Aggressive calling pays dividends – if you know what you’re doing.
The recent trout action around Grand Isle has slowed the past couple of days, but that hasn’t kept Capt. Jim Thibodeaux of Fish Tales Guide Service (985-696-1801) from catching fish. A quick move to the inside has had him neck deep in reds.
“Man, the fishing was great around Grand Isle a week or so ago,” Thibodeaux lamented. “The last three days, though, we’ve had a lot of wind and some super high tides that together pushed a lot of water up.”
A high tide is enough to push the water up, but coupled with a strong south wind the last few days, there is more water in the ponds than there would be otherwise.
Thibodeaux has discovered plenty of willing redfish in most all the ponds from Grand Isle to Golden Meadow. However, the fish aren’t just hugging the bank like many anglers might expect.
“I’ve found a lot of them out in the middle of the bays,” Thibodeaux said. “They do that in the heat a lot, though. You might catch them around the shore early in the morning then have to move out to that deeper water in the middle later in the day. You’ll know it’s time to move because you’ll see them crushing bait out in the open water.”
Thibodeaux has mainly been catching these reds on gold and silver spoons with a few coming on a spinnerbait. If things get really tough, which they haven’t yet, he recommended trying a minnow under a cork, which is about as basic as it gets.
“For some reason, though, they’ve been eating the spoons better than the bait the past couple days,” Thibodeaux added.
Anglers who just have to try the trout bite down at Grand Isle might want to make plans to get down there early. While the winds have been pretty brutal, the first couple hours of the last few mornings have been calm enough to fish.
“If you can get a good day,” Thibodeaux said, “get down there and look for the trout right on the beaches on the coast. There have been a lot of big shrimp moving out toward the Gulf, and the trout have been up on the surface tearing them up.”
The trout have been attacking a variety of lures, but Thibodeaux suggested trying topwaters and plastics while the action is so fast. Try switching to live bait if the bite slows down.
