Tsunami swimbait effective, but white trout also plentiful, angler says
As the calendar inches closer to November, speckled trout are now steadily making progress transitioning to inside waters around Grand Isle, according to a local angler.
Tommy Vidrine, who chases trout around the island year round, said a weekend trip to the Caminada Pass jetties produced a single speck — but almost non-stop redfish action.
However, in the marshes around Dutch Island and the islands toward Barataria Bay — as well as off Highway 1 —specks were there if you worked for them.
“I went right behind Dutch Island with live shrimp and caught a limit in the morning on Saturday,” Vidrine said, noting that tight-lining and a popping cork were both effective. “They were hanging out there, making the transition. Smaller fish, in the 14- to 15-inch range.”
Roadside action is also heating up, and Vidrine said the first two bridges heading into Grand Isle were popular spots last weekend. On his way back home to Baton Rouge Monday morning, Vidrine said he pulled over and caught several keeper specks in about 35 minutes.
“They were just tearing it up,” he said. “The wind died down and the water was green. There really was no current, and I still had 10 or 12 keepers in the bucket in about 30 or 40 minutes.”
A 3-inch Tsunami swim minnow is his lure of choice along Highway 1. If you like catching white trout — which are plentiful — use a smaller version of that bait.
“If you like to get a lot of bites and you don’t mind eating white trout, Grand Isle is definitely the place to go because there’s way more white trout than there are specks,” he said. “But I did manage to catch 15 specks in the midst of 20 or 30 white trout Friday.”
Continued fronts will make the south side of Highway 1 a popular spot well into the fall, he said.
“Besides the bridges, some of those pits on the roadside will be productive in the coming 30 days, like the Forbidden Hole,” he said. “That’s what’s coming. The best time to go is if you have 10 mph max winds and the water stays green enough for them to see the bait.
“If it’s 20 mph out of the north, the only place you can fish is in the pits on the opposite side of the highway, and that’s going to be be good coming up on some cold days, but it still muddies up the water. Those bridges get muddy because the water is coming from Barataria Bay into the other side of the road and it’s hard for the trout to see. When the water stays green, that’s always going to be the best time to go.”
