Guide looks to lower Mud Lake to give up redfish in July
An area along the Mermentau River remains a go-to redfish hotspot, whether at high tide or low tide, for a veteran charter boat captain who has been fishing most of his life around his hometown of Grand Chenier.
Vince Theriot, who operates Coastal Guide Service LLC, relies on lower Mud Lake, both inside and outside along the river, to provide rewarding redfish fishing trips from late June through July and many times into August. The appealing thing about the area is the fishing pressure is slight, if at all, he confided, mostly because anglers mistakenly believe their boats can’t get into lower Mud Lake.
The retired offshore installation manager for the Hess Corp. will have to bide his time, though, before things get right on the river.
As of May 21, Mermentau River water was fresh as the Red River “top to bottom” from the Catfish Locks (also known as Catfish Point Control Structure where the river exits Grand Lake) to the Gulf. The freshwater runoff from torrential rains in the region prompted the veteran charter boat captain to tow his boat west to fish Calcasieu Lake, with good results, through April and May.
“It’ll take a couple weeks to a month to straighten out,” Theriot said. “If we don’t get any more rain, then it’ll straighten out to right back where it needs to be. Usually, the month of July is when things start heating up a little bit. We’ll be catching redfish around the banks in lower Mud Lake, the flats, the jetties (Mermentau River Jetties) and along the beach.”
What he uses
Wherever he’s fishing this year, Theriot consistently offers either the morning glory Vudu Quiver Shad or the morning glory Vudu Mambo Mullet, both from Egret Baits. They deliver big time, he said about the Vudu Quiver Shad, which can be threaded on a ¼-ounce leadhead or, recently, come pre-rigged, and the pre-rigged Mambo Mullet.
“The good thing about it (either soft plastic) is there’s no finessing at all,” he said. “All you do is throw them out, reel back. It’s got a lot of vibration to it.”
If the water level isn’t high enough to ride into Mud Lake, Theriot targets drains coming out of Mud Lake. There’s three or four drains, he said, where the redfish congregate in the cuts (in about 1- to 2-foot depths). Often anglers can see their backs as they are hanging around oyster beds or “rubbing the grass.”
The Coastal Guide Service owner welcomes the golden opportunity, if the water’s high, to catch redfish inside lower Mud Lake.
“Of course, in lower Mud Lake, when the tide’s up higher, redfish get in there, chasing mullet,” he said. “Every year, they do the exact same thing, like clockwork. When the tide’s high enough to get my boat in there, we sight fish. You see them pushing and cast to them. It’s pretty easy fishing. You can watch for the fish or, like bass fishing, some are just sitting on the bottom and when you reel it back they hit it.”
The jetties
Because he has lived and fished the river his whole life, Theriot knows the deeper parts of the cuts to drive his boat into Mud Lake, drop the trolling motor and start working the shoreline. He prefers to fish it early in the morning for a few hours then, once the sun gets higher in the sky, head to the Mermentau River Jetties.
The jetties can give up redfish throughout July and August, he said. He’ll ease along with the trolling motor, locate baitfish along the beach and tattoo the redfish on the aforementioned artificial lures. Sometimes, redfish will be in schools of 200-300, visible, water conditions permitting, and will scatter after one is hooked, so it’s important for all on board to cast in at the same time.
Many of the redfish are 25 to 30 inches long, he said, but there still are plenty in the 18- to 27-inch range.
