This is the month to throw some topwater plugs in your tackle box, and point your bow to a bay where the reefs are fresh and the trout are hungry.
The front that barreled through South Louisiana Wednesday night blew lots of folks off the water, including Capt. C.J. Rojas with Griffin Fishing Charters in Lafitte (800-741-1340). As soon as the wind dies down, though, Rojas expects to find the action to be just as good as it was a couple days ago. “We had 35-knot winds this morning, and we only got a couple boats out on the water,” Rojas reported. “Trout, reds and black drum were all doing great right before the front. Reds and drum were actually a little better than the trout the past few days because the wind kicked up a little early.”
Rojas said that as soon as the wind dies down, he’s going to work on the trout with pumpkinseed shrimp tails and glow H&H cocahoes either tightlined or under a cork.
“The trout are on shrimp right now, so they’ll pretty much eat anything you throw at them,” Rojas said. “We went through everything in the box just the other day to prove it, and we caught fish on almost everything. The most important thing is to get a bait in there when you see shrimp on top of the water.”
It might be a little harder to spot the shrimp since the birds have been lured by the easy meal at the back end of the trawlers.
“As far as the redfish go,” Rojas continued, “they’ve been biting 1/4-ounce gold spoons and, if you hit the right point, they’ll eat shrimp under a cork. The only problem right now is the hard heads. They’ve been bad because the current has been so swift.”
Rojas added that the black drum have been eating shrimp fished on a jighead or on a Carolina rig. He found some good red and drum action on the shorelines from Little Lake to Grand Lake and on out into the gulf before the wind picked up. St. Mary’s Point has also been holding some fish.
“It may take a few days, but he wind is going to settle down,” Rojas predicted. “As soon as the water settles with it, head to places like Big Island and Four Bayou and fish the deep water points and you’ll catch some fish.”
