Where else but Louisiana can you catch speckled trout, redfish and flounder, and then reel in chunky bass after no more than a 10-minute boat ride?
Jeff Bruhl does it all the time.
Though Bruhl loves catching speckled trout, he’s an avid bass angler who never passes up the opportunity to fight a few green trout.
Just inside the Tchefuncte River is a canal that provides access to the southern end of the famed Rice Fields. The actual Rice Fields themselves are a private lease, and public access is not permitted, but the canal benefits greatly from the bait being sucked out of the fields with every falling tide.
Bass stack up there to feast on baitfish and small shrimp.
Bruhl made a stop in the area after his Causeway venture, and caught 12-inch bass almost at will. In fact, one cast produced two fish on one bait.
“It’s a Lucky Strike version of a Jerk Shad,” Bruhl said. “This year we went to the Bass Federation Nationals on Bull Shoals, and that’s one of the baits they fish up in those highland reservoirs.
“So we started playing with them around here to learn just how they feel, how they throw, and we realized they work well here, too. Last December and January, we killed the fish down here on these.”
The canal doesn’t have a lot of depth — maxing out at maybe 5 feet — but it produces school bass throughout the fall, winter and spring, Bruhl said.
He fishes it regularly with his jerk bait, as well as a red shad worm.
“Little schools will come through, and you’ll catch a couple — boom, boom — and then you won’t get a bite for a few minutes, and then they’ll show up again,” Bruhl said.