Windy windy the last few days in Delacroix. I had a three day trip, Wednesday through Friday, with two guests from Illinois. We were faced with some very tough fishing conditions. Strong East winds up to 20 knots wreaked havoc with the tides and made travelling to the fishing holes and adventure. Waning tidal ranges and slow tide turn arounds also were problematic, but Louisiana is the fishing capital of the world! Wednesday we braved the winds to work the edges of the Bays with plastics on the search for redfish. We hit points and windward coves to put some quality reds in the boat. These fish were 18-24" and put up a good fight. We also picked up a couple of flounder, a bass and a few trout to go with the reds. All fish taken with alvacado and smoke colored cocahoes on 3/8 ounce jigheads.
Thursday we ventured out searching for trout. We hit inside lakes looking for the right salinity gradient. We fished deep holes with adjacent flats with a variety of different retrieves. We got into several good trout bites with fish up to 3.5 lbs. taking our plastic offerings. Most trout were in the 14-16" class. The hot colors were again the smoke and alvacado lures on 3/8 jigs. The tide was all messed up with the strong East winds overwhelming the fall and magnifying the rise.
Friday greeted us with rain at 5:30 AM and even stronger East winds. We waited out the pre dawn/dawn rain and headed out with our rain gear on. The water was extremely high and still coming up. My guests wanted to fish reds, but we decided to work trout instead because the elevated water would have the reds way back in the grass and inaccessible to us. We hit deep holes and adjacent flats inside with plastics. Our first hole had very little falling water and we only managed a handfull of small trout 12-14". We kept the rain gear on as we experienced intermittent drizzle and rainfall. We headed a little further toward Point A La Hache and found some water moving from deep water onto a flat. The trout were staging on the flat awaiting bait getting swept up onto the flat. It was an interesting bite, but the fish were aggressive and a steady retrieve was all that was required. These were quality fish in the 16-20" class. This action continued until the tide quit following the same pattern. The fish were still there and the bite would come and go as the schools moved up and down the flat. We decided to wait it out and continue to pick away at these fish. The rain also came and went just like the trout bite. The ride back was an adventure. Water everywhere, you could have drawn a straight line home and travelled it with water covering the marsh. The high water had the animals headed to the high points. Nutria, mink and rabbits were all over any elevated grass patch. An interesting sight! The fishing is good and getting better. This should be an awesome season!
Captain Jeff J. Dauzat
Fin and Feather Guide Service
www.finandfeatherguides.com
(504)818-2176