Fishing deep brush piles is key to catching summertime limits of sac-a-lait
The sales personnel at Lafayette’s Service Chevrolet had anticipated the big trip for quite a while. It was a once-a-year excursion for Toledo Bend crappie — and lots of them. The car dealership team that ventured out on this trip included Service Chevrolet owner Jesse Luquette of Lafayette, his lead salesmen Kevin Cahanin, Tony Beyonce, Richard Williams, Chuck Voorhies and Ricky Andrus, and manager Scott Collins.
“And we certainly caught loads of sac-a-lait,” the 49-year-old Cahanin said.
Cahanin said they launched in south Toledo Bend with the guides of Living the Dream Guide Service. The seven-member group had split up to fish that day on two different party barges.
The waters were mostly calm, with a slight breeze.
“We launched at approximately 3 p.m. (June 7),” Cahanin said. “We were fishing ledges in 14 feet of water, where the graph showed good numbers of bait and fish on brush piles.”
Cahanin said the first drop-off delivered a few bites, and then the action dropped off sharply. Moving around served up plenty of action, however.
“When we arrived at the first spot, we jigged vertically using light spinning equipment baited with shiners,” he said. “Of course, we didn’t use any corks fishing that deep.”
“And the fish started biting right off the bat. We moved to three different locations to finish up a limit for all of us by 6 p.m.”
Cahanin estimated the crappie averaged 2- pounds.
“In some spots, the bigger sac-a-lait would bite first, and we would catch only a few,” he said. “But the big bite didn’t last long, and it wasn’t followed by catching smaller fish.
“If the medium-sized sac-a-lait were caught first, then we could stay longer and catch more fish.”
The group of anglers on the other party barge, however, stayed in one place and each angler caught their limit.
This is the second summer in a row the group found limits of crappie atop brush piles along the deeper shelves in Toledo Bend waters 14 to 22 feet deep, Cahanin said.
“This seems to be a good pattern the guides at Living the Dream Guide Service have for fishing here in June,” said Cahanin. “A few catfish and bass were also taken.”