Redfish still active in passes and outer bays
Speckled trout are still gathered along the edges of the outer bays near Venice as they prepare to make their big fall push inside, a guide said.
“The specks are just starting to show their noses in the river system, but they’re not in there thick by any means,” said Capt. Owen Langridge, with Big O Charters. “There are a few showing up here, there and yonder in the passes, but most of them are still at the edge of the bays staging and getting ready to come in.”
But by the end of the month, he thinks the action will be fast and furious.
“I think it’s going to be just like it was last year: the last week of October and the first week of November is when they’re really going to come in like gangbusters, but that’s just my opinion,” Langridge said. “I expect to start seeing trout pretty heavy, but they just haven’t made it yet.”
Near Buras, nice specks are already being caught in Bay Pomme d’or, English Bay, Bay Jacques and the Sandy Point area, he said. And on the east side of the river, good reports are coming from Quarantine Bay.
“All those areas are producing trout right now, and pretty nice trout,” he said.
Recently, he’s been catching specks on H&H Sparkle Beetles in chartreuse or solid white under a popping cork on a 2/0 Kahle hook.
“Ain’t that crazy,” Langridge said. “You can’t fish any cheaper or easier than you can with a Sparkle Beetle. You can buy a package for a buck.”
Langridge likes the action of the beetle on a Kahle hook attached directly to the 30-pound leader, instead of using a jighead.
“The 2/0 Kahle hook has enough weight to make it go down, but when you pop that cork it comes up and gyrates, where a ¼-ounce jighead goes straight down like a bomb,” he said. “With the Kahle hook, it dances under the water. They seem to like it that way.”
Meanwhile, redfish are in the river, the passes and the outer bays, he said.
“The reds are almost anywhere right now. But they’re not everywhere, and they’re not stacked up. You have to work to catch a limit,” he said. “It’s not like last year when we had reds in the river in June.”
For reds, he suggested working the passes with dead shrimp under a cork, including Grand Pass, Tiger Pass, Main Pass, Octave Pass and Baptiste Collette Bayou.
The good news is that the Mississippi River is right at 3-feet in New Orleans, conditions look favorable for the week and another cool front is expected by Thursday.
“The water is beautiful and green. You could drink it, it’s so pretty,” Langridge said. “I think we need a good cold front to help move the specks in. They’re sitting there waiting to come, they’re just not in yet.”
