For as long as he can remember, Matt Migues has fished and caught speckled trout in and around Vermilion Bay.
Migues had a fishing rod in his hands as a boy with his father, Randy Migues of Lydia, and his grandfather, Harry Migues, when the elder Migues wasn’t running his beagles, then as a teen alone or with friends after he got his driver’s license. He learned community holes and found his own hotspots, all while honing his speckled trout fishing game.
“I cut my teeth on the north bank, Cote Blanche Bay, Weeks Bay,” he said.
Todd Semar of Lydia took him under his wing and showed him what speckled trout “set up on” in inside waters in 2010-11. He’d go shrimping with the avid fisherman, help him pull and empty nets for a couple days, then fish with soft plastics.
Migues, a 44-year-old structural draftsman for PHI Aviation LLC, was in his small boat alone one day in June 2011 fishing Dry Reef. A storm chased him to Mud Point, where he caught his personal best speckled trout, a 7.01-pounder.
Where to go
Fishing inside waters during the heat of summer isn’t popular, but that’s what he does. Naturally, The Cove is a top destination, especially in December.
After launching from Quintana Canal Landing, fish the rocks (at the mouth on the opposite side of Cypremort Point State Park) or go to the wharves along the shoreline to catch speckled trout, Migues said.
“Sometimes every one of those wharves has a fish. (But) it’s not easy on those docks,” he said, referring to the degree of difficulty getting fish to bite in tight spaces, then getting them out of there.
If the fish are uncooperative on those first two stops, target them in The Cove by fishing close to the shoreline on a warm day or, when it’s much colder, probe 5- to 6-foot depths and drift across the water, barely bumping the trolling motor while fancasting around the boat, Migues said.
“The main thing is to find good water,” he said. “You can catch on the north bank of Vermilion Bay anywhere.”
Migues pointed out he prefers to fish along a stretch from Blue Point to Ivanhoe Canal this time of year.
“A lot of people don’t run past The Hammock,” he said. “I try to get away from the crowded areas. I don’t cross the Bay often. I find bait — rafts of small pogies — look for pelicans diving, cormorants diving. If I see five or six of them (cormorants) diving, guess what, they ain’t diving for nothing. More times than not, in December, cormorants tell the tale.”
Lures for December
About the “good water” he’s looking for, Migues said if you can see a foot, and it has a green tint, that’s good over here.
“On a falling tide, water gets that tea color, tannic,” he said. “We get that marsh water and when I see that on a falling tide, I don’t mind that.”
Migues’ favorite soft plastic during December is an ultra-violet Matrix Shad on a 1/32- or 1/8-ounce leadhead under a small popping cork. Winter is about the only time he uses a popping cork.
“I really like a light weight in wintertime,” he said. “I just find it’s a slower, softer presentation.”
Colorwise, besides his favorite, he tries to match the hatch, fish a darker color such as green hornet, which he often tips with chartreuse dye.
“Saying that, I’ve caught them on chartreuse/firetail in December,” Migues said. “You never know.”
When he targets bigger speckled trout, fish actively feeding on a lot of baitfish, he’ll tie on a bayou green MirrOdine 17MR. The suspending twitch bait can be irresistible.
“You better hold on to your rod,” he said. “When they hit it, they hit hard.”
