If anglers want to catch sac-a-lait in March at Henderson Lake, they should go to the borrow pits along the East Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee.
Head there and fish on the levee side, which is shallower and, as a result, warmer — a suitable place for the sac-a-lait to spawn if and when the water temperature gets into the 50s and 60s. If it’s a cold late winter and/or there’s a big snowmelt, though, the best sac-a-lait fishing action might be delayed until April.
Laurette Mequet of Cecilia, who knows as much or more about sac-a-lait fishing on the lake as anyone, said as much when she volunteered a report. Mequet, who along with her husband, Mitch, owns Cypress Cove Landing and works as a sales associate at BoatCity USA in Henderson, said most of the action should take place in Kern’s Pit and George Dupuis Pit, plus an unnamed borrow pit connected to the latter that she called George Dupuis Pit No. 2. They are all along the western edge of the lake.
Her favorite, she confided, is the George Dupuis Pit because “it’s like three pits in one.” However, she fishes any of them in search of slabs.
The sac-a-lait are darker in color, particularly the males, when they spawn.
Mequet said she prefers to fish with a 10-foot jig pole in order to position the boat away from the shoreline as much as possible. She fishes with 8- to 10-pound test line.
To put sac-a-lait in the ice chest, she likes to use either a red/chartreuse or red/blue/chartreuse tube jig or hair jig with a preferred weight of 1/48-ounce.
“You want it to fall a little slow. When they see it falling slow, they hit it hard,” Mequet said from beau coups hours of experience.
She likes to use a “slim” cork that weighs the “smallest smidge,” the red/green one with a red top, which are available at Cypress Cove Landing’s bait shop.
Fish about 2 feet deep on the levee side and move along with the trolling motor, she advised.
Hopefully, she said, sac-a-lait fishing this spring, early and late, “will be an even better year than last year. It was pretty good last year.”
Sure, she said, those borrow pits get crowded — but the key is to be patient.
Sac-a-lait anglers might want to try their hand at the weekly Take Dat Sac-a-lait Fishing Tournaments hosted by Cypress Cove Landing. The season starts on March 14, the Wednesday after Daylight Savings Time starts. Tournaments are from 5 p.m. to dark-thirty — whatever the announced weigh-in time is before the start of the contest.
Entry fee is $35, which includes the launch fee and a supper. There is a three-fish limit on the sac-a-lait, as well as a trash fish category.
Usually, there are 18 to 20 boats in each tournament field, providing there are favorable weather conditions, Mequet said. For more information call (337) 228-7484.