Capt. Zutie Auenson has two fishing seasons. From sometime in September until late April, he charters from his permanent home in Golden Meadow. Then he fishes for speckled trout and redfish with live cocahoes and smoke/glitter split-tail beetles, a lure he goes through by the thousands.
But with the coming of summer, Auenson undergoes a chameleon-like change. Operating from his huge camp on Grand Isle, he wages a one-man assault on speckled trout, mainly with live croakers, but with some soft plastics as well. His love of trout fishing is legendary.
“I love to catch speckled trout,” he says thoughtfully at his camp. “If a redfish never bites my line, it wouldn’t make me no difference.
“I have to fish redfish because of being a guide, but I love to see that big trout come in the boat.”
His trout catch numbers are amazing. During the single month of June, five years ago, over 1,600 specks came over the rail of his boat. The next year, in May, he did almost as well.
While Auenson doesn’t begin guiding until late April, he believes the trout are there earlier, but the month is typically windy and the water is often dirty. April yields both large and small fish, when conditions allow.
May, says Auenson, produces a lot of big fish. Although he cautions that everything from Bay Rambo to Hackberry Bay and Lake Grand Ecaille on the inside and the beaches from Belle Pass to Chaland Pass are options at any time during the summer months, he does have areas he fishes more than others each month. In May, that includes Hackberry Bay and Bay Rambo, Lake Washington and the Sulphur Mine. Bay Rambo is a particular refuge when the weather is bad. Fishing is mainly inside, but by the end of the month, he will begin to eye the beaches.
June is much like May, but excursions to the beaches during good weather are even more likely. Auenson fishes the camps near Four Bayous Pass and the Sulphur Mine a lot this month. June is a prime month, both for numbers of speckled trout and size.
Fishing on the beaches really heats up in July, as growing shrimp are moving from the inside out to the beaches and the fish are following. During the early part of the month, Auenson says that he will, on average, fish more to the east in the Four Bayous and Chaland area. The latter half of the month, he spends more time on the beaches to the west, such as Elmer’s Island and Fourchon.
August is almost a strictly beach fishing month for the speckled trout specialist. Very little fishing is done inside. At any time during the month, Auenson could be found on any beach between Chaland Pass and Belle Pass, although the later in the month it gets, the more he fishes to the west.
September, the last month that Auenson fishes in Grand Isle before retreating to Golden Meadow, is a month of fewer, but larger trout than July and August. Most of his fishing is done from Grand Isle to Belle Pass.
