Wind, chilly, clouds, rain, rising rivers, muddy water.
Take your choose. One or all of those components is messing with you catching fish as of late.
One certain factor is Friday’s robust northerly winds pushed a number of water from our state’s coastal marshes. With a nationwide vacation up Monday, it means you’ll discover lots of locations the place you explored a month in the past can be void of water.
Even worse, the place there’s some water, it won’t be deep sufficient to drift even a small boat a lot much less the bay and bass boats most fishermen use to focus on speckled trout, redfish, drum and largemouth bass.
Coastal anglers had been helped previously a number of days by a shiny solar in a transparent sky. Whereas that normally means a rising barometer — one more problematic and catch-inhibiting issue — hours of sunshine have considerably offset the chilly water temperatures.
So, what’s a fisherman to do?
Discovering deep water close to shallow flats is the highest precedence.
After that search for clearer water. You’re not prone to discover clear water even within the large lakes, however you could discover the clearest water potential. That’s as a result of daylight penetrates clearer water greater than muddy water and the prospect to catch fish from an space that’s as little as 3-4 levels hotter will increase dramatically.
That’s true in coastal areas in addition to freshwater bayous, lakes, rivers and the huge Atchafalaya Basin.
Want proof? Todd Masson and Chris Macaluso (sure, he’s my fish-catching son) labored as many as 4 spots within the Chef Menteur space Tuesday with out even a lot as a strike from any of the aforementioned species.
They had been fishing 46-48 diploma water. Extra daylight and a transfer introduced them into 51-52 diploma water, they usually sat in a clearer water spot catching bass for almost two hours. Even higher, there have been a couple of 3-pounders blended with the 1-2 pounders that stored pounding their choices, the most effective being June bug-colored worms.
Related experiences are coming from the Sportsman’s Paradise launch close to Cocodrie, 4 Level, Theriot and Lake DeCade.
So one other piece to this depth-of-winter fishing puzzle may be to provide duck hunters the early morning, look ahead to the solar to stand up and the water to heat.
Including to this conundrum is barometric strain. We’ve hit 30.39 inches on the barometric scale and that alone can shut down the chunk for many all species.
It’s at the moment when you must go deep and work synthetic lures as slowly as potential.
After listening to the barometer over the last three weeks, a sample has emerged, one which went unnoticed in years previous.
The barometer began excessive at dawn, however started falling close to 11 a.m. and stored falling till sundown. This might be another excuse for launching properly after dawn.
There’s one other issue: lure choice is a hotly debated topic at the moment of 12 months.
Previous-timers swear by utilizing smaller soft-plastic baits. The 2½-inch H&H Mud Minnow involves thoughts, and it’s been a go-to lure for years within the coastal marshes.
Different (and youthful) fishermen say working gentle plastics with a bigger profile — heavier, 6-7 inch lengthy, and opaque lures work greatest on bass, redfish and even trout in areas the place water readability, water depth and water temperatures demand fishing deep and gradual.
There are some confirmed components to assist your wintertime catch. Piers, rip-rap, concrete pilings, pipelines and bushes assist direct the solar’s warmth into the water, which could clarify why bass, sac-a-lait and redfish catches stay pretty fixed when working these places.
Now, all you must do is clear up this riddle. And even all thise won’t assist.
A reminder
Wildlife and Fisheries introduced it would inventory 1-2 pound rainbow trout Thursday throughout south Louisiana. The websites embrace Burbank Park, Baton Rouge; Bogue Chitto State Park, Franklinton; Zemurray Park, Hammond; Bayou Nation Sports activities Park, Houma; I-10 Park, Jennings; Girard Park, Lafayette; Joe Brown Park, New Orleans; Purple Coronary heart Memorial Park, Ragley; Sidney Hutchinson Park, Walker; and, Southside Regional Park, Youngsville.
There can be day by day creel limits, and also you’ll want a present state fundamental fishing license to take fish should you’re 16 or older.
