Rock–it Science — Trout-fishing tips for the MRGO rocks

Big trout are starting to filter into Breton Sound this month, but they’re ganged up at the MRGO rocks. The only question is whether fishing the MRGO rocks should be your Plan A or Plan B?

It’s often said that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or brain surgeon) to know whatever obvious point a person is making.

But Southeast Louisiana coastal anglers follow rock-it science, which says to start your May quest for specks and reds at the rocks — specifically the MRGO rocks that jut into Breton Sound.

In fact, the only question you have to ask yourself this month is should fishing the rocks be your Plan A or Plan B.

“Traditionally, that’s where the trout action really starts every year,” said Jacques “Jakamo” Laboureur of Jakamo South Charters (504-303-1494). “The rocks are where we kick off our trout season, and all the action starts this month.”

I recently tapped Laboureur for a run to the rocks and beyond. I told him I’d leave it up to him as to where he wanted to begin our quest that morning, and he said he’d let the weather decide for us.

“We make our plans, but the winds and seas often change them,” he said. “We’re totally at the mercy of nature out here, so we’ve learned to bend with the breeze and go with what nature gives us.”

What nature gave us that morning was almost dead-calm conditions.

Laboureur decided we were going to take full advantage of the calm seas and head straight to Breton Island. He said trout were showing up out there and this day would be a perfect opportunity to make the haul from his Shell Beach dock all the way to the edge of the Gulf of Mexico.

His good friend Eric Olsen was already aboard when I arrived at the dock so the three of us settled into Laboureur’s 24-foot Skeeter Bay for the ride down the Spoil Canal, back into the MRGO and out into the Sound.

“I don’t generally run deep into the Sound this month because you don’t have to,” the captain said. “The fish are closer in, along the rocks or on the fringes of the big coastal bays.

“But I’m eager to see if the big trout have shown up at the barrier islands, and with the winds and seas this calm, well, we just got to go see.”

The weather was clear and calm the whole ride — until we got a mile or two past the long rocks and were out into the Sound.

Then the temperature dropped quickly by about 10 degrees, and we entered a heavy fog bank. I was glad I brought a light jacket.

It seemed like the farther we traveled south the thicker the fog became and the colder the temperature.

“Look at this,” Laboureur said, pointing to the water-temperature gauge on his dash. “Even the water temperature is colder. What the heck is going on?”

And then he noticed the water color: We were in river water.

“Now it all makes sense — the winds and high river have pushed this cold river water over here, where it met warm air and produced fog and colder air temperatures,” Laboureur said. “Well, that crushes our plan to fish Breton Island.

“But I am noticing some green water in the prop wash, so while we’re out here I’m going to stop at a couple of small wellheads to see if those bull reds we were fishing last month out here are still hanging around.”

Navigating to the wellheads was a bit tense due to the thick fog, because we couldn’t see more than 20 feet or so past the bow of the boat. Laboureur traveled slowly toward a well he had marked on his GPS, and we watched it emerge from the fog as we got close.

Eric hooked us onto a horizontal pipe with the rig hook and we strung a dead shrimp on heavy jigheads, either 3/8- or ½-ounce versions, and cast out.

It only took a couple minutes for my rod to double over.

“They’re still here,” Laboureur said, as I fought with a very hefty redfish.

I had 30-pound PowerPro line tied directly to the jighead, so I was not afraid to horse the fish around if it tried to get too close to the platform.

But this brute didn’t need to try to break my line — it straightened my hook. Well, it didn’t pull it completely straight, but straight enough to enable the fish to shake free.

But in mere minutes we had another one on, and then another. This little well structure was crawling with huge reds.

We had fun playing catch-and-release until the action petered out, and we moved a mile or so closer in before stopping at another wellhead.

The action at this stop duplicated that of the first, and we again tied into big reds strong enough to straighten hooks, break line and test drags to their limit.

The fog seemed to have no intention of lifting, so Laboureur pointed the bow toward the rocks at the end of the MRGO, and just before we got there we broke out of the fog bank.

The water at the rocks was clear, porpoises were splashing and smashing water as they hunted for food, and bait was jumping nervously all around us on the surface.

Time to catch some trout.

“This is definitely trout time at the rocks,” Laboureur said. “I love May fishing. The mornings are still a bit cool, the heat hasn’t fully arrived in all its fury yet and as the trout season kicks off out here.

“It’s a fisherman’s Disneyland. So many places you want to fish.”

And the action isn’t limited to the rocks at the end of the defunct MRGO.

“The coastal bays all turn on this month: Bay Eloi, Fortuna, Bay Lafourche,” Laboureur said. “Just fish around the little islands and off the various points, or fish the small structures.”

Putting trout in the boat isn’t a big mystery, either.

“The best technique is to tie off to the structures and fish out away from them,” Laboureur instructed. “Use live bait about 3 to 4 feet under a cork, with a split-shot about 6 to 8 inches above a No. 1 Kahle hook.

“The biggest mistake I see people make is they want to fish up against the legs of the wells and structures. The only thing you‘ll usually catch there is a sheepshead or the occasional red, but if you want to catch trout, cast out away from the structure. There are shell pads out there and horizontal structure on the bottom, pipes and such. Fish that.”

The fish in these bays typically measure 13 to 15 inches right now — not huge, but good eating size, fun and easy to catch.

When he fishes the MRGO rocks, he focuses on the stretch beyond the portion known as the Cut.

“… I like to fish the gaps and the wash-throughs in the long rocks,” Laboureur said. “I very seldom fish the short rocks. I know people catch fish there, but I usually just keep going right past them and do most of my May fishing at the rocks past the Cut.

“As the transitioning fish make their way from the inside marsh on their annual trek to the outside waters they congregate along these rocks at the end of the MRGO.

“The May action is so consistent you can set your clock by it, and if you show up on weekends you’ll always see a line of boats working baits all along the rocks, from the beginning to the end, and at all the corners of the gaps,” Laboureur said.

Our trout bite at the rocks was interrupted by a school of big reds that inhaled everything in sight — and when they finally moved out the porpoises came back.

Laboureur decided to try the edges of Lake Fortuna and Bay Machais before heading back to the dock — more of an exploratory trip I suspected — to see if the trout were there.

The fish were there, and we worked topwater baits and imitation shrimp plastics under corks around some small islands to put several more specks in the boat before calling it a day.

So whether you make the MRGO rocks Plan A or Plan B, don’t ignore them this month.

It’s rock-it science.

Editor’s note: Capt. Jaques “Jakamo” Laboureur can be reached at 504-303-1494.

About Rusty Tardo 370 Articles
Rusty Tardo grew up in St. Bernard fishing the waters of Delacroix, Hopedale and Shell Beach. He and his wife, Diane, have been married over 40 years and live in Kenner.