Anglers may need to hop around Breton Sound and Black Bay to find fish
August in southeast Louisiana is spelled H-O-T! A high pressure heat dome parked on top of us and produced more of that same scorching heat, just like it did last year. The intense heat and high pressure kept the hurricanes away last year and here’s hoping they stay away from the coast again this year.
We don’t like the blast-furnace feel to the weather and the fish don’t seem to care much for it either. On my own last venture out I tried fishing several places that usually produce something edible, at least enough for dinner, but I went back to the dock without a keeper in the ice chest. Though I did catch lots of undersized trout and catfish.
I called Capt. Jonathan Sanchez (504-232-6227), a long-time charter guide in the Shell Beach/Hopedale area, for his outlook on where the fishing should be good this August.
“You know everything depends on the weather,” Sanchez said. “My plan for August is to spend as much time as possible out in the bigger waters of Breton Sound and Black Bay. Typically that’s where I’ll go, winds and weather permitting.”
On those fair weather days, Sanchez said the well-known rigs, platforms, islands and structures still produce trout and redfish and a variety of other fish as well.
“I’ll run all over the Sound, from Point Chicot to Five Wells, the Block 32 rig and the satellite structures around it, Little Central and Big Central and the bigger structures out that way, and over into Black Bay structures like the Wreck and Black Tanks,” he said. “I hope one day we’ll be catching fish at Battledore again, like in the old days.
“The key this month is you have to hunt and move until you find them.”
Live bait
Sanchez said at the deeper water structures he’ll fish with live shrimp or live croakers on a Carolina rig, using a 3/8-ounce sinker to get his bait to the bottom. He’ll use a ½-ounce sinker on days with stronger currents.
“That’s my go-to weapon,” he said. “I very rarely fish any plastic baits except in the fall.”
On the windy days that don’t allow access to the Sound, Sanchez said he’ll either fish along the rocks at the end of the MRGO or “beat the banks” of the big fringe bays right on the edges of the outside waters and hope to find reds or trout.
“On those days, I look for cleaner water, signs of bait, windblown shorelines, points with current moving around it, known reefs, or just anything that looks promising,” he said. “I’d say also look for birds but this year has been a bit unusual because we’ve rarely seen any flocks of birds diving over bait all summer. But if you do see them, try fishing under them.
“You can also try along the rocks, but honestly, they haven’t produced much lately, at least not with any consistency.”
And naturally, on those inside water days, you’ll want to fish live shrimp under a popping cork, Sanchez said.
