Wow this April has started off tough for us down here in the Pontchartrain Basin. High rivers and high winds has hand cuffed us to certain areas and finding clean water a challenge. One of the biggest tips I can say when the Lake gets flipped like it has lately is learn to google search satellite imagery. There is several different websites that show different current satellite images that really help us find slithers of clean water when you think it’s not possible to find. Here lately the most consistent clean water and the area holding the biggest trout of the spring has been the southern area of Lake Borgne and the MRGO. This area almost never gets dirty and has some lingering winter trout that hang out there throughout the spring. If you check out one of our latest DockSide TV episodes you will see that we like to fish Pontchartrain on easterly winds but we have been going to south Borgne on a westerly flow. In the picture below our friend Colleen Peterman, landed a monster trout in the MRGO this April simply popping a Shrimp Creole Matrix under a cork in the clean waters of the Gulf Outlet near Violet. Pontchartrain itself is usually the place to be in the spring but this year has been challenging so far. Either fighting dirty water or being trapped to certain slithers of clean water is what we have faced. One hot spot that has decent water and plenty of trout has been the reefs west of the Trestle as getting away from the Pearl River has been a great strategy. Look for the lake to only get cleaner from here on out unless they open the dreaded spillway. Once the lake does clean look for areas like the Causeway and Seabrook to explode along with the choke points of Pontchartrain like the Hospital Wall and the Chef Pass area. Of course the bridges will produce but they will begin to get more and more crowded. If you are out there and find yourself in west wind conditions head south and focus on the Borgne shorelines along with the MRGO rocks. The water is NEVER dirty everywhere!!!!!
