You’ll feel like a king when a trophy trout explodes like a volcano on your topwater plug.
Trout fishing has definitely been on the upswing along many stretches of coastal Louisiana, but the problem many are finding is that the wind is just as strong as the fishing. Captain Gerald Ellender with Light Tackle Charters (985-688-1715) has braved the wind the past few days, and his body count a few days ago was over 300.
“I’ve been fishing the Mud Lake and Lake Mechant area pretty heavily,” Ellender said. “The wind actually died down a bit just the other day, and if we didn’t catch 350 trout, we didn’t catch one. Now, of those 350, we could only keep 90, but that’s still some pretty strong stuff.”
Ellender has basically been following the birds, and he has been finding lots of trout under them, but as he mentioned, several of them are juveniles. In his mind, though, that only points to a strong fishing season later on this year.
“The shrimp have popped up about three weeks earlier than they did last year,” Ellender said. “I think the fishing will be as strong as it’s ever been as we move into late April and early May. Shrimp imitating lures will be hot then, but for now we’re catching most our fish on double rigs, with the motor oil red flake color combination being most productive for me.”
Of course, like all other anglers along the coast right now, the thing that is affecting the bite in Mud Lake and Lake Mechant is the cooperation of Mother Nature. Everything right now is at the mercy of the wind because the driving wind affects the water color.
“You kind of have to pick your days right now,” Ellender concluded, “but you can’t pick your day three weeks in advance. You have to pay attention to the weather and be able to go on a calm day because the way it looks right now, the very next day will be windy again.”