Louisiana Sportsman takes a look at what baits are becoming hot, and why.
The recent heavy rains in Southwest Louisiana weren’t enough to shut the trout bite off at Calcasieu Lake, and Capt. Jeff Poe with Big Lake Guide Service (337) 598-3268 has continued to catch a bunch of fish the past several days.
“We got a lot of rain locally,” Poe said, “but they didn’t get that much north of us. It didn’t make the river come up — it was still at 5 feet at Kinder in this morning’s paper. When we get a flood down here, it doesn’t really bother us that much because the lake gets rid of the extra water pretty quickly.”
One of the most unusual sights Poe saw in his trip yesterday was birds picking shrimp in the lake, which is beyond unusual during the middle of January. If working birds aren’t enough to convince you that the shrimp are still in the lake, Poe went on to say the trout he cleaned yesterday were full of 40- to 50-count shrimp.
Even though anglers might catch some fish under the birds, Poe said the trout are primarily holding over oyster reefs where they can be caught on a variety of baits.
“For the most part, there are still a lot of fish in Turner’s Bay,” Poe said, “That area did slow down some, but they just kind of moved down into the lake. Most of it’s still on the north end in 2 to 6 foot of water.”
Poe has been catching his trout on glow Norton Sand Eels and beetles. He’s rigging these soft plastics on 1/4-ounce jigs for the deeper reefs and 1/8-ounce jigs for the shallower reefs. If the wind will allow you to get away with it, Poe strongly recommends fishing the deeper reefs with the lighter jigs if possible.
At each reef, Poe has been alternating between the soft plastics and Catch 2000s and Catch 5s. There isn’t any reason he would select one over the other beyond what the fish tell him they want.
“Don’t forget about the reds,” Poe added. “They’re everywhere right now, and they’re all different sizes — small throwbacks to good grilling-sized fish. I caught a bunch just the other day at Commissary Point, but you can catch them anywhere along the east bank from north to south.”