Dr. Bob Weiss, aka “Doc,” has retired from his medical practice, but he is still giving out prescriptions for anyone afflicted with Lake Borgne fishing fever.
Weiss lives on Lake Pontchartrain only minutes from Lake Borgne, and he is an accomplished angler, winning the speckled trout division of the CCA STAR Tournament in 2012.
“Learning to fish Lake Borgne is not that difficult,” he said. “There are really no secret spots. It’s a big shallow lake that does not have a lot of structure, except for the rigs. It has miles of shoreline and numerous bayous that connect to it.
“I advise anglers to look for irregular features, which means points, drains and reefs. These features are where the bait gathers, as well as the fish.”
Weiss also advised anglers to look for bait moving on the surface and birds feeding to determine where the best activity will be.
Weiss recommended fishing drains on a falling tide and points on an incoming tide.
And he had a tip for fishing the rigs.
“Try fishing 50 yards off of the rig,” Weiss said. “Sometimes the shell pad extends out around the rig and the fish can be located away from the rig.”
His advice to Lake Borgne newcomers is to get some good maps of the area, such as the ones made by Standard Mapping Services and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation map that includes quite a bit of information on Lake Borgne.
