Marshes north of two popular lakes in the Dularge area have been giving up redfish consistently for several months, and that shouldn’t stop in January.
Dozens of saltwater fishermen are counting on it, including Brady Giroir of Houma. In fact, Giroir can’t wait to keep pulling redfish off the shallow flats or the deeper ditches and channels in the marsh north of Lake Mechant and Sister Lake, also known as Caillou Lake.
“The redfishing’s been phenomenal, incredible all summer, all year, even now. We’re still killing them,” Giroir said in early December.
An engineer technician for the state Department of Transportation and Development, Giroir is a veteran charter boat captain who has owned Cajun Waters Fishing Charters since 2011.
The saltwater fishing guide isn’t writing off speckled trout action in January yet, but he knows the speck bite vanishes once the water temperature dips below about 47 degrees. So he plans to target and catch redfish averaging 18 to 24 inches, and he won’t be alone — even though it’s the middle of winter.
“We’ve been fishing up in the marshes,” he said, noting saltwater fishermen should probe those areas again this month, namely the Little Deuce area above Lake Mechant, and the Bayou Seveur area above Sister Lake.
In those areas, there are two options to put redfish after redfish in the ice chest, depending on the weather and water conditions. The best time to be wetting a line, he said, is when the water’s high, but just beginning to fall with the tide.
On balmy days as it gets warmer, redfish like to get up on the shallow flats and start feeding, Giroir said. When that’s the case, they are suckers for a green hornet or shrimp creole Matrix Shad on a ¼-ounce jighead about 14 to 16 inches under a popping cork. Tip the soft plastic with shrimp, and it’s game on.
Anglers also can try fishing along the grassline in many areas. Redfish love to roam the grass in search of food.
But if the water’s cold and getting colder, redfish still can be found in ditches and channels — many of them about 6 feet deep — in those aforementioned areas, where they can be caught on the highly popular 3-inch Tsunami swimbaits. The most productive color is bunker, but Giroir said if the redfish aren’t interested in that, try blue back or mullet.
And keep your retrieve slow along the bottom because the redfish are lethargic this time of year, but don’t be surprised to catch sheepshead this month, too.
