Recent high winds have had a major impact on local anglers and no group has been impacted more than the local guide services around Big Lake.
Captain Eric Rue, a leading guide on Big Lake, recently stated "We have had lots of cancellations from high winds and rain over the last couple of weeks". Water is in fair shape, according to Rue, but rainfall runoff will keep it off colored for several additional days. The north end of the lake, which gets huge amounts of runoff from Calcasieu River, will be some of the hardest hit.
However, Rue mentioned that even though the water is dirty, they are still catching fish when wind allows. Another problem mentioned by Rue is that winds have been changing directions during the day and blowing from various directions making it difficult to plan a day on the water. He is hoping that prevailing southern winds fore-casted the next few days will help clear things up on the south end of the lake and improve fishing outlook for next week. He further adds that heavy boat traffic concentrated on lee shorelines may make fishing more difficult over the next couple of weeks until water conditions improve over other parts of the lake. So in crowed conditions especially, please be courteous with your boat not to impact the fishing of your fellow angler.
On the north end of the lake at Calcasieu Point, Elaine Huck reports that fishing last weekend wasn't too bad. Anglers coming back from trips said when the weather changed Friday afternoon the fish really started biting. On Saturday only the die-hards ventured out but a few boats caught fish. Sunday was a lot better with more anglers cleaning fish. Several fisherman said that they had caught plenty of redfish during the week at The Weirs. Anglers also caught fish at Haymark. However, high winds left most anglers little choice but fish close around the LNG.