We are entering one of the harder seasons for fishing the Pontchartrain Basin area and the weather has not made things any easier of late. The tremendous amounts of rainfall has the Mississippi River creeping over its banks and stirring up discussions of opening the Bonnet Carrie Spillway. If this occurs, salt water species can be put on hold for a while. What we have been doing of late is simply chasing what ever species we stubble upon on any given day. That is the beauty of fishing south Louisiana. If the Lake gives you lemons make lemonade!!! Our estuary provides a plethora of many different species to target. When we are in peak seasons such as October or November we can truly target about 6 different species choosing just which one we want to focus on any given day. Once true winter sets in we like to target areas that have the potential to hold many different species and take what is given. For instance if we think we are chasing reds in the marsh and enter a canal and begin to catch a few bass on accident we switch all our tactics over to bass fishing and target them for the rest of the day. It can be as simple as accidentally catching one bass in a ditch and switching over to a Matrix Spinner and catching a limit of bass that day when we thought we would be red fishing all morning. It can easily go the other way too. We can be geared up to chase bass all day with an over cast morning that gives way to blue bird skies. We enter the closest pond or flat and schooling reds may be popping up left and right. If this occurs we always favor reds over bass. We simply switch over and stand high on the tower or platform get high and begin sight fishing. The species we always favor the most as a south Louisiana resident is our beloved speckled trout. This time of year is tough though. You must cover a lot of water to find them and if you are lucky enough to find a bite DON’T LEAVE IT. “The Grind” as we call it begins. The trout may be shallow on a bank or deep in the middle of a dead end canal in 25′ of water. Once you find one you will usually find a pack of them and you have to just keep going over them picking them off one at a time. We usually focus on trout with a 3/8 oz Golden Eye and a “Shrimp Creole” Matrix Shad this time of year. There is plenty of areas to try and each winter days influences us to different areas. If you get a blue bird day with the highs in the 50’s and low’s in the 20’s odds are you are red fishing that day. If you get a calm day with highs in the 70’s check your favorite trout spots, and if you get a cloudy windy day its always a good idea to lay up take par and chase bass in the endless marshes of the ICW. Check out all our winter DockSide TV videos at www.MatrixShad.com to see just what this article means and until next time
“Good Fishing”
