Anglers have plenty of spots to fish this month south of Marsh Island
When the speckled trout run starts in the Gulf of Mexico below Vermilion Bay, Gerrit “T-Blu” Landry of Patoutville has many options to take advantage of the bite.
Landry’s fishing trips will take him along the Gulf Coast from Tete Butte eastward to Pavy’s Reef, Diamond Reef, Shell Keys and Nickel Reef, water and weather conditions permitting. When the wind allows safe boating, he’ll venture 11 miles south of Southwest Pass to the perennial near-offshore hotspot Tiger Shoals.
“We normally start fishing Tiger Shoals and the reefs in the Gulf for trout in June,” Landry said. “I fish a good bit of them.”
The Gotta Have Faith Charters owner, who earned his charter boat license five years ago, was looking forward to catching speckled trout in those and other places just south of Marsh Island.
“I think we’ll have another good year. We had a good year last year,” Landry said, noting salinity levels were ideal starting early last summer.
How high was the salinity? He saw schools of bull reds and even caught tripletail in those reefs the water was so salty.
West to east
Until Landry gets the schools of speckled trout dialed in, the 43-year-old outdoorsman said he normally works his way west to east and offers a myriad of proven soft plastics as well as live shrimp, when and if necessary. However, he said, “I’ve seen live bait outfish plastics, and plastics outfish live bait at Tete Butte.”
At Tete Butte, a favorite among Acadiana saltwater anglers due to the ever-present likelihood of catching 4-pound class speckled trout, Landry starts on the west side and trolls the high spots. He fishes with soft plastics or live shrimp (if water clarity is favorable) under a popping cork until he picks up a few speckled trout, then puts the poles down. When he gets to deeper areas along the reefs, he’ll jig soft plastics off the bottom.
As Landry fishes to the east, he trolls along the edges of reefs, and if he doesn’t get bit by at least halfway, he crosses over to the next reef.
Nickel Reef, a few miles below the east side of Marsh Island, might be hit or miss when you get there, but the hits can include nonstop action.
“Tete Butte, when it’s on, it’s good, kind of like The Nickel,” Landry said. “But many times you run way out there (Nickel Reef) and don’t have a bite. We caught some nice trout at The Nickel (last summer).”
What to use
Landry’s favorite soft plastics to fish in and around the reefs under a popping cork, generally 3 feet down, are Capt. Lane’s Ghost Minnows; lemonhead Matrix Shads, clear/red or brownish Vudu Shrimps, and the new Four Horsemen Boom Boom Shrimp in white/red.
Landry shared how he’ll fish his favorite early summer hotspot, Tiger Shoals, a once-bustling area with oil field structures and an average depth of 11 to 13 feet.
“I’ve got some pads (shell bases for old oil rigs he has marked on GPS) I fish and some platforms,” he said, adding he fishes with tandem-rigged soft plastics — a mix of Matrix Shad, Ghost Minnow and, even, what’s left of his High Water Fishing Lures LLC supply — each a different color until he finds the color the fish are biting on.
Like Landry said, he has plenty of options as far as locales and artificial lures.
