Things can get downright crazy this month for anglers casting baits along the bridges in eastern Lake Pontchartrain.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second installment of a two-part series on Lake Pontchartrain’s bridges. Part I appeared in the April issue.
Webster defines Mayhem as “riot and disorder.” It’s a word used by the press to describe rioting and unrest in the streets — crowds running amok, burning cars, crashing storefronts, looting, fighting and creating havoc and destruction. It’s like what happened in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. It’s confusion, anarchy, pandemonium.
And mayhem might be what best describes the fishing trip I took along the eastern Lake Pontchartrain bridges last May with Capt. Mike Gallo (504-259-3474). Gallo had been on a very consistent bite, and knowing my reputation as an unsuccessful lake fisherman, he was determined to help me break the jinx and put me on some fish.
I’ve said before that Lake Pontchartrain has never been kind to me. My many previous trips to the lake have mostly either come up dry, or I’d end up watching as other anglers aboard landed all the fish. For some reason, I just haven’t been able to grasp the knack of detecting the subtle lake bite.
So rather than admit that I just can’t catch fish in Lake Pontchartrain, I do the natural thing and blame it on the lake. “The lake doesn’t like me,” I declare, and just leave it at that.
But Gallo was persistent, so I joined him at his camp on the northshore for an afternoon trip along the bridges. Gallo also invited my old friend Capt. Tim Ursin, better known hereabouts as “Capt. Hook.”
Hook had just recovered from some surgery and was as eager as I was to get out on the water, so the three of us set off to find adventure.
Growing up in St. Bernard Parish, I did almost all my fishing in Delacroix, Shell Beach, Hopedale and Bayou Bienvenue. The thought of fishing Lake Pontchartrain back then would never have entered my mind because, as it was well known, the lake was a barren, muddy mess. For almost at least three decades, it was a polluted aquatic wasteland with few anglers chasing very scarce fish.
The condition of the lake deteriorated until even swimming was outlawed in the 1970s due to toxins in the water. Drainage and continual clam dredging kept the bottom torn up and the water the perpetual color of chocolate milk until the formation of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation in 1989, which finally persuaded enough lawmakers to cease all dredging by 1990.
Even then, it took five more years for the water to clear up and the fish to return, and swimming wasn’t declared safe until 2000.
But the turnaround has been nothing short of dramatic. The fish did return, and now some of the biggest trout in the state are caught each year at the bridges over the lake. The lake did suffer something of a setback at the hands of evil Katrina back in 2005.
But in a recent interview, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation Director Carlton Dufrechou said that even with all the “toxic soup” contamination that poured into the lake, the pollution was confined to a relatively small area extending 1 to 1 ½ miles out from the south shore. And once the city drained and they stopped pumping the floodwaters into the lake, it quickly filtered itself and had fully rebounded by November 2005.
It was close to 3 p.m. when Gallo killed the outboard at the Twin Spans, dropped the trolling motor over the bow and we began the jigging styled cast-and-retrieve method so unique to the lake.
Gallo said that normally the speckled trout action at the bridges turns on in April, hits its peak in May, and then gradually fizzles as near tropical heat sets in for the duration of the summer. It’s not that the action stops completely at the bridges in the hottest months, but concentrations are harder to find and action can be spotty at best. So Gallo says once the mid-summer heat sets in, many anglers start heading over to Seabrook to find trout.
“But this year the outlook is very promising for a great season along all the bridges — the Twin Spans, the Highway 11 Bridge and the Train Trestle on the east end, and along the Causeway in mid-lake,” Gallo said recently.
The loud roaring drone of tires on metal made fishing the west-bound lanes of the Twin Spans difficult, especially if you like to talk while you fish. Hook said he’s used to quiet and tranquility when he fishes — the sounds of marsh birds, chatty anglers and the loudest noise would be that of an outboard. But the Twin Spans suffered heavy damage from Katrina, and the sections of the I-10 that were knocked down were replaced with metal grids that made for a quick but noisy repair.
Gallo says he tries to avoid fishing under the noisy west lanes, but when the fish show up there, he chases them, noisy or not.
Twenty minutes and two fish later, we pulled up and headed for the south end of the Trestles.
“Believe it or not, I actually prefer to fish the afternoons in the spring,” Gallo said. “Normally, we have incoming tides in the morning and we get mostly south and east winds this time of year, all of which pushes Gulf water and bait into the lake and makes for higher salinities. That’s why I think an incoming tide is the best tide for fishing the bridges.
“But in the summer, we usually have just the opposite — a falling tide in the morning, which could possibly contribute to the fact that there’s less fish along these bridges during the hottest months. My point is, fish the bridges now while the action is red hot.”
To illustrate his point, Gallo put some sizeable specks in the boat — one after another! We were using the trolling motor to stay pretty close to the legs of the bridge, and casting our baits right up alongside the bridge supports. The routine is long established by now: Use a 3/8- or ½-ounce jig head, threaded onto a soft plastic lure. Many of the local bridge anglers use Deadly Dudleys in either blue moon, avocado or salt-and-pepper colors, with a chartreuse tail.
Gallo uses them too, along with Norton Sand Eels in needle gar or bone diamond colors, and Hybrids in magic minnow or shrimp color. He likes colors that “match the hatch,” or most closely mimic the baits the trout are actually feeding on, so anything that might resemble a croaker, pogie or other baitfish is a good bet.
“The key is getting your bait all the way to the bottom,” Gallo said as he made another cast. “Once you are sure you’re on bottom, you can lift your rod tip up enough to give your bait a little hop. Be ready, keep the line tight, and when you feel a slight tap or even a tremble in your line, set the hook. Sometimes they’re more aggressive, and you really feel the bite. But often it is subtle … like THAT,” he said as he set the hook and reeled in another hefty speck.
Hook was also getting into the swing of things and nailing some nice fish off the back of the boat, but I was yet to get a bite. I started worrying about that jinx thing, between me and the lake.
Gallo says he likes to fish the south end of the Trestle on days with low tidal movement, and in the middle of the lake on days with a big tide range.
“Moving water is vital to success,” he said. “The tide sweeps bait along with the current, forcing it to move, and it triggers an instinct to hunt in predatory fish. No tide means no forced movement of bait, and no instinct to feed in trout.
“That doesn’t mean you never catch fish when there’s no tide; it just means you don’t often catch fish on those days. On the other hand, too much tide creates a problem also. It’s difficult to get your bait on the bottom and difficult to troll along the pilings and difficult to keep the slack out of your line.”
So far this year, Gallo has had success catching trout by “dead sticking.”
“The problem with many anglers is that they’re a little too anxious to work their bait, and they wind up reeling it in before it ever hits bottom,” he said. “They may be inexperienced in fishing the deeper water of the lake, or they may be used to more of a cast-and-retrieve presentation, like you use in the shallow marsh. Here, you absolutely have to get your bait to the bottom. Cast out to the pilings and let it sink.
“Once your line stops spooling out and you think you’ve hit bottom, turn the handle to close the spool and reel in just enough to take out any slack. Make sure your bait is on bottom by counting slowly to five or six, that gives it a few extra seconds to sink, and it gives any underwater predators a few seconds to look at it.
“Ever watch fish in a tank? Sometimes they’ll let the food settle to the bottom and then they just look at it for a second or two, and then, SLURP, they inhale it. That’s how I’ve been catching fish lately. If nothing slurps it up while you’re ‘dead sticking,’ then you can do a little hop by lifting your rod tip up and let the bait settle down again. LIKE THIS,” he said, snatching yet another hungry trout off the bottom.
Between Hook and Gallo, some really nice trout were flying into the boat. I finally managed to set the hook on a decent speck that must have had suicidal urges because he hit the bait aggressively enough for me to feel it. I started to feel like maybe I was getting the hang of this bridge thing. I wound up catching several more trout that afternoon even though I was being out-fished 10 to one. We stuffed Gallo’s ice chest so full of hefty trout that we couldn’t snap the lid closed.
Over the course of our trip, I observed quite a few other boats fishing along the Trestle, Highway 11 and the Twin Spans. Many were using the same “jigging” method we were, using their trolling motors and casting up against the legs of the bridges. Others had either anchored or tied off in a favorite spot and soaked live and dead baits on the bottom or under sliding corks.
Trout, reds, drum, sheepshead and flounder will all hit live and dead baits, Gallo said.
Still other anglers were “trolling” in the true sense, outboards slowly chugging them alongside the bridge supports as they pulled submerged baits behind them.
“Those guys are probably using either wire line or lead line, and they usually pull the 52 series MirrOlures with a stinger lure of some sort on the end,” he said. “They do real good out here in May also.”
I even saw one boat trolling along the pilings with a full spread of four baits set out.
“You do have to fish friendly along the bridges because it can get crowded, especially on weekends,” Gallo said. “But most people are courteous and there’s plenty enough bridges for everybody to fish.”
Gallo says anglers who fish the bridges this month can expect to catch trout ranging anywhere from 1 to 3 pounds, with quite a few going in the 4- and 5-pound range. His biggest from the bridges?
“Almost 8 pounds, caught from the middle of the I-10 spans, in May, on a chartreuse Norton Sand Eel,” he said.
We got back to Gallo’s dock just before dark with a three-man limit of beautiful specks, and I couldn’t help thinking that maybe, just maybe, me and the big lake just might become friends.
Capt. Mike Gallo can be reached at (504) 259-3474; Capt. Tim Ursin can be reached at (985) 847-0672.
