Try these patterns to maximize fishing for speckled trout, reds
Dularge remains one of the bright fishing spots on Louisiana’s coast, and area guide Capt. Marty Lacoste has specific patterns in February to maximize the good fishing in this region.
The first thing Lacoste does is he pays attention to weather conditions leading up to the trip when targeting speckled trout. This is Louisiana, after all, and the weather rarely stays constant.
“Where I fish all depends on the water temperature. If we have a cold February, and water temperatures are in the 50’s, they’re going to be in the bayous and canals,” he said. “If it’s warm, they will be in the lakes.”
No. 1 color
When fishing the bayous and canals, Lacoste likes a ¼-ounce jighead teamed with a Green Hornet-colored Matrix Shad.
“If I only had one bait in the boat, that’s what it would be,” he said. “Green Hornet is the No.1 color in Dularge.”
Lacoste said the key when the water temperatures are in the 50s is to not work the bait too fast.
“I like a slow retrieve,” he said. “Some days they want the bait up and down. On the days when they’re finicky, I’ll change something to see how they want the bait.”
Lacoste said most of the trout are keeper size with a few nice ones mixed in.
“We’re catching 13 to 17-inch trout; that’s normal,” he said. “I do catch some that are 20-22-inches.”
When the weather warms up, Lacoste transitions to fishing the lakes, like Sister Lake and Lost Lake.
“We normally drift in the lakes looking for current lines,” he said. “I like to look for points with moving water. We fish cuts on a falling tide and we fish some of the bodies of water feeding into the lake.”
Most of the time, Lacoste sticks to tightlining a ¼-ounce jighead, but he will also throw a popping cork over shallow reefs.
Current is critical
Current movement is critical in almost every area of marsh fishing, and Dularge is no exception.
“I always like the water moving — whether it’s incoming or outgoing,” Lacoste said. “It moves the bait and gets them to want to bite.”
Wintertime can be one of the best times to catch redfish, and Lacoste said they can be abundant this time of year in Dularge.
“When it’s really cold, that’s when they stack up,” he said. “We drift banks and sometimes you can find a cut with the tide falling out of it when they’re stacked up.”
Lacoste chunks a ¼-ounce Deathgrip jighead at the reds. He said some days you can catch them on plastic, but other times you do better with dead shrimp.
Bring the dead shrimp just in case.
