Delacroix’s other fish is always available this month.
During a recent trip with Captain Theophile Bourgeois with Bourgeois Charters out of Lafitte, we found ourselves in the back of a dead-end canal to the west of Bay L’Ours trying to entice redfish with plastics under popping corks.
Shunning market bait in favor of 4-inch black and chartreuse Bomber Mud Minnows, the tough bite on this blustery day came in definite spurts with long bouts of nothing but repetitive and unproductive casts.
As if by magic, something in Bourgeois’ boat started beeping just moments before the bite would turn back on. Although the sound was familiar and emanating from the consol, I took it as nothing more than my secret signal to get ready for my popping cork to go under.
The more we fished, the more Bourgeois got me to understand the reason when we were leaving the slot bite was that it wouldn’t make any sense on this kind of cold and windy day leave fish that were biting, albeit slowly, to go look for fish somewhere else.
He also pointed out that the reason our bites came in spurts was because the redfish were swimming around this particular canal like they were on a merry-go-round. The second point wasn’t obvious to me until another boat came in later that morning.
Neither of the two boats caught redfish at the same time. Rather, we could get some bites, and then they would get some bites. For a while, neither of us got bites. They the process would start over again.
“That beeping is coming from my fish finder,” Bourgeois finally explained. “These reds are roaming around and going in a circle in this dead-end canal. Whenever I get in this kind of situation, I turn the little fish beep on so I can tell when the fish come back around to me.”
Bourgeois had been steadily checking his fish finder throughout the morning, but I thought he was just going back to the console to re-rig his minnow or work on his popping cork. Rather he was checking his screen every time it beeped to get a reading on how deep the roaming reds were.
“So I can tell when fish are swimming under my boat,” Bourgeois added. “Because I’m not moving, I know the fish are moving, and every time I hear that beep I know they’re coming back around. Then I can check to see how deep they are, and that tells me how deep to set my leader under my cork.”
Without knowing that the redfish were circling this dead-end canal, Bourgeois might have left a canal full of fish and suffered an even tougher day on the water. With his fish finder beep turned on, he knew to stay put and wait them out.
Contact Bourgeois Charters at www.neworleansfishing.com or call 504-341-5614. View a short video clip from this trip at www.chrisginn.com.
