Think deer hunting’s hard for you? Well, it’s definitely a whole lot harder for 16-year-old Ben Fontenot, but that hasn’t stopped him from whacking some brutes.
Some would never admit to fishing them, but the weirs along the eastern shore of Calcasieu Lake are popular for a reason – namely lots of redfish that can save even the toughest of days. Capt. Nick Poe with Big Lake Guide Service doesn’t understand what the fuss is about because he likes to fish wherever the fish are, and the fish are at the weirs.
“Some people look down their noses at the weirs or joke about somebody having to fish them because they can’t catch fish anywhere else,” Poe said. “What’s the problem with catching fish no matter where they are? I would much rather catch 10 redfish at the weirs than zero fish all over the rest of the lake.”
Effectively fishing the weirs sometimes has more to do with being the first boat to arrive rather than being a master of some kind of secret fishing technique. If it’s available, Poe likes to pull right in the middle of the turbulent water between the two sets of rocks so he can cast right to the base of the weir.
“You definitely want an outgoing tide on the weirs,” he continued. “You’ve got to have it if you want to catch a bunch of fish. We sometimes catch fish when it’s not falling, but it’s rare.
“The outgoing tide pulls water and bait out of the marsh behind the weirs, and it positions the redfish on the lake side where they will sit and gorge on all the bait washing through the structures.”
Poe typically casts a chartreuse Gulp! Swimming Mullet rigged on a 1/4-ounce leadhead. However, he will go as heavy as a 3/8-ounce head if the current is really strong because he wants to keep his bait as close to the bottom as possible without getting hung up.
After casting to the base of the weir, Poe lets his bait fall as the current washes it back toward his boat while maintaining constant contact with his bait. More often than not, he finds the redfish bite at the end of a retrieve directly under his boat.
“The bases of the weirs are good spots, but you can catch fish out as far as you can see the current,” he said. “Sometimes, they’ll stack up in the eddy pockets and right along the edges of the moving and slack water. It seems to me the fewer reds there are at a weir the closer they’ll be up against it. The more fish there are, the farther out away they’ll be.
“I’ve caught them up to 200 yards out in front of these weirs before.”
If you’re headed to the weirs, be prepared to loose a lot of baits. In fact, Poe says if you aren’t getting hung on the rocks and old crab traps that litter the bottom you aren’t fishing the weirs correctly. Redfish get behind this kind of rubble as a current break, and they’ll rush out and grab your bait as it passes overhead.
“I throw a lot of Gulp!, but you can’t go wrong with a dead shrimp,” Poe concluded. “The key is get your bait down, fish it slowly and don’t give up on a cast too soon. Fish it all the way back to your boat.”
Contact Capt. Nick Poe and Big Lake Guide Service at 337-598-3268 or www.biglakeguideservice.com.