Jigging the Tracks By: Tyler Hall When fishing for speckled trout in Lake Ponchartrain, two things in particular stand out in my mind. One being the train trestles and the other being jigging. There is no question that the combination of the two are deadly when it comes to trout fishing in the lake, and this fall has been no different. On a chilly Fall morning, myself and Capt. Chas Champagne headed out into Lake Ponchartrain hoping to boat a few nice trout before the next cold front pushed through. We arrived at the tracks around 7 a.m, and we’re greeted with a strong incoming tide. ” You have got to have tide movement. I personally prefer a falling tide over a rising, but as long as you’ve got moving water you should be good” Champagne says. Another thing to keep in mind is that you should always keep your boat moving. A lot of time can be wasted anchoring at one spot then moving to another once you’ve realized there are no fish there. If you troll up and down the tracks, you’ll cover more ground and find the fish much faster. After fishing for about an hour, Chas an I had boated around 10 or so trout and continued on jigging down the tracks. We each were fishing with 3/8 ounce jigheads rigged with Midnight Mullet Matrix Shad. The combination of the two proved to be deadly, and it wasn’t long before Chas and I began to develop a rhythm. Catching a few trout per 15 yard stretch we covered on the bridge. “A lot of times the fish will scatter themselves out along the bridge. Some firebreaks and pilings will hold 10-20 fish. Others will hold 1-2. It really just depends on the day and tide ” Chas says. Chas and I continued our rhythm for about another hour and finally decided to call it a day after catching 38 trout. Nonetheless the day was a great success, and Lake Ponchartrain lived up to its productive reputation. So if your interested in trying something new and fishing a new area, pick yourself up some Matrix Shad, and get to catching! 
