Laboureur recommends hitting the MRGO dam, long rocks to escape west winds
Like death and taxes, steady west winds have been pretty constant this summer — and fishing out of Shell Beach has been no exception.
“The west wind has been tough on us, no doubt,” Capt. Jakamo Laboureur, with Jakamo South Fishing Adventures, said. “It’s been keeping us in close to (Lake) Eloi and Christmas Camp (Lake) and things more to the east, where we have some protected water.
“The fish have not been great as far as size, but they’ve been plentiful.”
On a recent trip, Laboureur said he used almost 300 live shrimp from Campo’s to box 71 keeper trout. He’s fishing about 3 feet under a popping cork, he said.
“I could have loaded the boat with white trout,” he said. “There’s plenty of fish to be caught, but there’s a lot of throwbacks mixed in.”
Stronger west winds have prevented him from venturing out to Breton Sound, he said.
“If it was a light west wind, we could still fish the sound and try to find clean water,” he said. “But when it’s blowing 15 and gusting to 20, the sound is pretty much done.”
Instead, Laboureur recommends anglers find areas sheltered from the wind.
“I would recommend behind the dam in the MRGO and out toward the long rocks. That’s all going to be protected,” he said. “And Lake Eloi would also be real good.
“Be sure to buy extra bait because you’ll be dealing with a lot of dinks and a lot of white trout. But if you stick with it and work it, you can put some fish in the box.”
With four people in a boat, Laboureur said one person fishing a plastic shrimp imitation will make the live bait last longer.
“They won’t catch as many, but if you have four people throwing plastic, you might pick up a few here and few there,” he said. “It’s just a lot more work.”
