Use cracked crab on a Carolina rig for great redfish action, guide says
The disturbance in the southern Gulf of Mexico didn’t materialize over the weekend, but did make for a windy day on Sunday over much of southeast Louisiana.
Conditions have already improved, and Capt. Marty LaCoste with Absolute Fishing Charters in Dularge said the forecast looks solid for the next several days.
“The wind calmed down yesterday and it’s pretty much dead calm right now,” Lacoste said Monday afternoon. “The rest of the week looks pretty good.”
Lacoste said the speckled trout bite has slowed down during the heat of the day, but he’s still been consistently catching a lot of trout at rigs on nighttime trips.
The lights of the rigs attract the baitfish, which in turn attract the specks.
“The bite’s different every night. It’s basically a waiting game for when the fish are going to start biting,” he said. “You never know when it’s going to be. I’ve been there many nights and not caught a single fish until midnight, then you catch 100 trout in an hour.”
Especially during the dog days of August, nighttime trips make for more pleasant conditions, he said.
“You’re not fishing in the heat, you don’t have a lot of people fishing around you and you often limit out,” LaCoste said.
If your work schedule makes a nighttime trip impractical, LaCoste suggested a couple of spots along the coast, particularly Taylor Bayou and Oyster Bayou, as locations to try. Availability of live bait is limited out of Dularge, but Lacoste said Matrix shad in avocado, green hornet and tiger bait produced the best results for specks.
Redfish action in and around Dularge is off the charts right now, and while LaCoste generally always prefers artificials, he said now through early October is the time to throw cracked crab on a Carolina rig.
He suggested fishing deeper holes, and curves in bayous where the water is deeper. Bayou Raccourci, the Blue Hammock and Rice Bayou are all producing nice redfish right now, he said.
“Every year these fish show up in these holes and you generally catch your limit every time you go,” LaCoste said. “September is the prime month for redfish.”
LaCoste said many people associate cracked crabs when fishing for bull reds, but that’s not the case in Dularge.
“Cracked crab is the ticket. These fish generally average 18 to 26 inches,” he said. “These are all slot redfish.”
