Keith Lusher 09.10.24
I’m positive you’ve heard the outdated saying – with age comes knowledge. However for some anglers, it could possibly be stated – with age comes routine.
On my newest fishing journey to 4 Bayou in Plaquemines Parish, LA, I used to be pressured to alter my routine. What routine? Properly, it’s merely a retrieving routine that has labored for ages on this space.
Right here in South Louisiana speckled trout is king! So after I leaned that I used to be making a visit with Nick Liebel Hint Gilmore of Belle Chasse, LA, the very first thing I requested was, “The place are we fishing?” Liebel responded with, “out of Pleased Jack”.
Pleased Jack is simply off of Hwy 23 in Belle Chasse and it’s the doorway to Bay Sansbois.
The bay is thought for its open-water, speckled trout fishing. Anybody who fishes Southeast Louisiana is aware of once you fish open water, you sometimes fish with a saltwater popping cork. I rigged up my pole with a cork and a Market 54 Jerk Shrimp and met Liebel on the launch at 6:00 a.m.
After heading down Rodriguez Canal and throughout Bay Sansbois, We arrived on the first spot at 6:30 a.m. The solar was beginning to peek over the horizon and a flock of pelicans handed over us and Liebel throttled the engine again.
About 40 yards out was the construction that we had been going to deal with this morning. It was a set of pilings that when served because the legs of a camp. The land was eroded from years of hurricanes, turning the strip of land right into a stretch of shallow water just like an underwater levee.
Liebel pointed on the pilings and stated “We’re going work our means throughout this set of pilings and see what we are able to get.” He threw down the trolling motor and we started to forged our cork rigs out. It took all however 5 minutes earlier than Liebel’s cork shot beneath and he set the hook.
I used to be relieved to see the primary fish within the boat as speckled trout can typically be hit and miss. After unhooking his 14-inch speck, Liebel tossed it into the ice chest and returned to fishing. That spot produced a complete of 5 trout for us in about an hour. They had been all caught beneath a cork with a easy popping approach – as soon as pop each 5 seconds or so.
Whereas the chew wasn’t all that quick, it was constant, and the three of us determined to grind it out till we caught a 3-man restrict of 45 speckled trout that day.
As we arrived at our subsequent spot, the sample arrange the identical – circle the pilings utilizing popping corks to place fish within the boat. This set of pilings produced 7 fish and we had been nicely on our strategy to a restrict.
We continued this routine till 11:00 a.m. when Liebel and I observed Gilmore tying on a brand new lure. We actually didn’t pay an excessive amount of consideration to him apart from handing him just a few jabs about losing time and never catching fish. Then Gilmore forged out and began retrieving his corkless lure. It was a Matrix Shad on a 3/8-ounce jighead. He was casting it out and tight-lining it again to the boat. On his third forged he hunched over and set the hook on a 15-inch speck which he boat-flipped onto the bow. Liebel and I each checked out one another and stated, “Uh oh,” as we’ve seen this occur earlier than. “Generally all it takes is for any person to modify issues up and that could be how the fish need it introduced,” Liebel stated.
Liebel and I stubbornly continued with our popping corks catching a fish each quarter-hour whereas Gimore placed on a clinic together with his cast-and-retrieve technique. After telling one another, “If he catches yet another I’m switching over,” Gilmore caught one other and we made the decision to tie on a Matrix Shad. It didn’t take lengthy earlier than Liebel and I had our first fish utilizing the tight-lining approach. From that time on, the three of us continued to place fish within the boat at a considerably sooner fee.
“Generally it doesn’t damage to attempt one thing completely different – a special lure, a special depth, right this moment it simply occurred to be a special retrieve that they wished,” Gimore stated.
Because the solar hovered overhead we turned hyperfocused on attending to that magic variety of 45 trout. All three of us had been whipping our strains out and retrieving in hopes of reaching our restrict. That second got here at 12:30 p.m. Fittingly, Gilmore felt a thump and hunched over to attend for one more bump. “There he’s,” he yelled and after a fast battle he slung quantity 45 into the boat. After just a few high-fives and a few footage with the fish, Liebel opened up the engine and headed again to the launch.
Whereas I’ve had experiences like this one earlier than, it by no means hurts to be reminded to alter up my routine each every now and then. And on today it made all of the distinction as we had been in a position to attain our aim of 45 speckled trout.
