Avid angler seeing defininte uptick in numbers
Belle Chasse angler Chad Battles isn’t a fishing guide, but he’s on the water chasing redfish at least as much as any professional fisherman. As such, he can really recognize trends, and one of them he’s seeing now is increasing redfish action out of Delacroix.
“I guarantee you, it’s about to explode,” he said. “These fish are moving in. I can tell you for a fact they’re moving in. I’m starting to see a lot more numbers.”
Battles said he’s been focusing on pockets of main lakes, and he’s begun to see schools of 100 or more fish in many areas.
“The water has had a heavy stain, but still, if you get close to grass lines, you’ll see clear water tight to the grass,” he said. “They’ll be swimming along that.
“I’ve also seen a bunch (of redfish) in the real dirty water, and when the tail kicks, you can see the suspended mud move in the water.”
That dirtier water is likely the result of a dearth of vegetation, as compared to most years at this time.
“The grass is just OK,” he said. “It’s a lot of sparse grass. We had that west wind for so long that a lot of that grass died a month or so ago.”
Battles has been targeting the redfish with a white Paca Craw. He’ll either swim it with a swim-jig hook or he’ll rig it on a jighead, and bounce it in front of them.
“The fish I’m catching are all between 26 and 30 inches,” he said. “I’ll see some smaller fish in the mix, but I don’t throw to them. I just let them swim by.”
Battles hypothesized that the reds have increased in numbers to feast upon a bumper crop of white shrimp.
“For the last two weeks, I’ve seen a bunch (of white shrimp),” he said. “They’re all like 3 to 4 inches (long). They’ve been popping all over the place. It’s kind of crazy.”
