Fishing action still hot as the weather
Catching a mess of trout in Caillou Bay and then going out to South Timbalier to bag a few lemon fish, or vise versa, should be a breeze right now for anyone with a bay boat on a calm day.
That’s because the speckled trout have been stacked up around many of the wellheads between Raccoon Point and Blue Point, while cobia are cruising those same waters, according to avid recreational fisherman and LouisianaSportsman.com user Scott Walker.
“During the day, you can bounce from structure to structure until you find them stacked up, but at night they are stacked up under the lights of each wellhead,” Walker said. “And the trout have been averaging around 3-pounds; this has been a very good year for Raccoon Point.”
Walker, who goes by “nightfisher” on the LouisianaSportsman.com forum, noted that there is a small hitch that anglers must accommodate for while fishing this area, though: Live croakers are a must.
“The trout won’t bite on anything else. Plastics are off, and they won’t even take shrimp.” Walker said.
If anglers are coming from Cocodrie, they might want to head straight to the eroded midsection of West Timbalier Island (where the old lighthouse used to be) or to the wellheads in Lake Pelto for the early morning bite.
West Timbalier and Lake Pelto have not had the grandiose success of Raccoon Point, but are still good options for early mornings.
“If you can get under the birds or find some bait around West Timbalier, just throw some live shrimp at them and you’ll catch something, but that area (West Timbalier Island/ Lake Pelto) has a lot of throwbacks,” Walker said. “Raccoon Point is where it’s at right now.
“At night you can catch hundreds of them (speckled trout) on croakers, almost guaranteed.”
If the trout just aren’t taking the bait or you just feel like hitting the open water before coming back for a night-fishing venture around Raccoon Point, there are cobia stalking the waters around most of the South Timbalier oil platforms.
“But they (cobia) have been acting strange lately,” Walker said. “(Normally) you would be able to sight-fish them around the rigs because they usually stay at the top of the water. Last time I went, we had to throw a small red snapper back and a lemon fish came up to try and eat it, so my buddy, Andre Thomas, threw a croaker down and instantly hooked up with it.
“Another lemon fish followed the first one to the top, so I threw my cobia jig and hooked it, too.”
Cobia are very curious fish, and will often follow other fish to the top as they are being fought.
“The lemon fish have been staying down toward the bottom, so I’ve been leaving the engine on and jigging around each rig before I actually tie up because I know that they are there. They just aren’t hanging out on the top like they usually are.” Walker said.
Walker uses a white feather jig with a chartreuse curly tail grub to target lemon fish.
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