Although Captain Chad Dufrene (985-637-6357) has been sidelined lately because of some surgery, it hasn’t kept him from keeping up with what’s going on with the fish at Golden Meadow. He’s staying on top of things closely enough to know what the trout and redfish are doing so he can get his customers right back on the bite in a few weeks.
“I’ve been keeping up with the other guides what’s going on in Golden Meadow,” said Dufrene. “I’m ready to fish, but they won’t turn me loose yet. We’re getting a little bit of warm weather the last couple of days, and that has made the trout start biting.”
Dufrene explained that the trout bite was decent in Catfish Lake, and when the water is up with the high tide, they are biting in the lake and the surrounding ponds. He recommended focusing on the south and west side of the lake, as there are a few trout moving through those ponds when the water is up.
“When we get one of these fronts, though, the water is bottoming out, and the trout get hard to come by,” Dufrene continued. “The problem is it’s not staying cold enough long enough to push them into the canals. They go out in those bayous, and they get hard to catch because the water gets muddy.”
The best thing to do according to Dufrene is to fish between the fronts when it gets warm. These are also the days that have a little bit of south wind, which makes for a higher tide. Finding a good tidal range early in the morning with it coming up has been the best time to fish.
“People are catching trout on a tightline or under a cork,” Dufrene added. “There have even been a few diving birds reported. I talked to one guy that fished some birds last week, but he didn’t know what they were eating. It was either some really little bitty shrimp or some minnows, but he wound up catching about 20 trout under them.”
Although the action hasn’t been fast and furious, Dufrene said boats have been coming back in with anywhere from 25 to 50 trout – most of which had been tricked by smoke and glow beetles. And a few have been coming on the 3-inch glow Gulp! shrimp.
As for the redfish, Dufrene says they can be found in all the bayous wherever you can find oysters on the bank. Try fishing a live minnow on a jighead slowly through the oysters around Bayou Blue.
