Numbers of hard-fighting reds make up for subpar trout action
October is normally when Capt. Marty LaCoste pounds Dularge’s speckled trout population, however it just hasn’t happened yet this year.
But there is still plenty of reasons to launch in the fishing port — redfish are swarming.
“We’re usually catching (trout) by now,” the guide said. “Little shrimp are showing up, and you can catch trout. But it’s catching 70 fish hoping to keep 10. I haven’t even been fooling with the trout.
“It’s been redfish every day.”
The owner of Absolute Fishing Charters said it’s pretty easy to limit out and then spend the rest of the day catching and releasing reds throughout the Dularge system.
“Everyone’s been limiting out,” LaCoste said.
However, redfish haven’t positioned in their traditional ealry fall holes.
“They usually go into those deep holes (in the bayous) in the end of August — when the water temps get really, really hot — because it’s cooler (in deeper water),” LaCoste explained. “We usually catch them on cracked crabs in those holes.
“But they haven’t gone to those areas this year.”
Instead, all you have to do is find current to put a bend in your rod.
“We’re catching them in current funnels, down the banks, in ponds, whatever,” LaCoste said.
But it’s been weird this year in that artificials haven’t produce well.
“I’ve never fished dead shrimp under a cork this much in my life,” LaCoste said. “But I haven’t been able to catch them on plastics.
“I’ve literally caught four redfish on a spinnerbait in the last two months.”
So he simply dangles market shrimp under corks and holds on for the impending battle.
As for trout, LaCoste thinks it’s a matter of water temperature.
“We need a good cold front,” he said. “We probably need two cold fronts. The signs of them showing up are there, but we need some cool weather.”