Live croakers produce bigger specks this month, guide says
The scenario plays out every spring. Anglers experience a dearth of freckled fish in March and April, and all hopes turn to May, in anxious anticipation. And always the questions are the same:
Will the trout show up at all? Will there be any size to them? Will they show up in decent numbers?
May comes around, and like clockwork, so do the trout. And every year the area that kicks off first is Bay Eloi.
“It happens every year,” Capt. Mark Munson (504-234-0775), said. “Set your watch by it.”
But this year has been different.
The trout not only showed up, they showed up in very nice sizes and in incredible numbers, they showed up early, and they showed up everywhere.
“The trout bite is on fire right now from Black Bay to Gosier Island and all in-between,” Munson said. “All you need is decent enough weather to get out and chase them.
“All the usual May hotspots are producing great catches. The various Bay Eloi spots; platforms and wells, and naturally the Rocks at the end of the MRGO hit their prime this month. If you are looking to catch plenty trout, head that way with a bait-well stocked with live shrimp, and fish them about 3 feet under a cork and you’ll put plenty fish in the box.”
Munson particularly likes to hunt big trout this month so he prefers to stock up the bait-well with live croakers and head out to the islands in the Sound.
“The big girls will be spawning around the islands at the first full moon, and I’ll be out there to entice the bite,” he said. “Live croakers freelined around the islands are more temptation than they can resist.”
Munson said the various structures in the Sound will also hold good numbers of sizeable trout, and you’ll have the best success fishing live croakers on a sliding cork rig fished over the flow pipes.
“Bottom rigs will always hang up out there on all the debris,” he said. “Set your sliding cork to stay a foot or so off the bottom, and minimize snags while maximizing hook-ups.
“Live shrimp will always produce more fish for the box. But the croakers will produce bigger fish.”
