One of the biggest problems with fishing South Louisiana in the spring is the relentless wind. It blows almost every day, particularly in the afternoon. This makes areas tough to get to, and even if you are able to get to them, fishing isn’t easy.
Fortunately, this is the month the wind stops, and that makes speckled trout fishing a whole lot easier this month, according to Dularge guide Capt. Travis Lovell.
“After May, it seems like the wind gives us a break,” he said. “June is typically a month you can find pretty clean water.”
For fishing the Dularge area this month, Lovell recommends the outer areas like the Pickets, Raccoon Point, Last Island and the Mardi Gras structure.
When he pulls up to any of these areas, Lovell gives the fish ample time to bite before he moves on.
“I’m pretty patient with them,” Lovell said. “We know the fish are there. It’s just about when they’re going to bite and where. Timing is always key.”
When fishing this time of year, Lovell doesn’t have a preference on which way the tide is moving.
“I just want some tide,” he said. “When the tide is slack so is the bite. When the tide is moving, we know there is bait moving around, so it allows those fish to feed.”
More so than anywhere else in Louisiana, double-rigged lures are extremely popular in Dularge. They aren’t used much anywhere else, but Lovell is a huge fan of them.
“You can catch two fish at a time versus one,” he said. “Sometimes, you won’t catch two at a time, but it does give a little more action and visibility to the bait under the water.”
Lovell constructs his double rigs with ¼-ounce jigheads on both ends. He then threads on a shrimp creole and green hornet-colored Matrix Shad.
When he pulls up to a structure, Lovell attacks it in a specific way.
“I’ll troll around until I find the fish, and then I’ll spot lock and catch as many of them as possible while they’re biting.”
Lovell said most of the fish this time of year in Dularge are school trout — 12 to-14 inches, but he occasionally catches fish that are up to about 3 pounds.
