"I caught more fish today than I have my entire life combined."
May 24
My streak of limiting out ended at four straight trips this past weekend at Grand Isle, but that doesn’t mean we struck out. We still caught plenty of very nice trout, a few redfish and even a pompano fishing the barges at Fourchon Saturday, then behind Grand Terre Sunday. I had the pleasure of welcoming in Matt Wood and his wife Jamie from Chino, Calif., to the island. They won a weekend fishing with Capt. Frank Dreher of Laid Back Charter from Vanishing Paradise.
The Woods’ first Louisiana fishing day resulted in 30 very nice specks that hit croakers near the barges on Fourchon Beach. The fish were not ganged up like they had been in the couple weeks before. Each point of the barges would give up four or five fish before they would shut down and we’d have to move to the next spot.
Though the bite was a little off, the fish we did catch were all very nice. All trout were in the 17- to 22-inch range, and took croakers on Carolina rigs and free-lined around the barges. Sunday greeted us with a steady 15-knot east wind, which Dreher and I thought would make it difficult to find the trout ganged up in their usual spots. But we were wrong.
Capt. Frank Dreher, left, found feeding fish at the barges along Fourchon Beach as well as behind Grand Terre.
We made two stops, the first right behind Grand Isle where we picked up 25 very nice trout and a pompano fishing live shrimp under corks and the new Marsh Works CMAC color under a popping cork. The key, again, was finding the mullet schools and fishing in and around the mullet.
By about 8 a.m, the bite slowed, so we moved east to Grand Terre. It was very choppy behind the island, but again we found the mullet and dropped anchor. Two hours later, we were returning to Grand Isle with 70 very nice trout in the box. Again, live shrimp and plastics under a popping cork were best.
I asked Matt and Jamie if the trip lived up to their expectations.
”I didn’t really know what to expect, but I promise I caught more fish today than I have my entire life combined,” Matt said.
Sometimes it takes bringing folks in from other parts of the country to remind us just how lucky we are. And it is a reminder of how hard we must work to make sure this incredible resource is here for generations to come.
Tuesday I got the wonderful and sometimes rare opportunity to fish with my dad. We snuck away to the Causeway. I had to get one more Lake Pontchartrain trip in before focusing my full attention on Grand Isle and Cocodrie the rest of the summer.
We found decent water, plenty of bait and a lot of very small trout at the four-mile hump out of the northshore. Plenty, plenty bites and plenty of fish caught, just lots of fish turned loose.
We made a move a little farther south, and found better water and even more bait and the fish got bigger. In the span of five casts, I was able to catch two 2-pound trout, a 3-pounder and one just over 4 pounds. Then they slowed again.
We bounced to a couple spots to end the day and made our way back to the landing with 20 trout, a couple drum, a couple reds and a couple flounder.
Best baits were the Deadly Dudley Fool’s Gold in the stained water and the Matrix Shad avocado in the cleaner water. I’ll be back at it next week with a trip to Raccoon Island and points west out of Cocodrie.
Cross-posted from Laspecks.com, a brand-new website aimed at helping Louisiana anglers catch more speckled trout.
