Keep your eyes on Cocodrie

Speckled trout are stacked up and big enough to take home

The Cocodrie area had a plague of undersized speckled trout in October — but that’s great news for anglers planning to head down there in November.

With all the shrimp in the marsh, those fish are growing by the day, and they’ll be keeper-sized long before kids have eaten all their Halloween candy.

And Capt. Anthony Kyzar said he knows right where he’ll go to find them.

“In November, they’ll be right in our backyard,” he said. “It’s a five-minute boat ride to Madison Bay, Lake Barre and Lake Boudreaux.”

The fish were stacked in all three water bodies last November, and Kyzar expects the same to happen this year.

Top baits last November included shrimp creole and green hornet Matrix Shad, as well as coastal candy Berkley Rattle Shrimp, Kyzar said.

And there’s really only one way to fish them, according to Kyzar.

“Last November, you couldn’t catch anything unless you had a cork,” he said.

The fish are often so thick in the area this time of year that popping the cork is sometimes unnecessary, according to Kyzar.

Anglers who go there shouldn’t expect to see many shrimp going airborne to escape feeding specks, Kyzar said. By then most of the crustaceans will have moved out to the big bays and open Gulf.

“The fish are after those potbelly minnows,” he said. “You’ll see the birds working on the potbelly minnows just like they do on shrimp.”

About Joel Masson 177 Articles
Joel Masson is an avid angler who has fished South Louisiana his whole life. He lives in Mandeville and can be reached at Joel.masson19@gmail.com.