The Tchefuncte River has left many an angler scratching his head, but it actually offers surprisingly good springtime spawning action.
If Captain Gene Dugas’ (985-640-0569) most recent trip out of Hopedale was any indicator, it looks like the speckled trout to the east of New Orleans are starting to get more and more active every day. As their metabolism kicks in with warming water, the bite will only improve in the coming weeks.
“The water temperature was up around 65 and 68 earlier this week,” Dugas reported. “We went out and caught 65 trout on Monday… all really nice fish. All the lakes like Robin, Coquille, Four Horse, Oak River Bay and Bay Lafourche are where the fish are starting to become most active.”
Dugas pointed out that the speckled trout in these areas were staging and getting ready to move to the outside, and these lakes are the first they go through on their way out. Since these areas still represent a considerably large area to fish, Dugas has been drifting to get on the different groups of trout. And working the passes coming out of these lakes during a falling tide has been most productive.
Every fish that came aboard his boat just the other day came on plastics. However, for no apparent reason whatsoever, the bite changed back and forth between the tightline and cork. To quickly find the best bite, Dugas has half his boat fishing the tightline and the other half the cork.
“Both ways are producing but not all the time,” Dugas added. “We were all fishing corks the other day after it looked like that was what the fish wanted, but then it just stopped. We changed to the tightline and started picking up fish again. Just keep changing it up until you hit what they want.”
While Dugas has been spending most of his time drifting through these five bays, he added that it wouldn’t be out of the question to head out to the islands and rigs on a good calm day. Making the rounds on the outside may only produce three or four fish per stop right now, but if you move around all day you’ll wind up with a good box of fish.
Dugas also said that anglers shouldn’t forget about the redfish while slamming the trout. The big reds have been all over the edges along the outside in places like Calebasse. He recommended just getting on a bank and fishing with either dead shrimp or plastics under a cork.
“Find a bank with a little moving tide and you’ll do fine,” he concluded. “Just keep plugging along down those kinds of banks and keep your bait in the water. Sooner or later you’ll come across a big hungry redfish.”
