow Pit Canal.
Go light for pressured bass
Considering the amount of pressure in the popular spot that day, Brazda decided to go light. He picked up a Cajun Lures Baton tied to 10-pound test line on a spinning rod and reel combo and pitched it near a tree in the water where five boats had fished already.
The decision paid off. Brazda got the bite and, after an exciting fight, he got the bass: a 9.4-pounder, which he released at the boat ramp after the weigh-in.
On Feb. 25 of last year, Albert Vincent of Parks fished the last borrow pit in the series while participating in the annual Big Bass Classic. This local fundraising event is patterned after the Sealy Big Bass Splash contests on Toledo Bend, Lake Fork and Lake Sam Rayburn.
His 5.84-pounder bit after a heavy rain mid-morning, and weighed the most of the one-day event held out of Marsh Field Boat Landing near Loreauville.
Vincent’s lunker bass, which he released, bit on a Strike King Rage Tail Bug.
There are enough shallow areas in those borrow pits to bring amorous females closer to the shoreline to spawn in February. Bass spawn early here compared to other parts of the state.
Navigate carefully
The last borrow pit also has another feature — two sets of stump fields (boaters are advised to navigate the area carefully).
The borrow pit nearest the state park usually stays muddy the longest. However, unless there are extreme conditions, the others are clear or, at least, fishable.
Popular Baits
The following baits have taken their fair share of bass in these pits: Soft plastic jerkbaits, jig-n-pig combinations, gold/orange Rogues, black/blue, watermelon/red and green pumpkin/red creature baits, similarly-colored long plastic worms and soft plastic swimbaits, and double-bladed chartreuse/white spinnerbaits.
Also, when the water temperature warms to where it’s consistently in the middle-60s and higher, topwaters, including buzzbaits, trigger strikes.
