Although you might not suspect it by looking at the calendar, Delacroix’s speckled trout are already active outside.
Capt. Jack Payne, owner of Sweetwater Marina, took a couple of clients out Saturday, and the three anglers boated 65 beautiful trout at Stone Island.
“The water clarity wasn’t that great,” he said, “but the fish were there.”
Payne caught the specks on blue moon H&H Cocahoes.
“You had to throw and make a steady retrieve,” he said. “They’d either hit you immediately on the fall from the cast or during the retrieve.”
The key, Payne said, was fishing in the mullet.
“Where there wasn’t any bait, there wasn’t any trout,” he said.
He didn’t see any shrimp at all, he said.
There were no gorillas in the mix, but Payne said at least 15 of the fish were over 2 pounds, and the biggest was 3 pounds.
“It’s kind of weird,” he said, ” because the fish are never outside this early.”
The fish are also fairly thick inside. I took new Louisiana Sportsman Editor Andy Crawford and his son Garrett on Friday, and we caught fish on deep shelves around Oak River.
The fish hit double-rigged, curl-tail, chartreuse Bomber Mud Minnows.
For more information, or to book a trip with Payne, call 504-342-2368.