Speckled trout in transition, tough to catch without live bait
The redfish bite remains red hot in Dularge, while speckled trout are tough to find unless you have access to live bait.
That’s the word from Capt. Marty LaCoste with Absolute Fishing Charters, who started focusing exclusively on reds more than a week ago because of the weather.
“We’ve had one or two days in the last 10 days that have been calm, but the reds moved into key locations early in August,” he said. “The redfishing has just been phenomenal, and will continue through September into the first week of October.”
For redfish, Carolina-rigged cracked crab fished in deep holes have been the ticket.
He suggested trying Grand Pass, Rice Bayou and Buckskin Bayou.
“Most of the curves in the bayous have deep holes,” he said. “You need a depth finder to locate the holes. You could have 4- or 5-feet or water that goes down to 20 feet.
“That’s what you’re looking for.”
LaCoste has been cutting the crabs into quarters, and threads his 4- or 5/0 Kahle hook between two of the crab’s legs and then out through the bottom of the shell.
“That way you can get four pieces of bait out of one crab instead of just two,” he said. “So you have more bait and more opportunities.”
The speckled trout have just begun the process of transitioning back into Louisiana’s coastal marshes after August’s full moon, he said.
“Sometimes you can catch them along the coast as they’re making that move in, but for the most part, we start focusing on redfish through about the third week of September,” LaCoste said. “That’s usually when the trout start to show up inside.
“You find the smaller trout showing up first in the lakes under the birds. Then, by the third or fourth week of September, you start to get on the keeper trout.”
