It can never get too hot for redfish fishing at Calcasieu Lake in Southwest Louisiana, according to Calcasieu Charter Service owner Eric Rue (calcasieucharters.com).
The Lake Charles all-around outdoorsman who also guides waterfowl hunts in the region emphasized redfish can be caught year-round in and around Calcasieu Lake. As for the dog days of summer, such as right now, it’s just a matter of where to look for the mix of bull reds and slot reds. And Rue targets them frequently in late July and August right along the coast on both sides of the Cameron Jetties and to the west in the surf from Holly Beach and Johnson Bayou.
“August is always a good time to catch redfish at the Cameron Jetties. Anytime the weather’s calm and the water’s clean, it’s always good fishing down there. And there’s always some redfish hanging around those rocks,” Rue said about those protection barriers, some of which stretch out for miles.
Of course, redfish are caught as fishermen fish their way up the lake, too, from the lower end to the saltwater barrier on the Calcasieu River just north of Interstate 10 that crosses through Lake Charles. Generally, redfish are schooling while roaming up and down the lake, their location given away much of the time by birds pickin’ above them.
Reliable reds
The marshes on either side of the main lake typically harbor more slot-sized redfish than around the rocks, jetties and inside the main lake. The weirs on the east side usually provide plenty of action.
“There’s a lot of real estate between those two places,” Rue said about the myriad of saltwater fishing opportunities from the coast to above Lake Charles.
As for this summer through the first week of July, redfish fishing “probably has been the most reliable thing.”
“(Speckled) trout fishing has been through some periods where it’s good, then fell off, but we had some good trips this week,” he said.
Rue, 58, advised anglers to pay attention to the tides, to learn about tidal movement in each area of the lake and use it to their advantage. The key point to remember is that incoming tides are prime time for fishing success along the coastal shoreline, particularly around the rocks west of Holly Beach and Johnson Bayou.
“Anytime you’re fishing the beaches, incoming tides are the best tides,” he said. “You really have to pay attention to the tides.”
The jetties and those rock formations to the west consistently give up redfish, while speckled trout tend to congregate in deeper waters of the channel a little more than redfish do and feast on live bait.
Live bait
Many fishermen hook up shrimp for bait, but more often than not, it doesn’t last long thanks to the ravenous and seemingly ever-present ladyfish.
“Everybody wants to use live shrimp a lot, but a lot of times there are a lot of ladyfish, and the ladyfish just tear up the shrimp, just wear them out,” Rue said. “A great thing to do is cast net and get either live mullet or live pogies. You’ll catch redfish and big trout on that.”
When using live bait, the veteran charter boat captain hooks the wigglin’ baitfish on a 1/0 or 2/0 Kahle hook tied to a 6-foot-long 15- to 25-pound test monofilament leader under a ½- or less ounce split shot or egg sinker with a main line of 30-pound test braided line for baitcasting reel and 20-pound test braided line for a spinning reel.
The same C-rig setup can be used for live shrimp, he said, or anglers can drop the live crustacean under a cork.
