Trout transitioning from winter to spring as water temps slowly rise, guide says
As long as spring-like temperatures remain in the forecast, speckled trout fishing at Big Lake should keep on ramping up as water temperatures gradually rise, according to a fishing guide.
Nick Poe, with Big Lake Guide Service, said he’s caught six to eight fish weighing more than 5 pounds in the last week, but the bite isn’t consistent quite yet.
“We’re in this transition going from winter to spring, so they’re a little hard to get up with,” Poe said. “They’re constantly moving, so you may catch them in one spot one day and the next day you go back to the same spot and you don’t get a bite.
“You can’t let it frustrate you. You just have to have some spots lined up and you just have to hit all those spots. You might have to fish 25 spots in a day in order to catch 25 or 30 trout.”
Poe said Turner Bay has been producing, as well as the reefs on the east side of the lake north of Hebert’s Marina.
“Nothing much south of Commissary Point as of yet,” he said.
Poe targets specks with MirrOlure Lil John plastics in opening night and golden bream on an 1/8-ounce jig head.
“I’m looking mainly for oysters in 3 ½- to 5-feet of water,” he said. “Any oysters you can find in that depth range, that’s usually where the fish are at right now.”
Water temperatures are still running in the low 60s, so the fish haven’t headed to deeper water yet, he said.
“The fish really haven’t moved off and transitioned to the 7 ½- to 8-foot reefs as of yet, but it’s coming,” he said. “Once those water temperatures warm up, those fish are going to move out to a little deeper water.”
Redfish are abundant and a fun by-catch on the trout trips, he said.
“There’s redfish everywhere you stop the boat. It’s unreal,” Poe said. “We haven’t been doing anything special — just fishing for trout we’re ending up with 15 or so redfish by the end of the day. The same reefs, the same bays, the same everything.”
