Trout, bass, goggle-eye signs solid

Across south Louisiana, the word is “Go!”

Even at the approach of storms late Wednesday, the morning’s action in and around Grand Isle was spectacular. From Saturday into Wednesday, limits of trout up to four pounds were coming from Four Bayous Pass westward through Barataria, The Fourchon, Timbalier and Last Islands areas.

Bluegill and giant goggle-eye are showing up in Atchafalaya, and morning-time action on bass is solid in the Belle River area.

Weather

A high-pressure system will move east and bring stronger easterly winds to the Central Coast and waters east of the Mississippi River. This will rough up the beaches, and bring a chop to the interior bays and lakes.

With the new moon, the action should remain solid, and the best advice is to go early, maybe heading out at first light. Expect the 10-15 knot east winds to bring 2-4 foot seas offshore.

The Mississippi and Atchafalaya river continue to rise, but the rise is slowing and we can expect a fall to begin next week.

Expect afternoon highs in the upper-80s with little chance of rain into Tuesday.

Freshwater

Atchafalaya goggle-eye and bluegill are aggressive. Beetle Spins, small white/chartreuse H&H spinnerbaits and 4-inch worms (on ultralights) are working on giant goggle-eye and bluegills. Crickets working, too. Grand Lake, the Blue Camp area in Bayou Pigeon and West Fork and Middle Fork runouts are good spots, too.

White spinnerbaits and buzzbaits worked around patches of floating water hyacinths are the productive bass pattern in the Belle River-Stephensville area. Shad are around the “lilies” early in the morning, then move out to the middle of the river and nearby canals after the sun gets up. That’s when you go to a pearl-white or pearl-blue swimbait on a light jighead to catch bass around bulkheads and off-the-bank grassbeds.

Henderson Lake has recovered from Hurricane Gustav, and goggle-eye and bluegills are gulping crickets in the cypress trees south of the I-10 bridge.

At Old River (and despite rising water from the Mississippi), black/blue jigs-n-pigs, watermelon Brush Hogs and soft-plastic crawfish imitations worked for solid bass catches from the weekend into this week. Sac-a-lait moved back into the bottomwoods and likely will remain there into this weekend.

The coast

If you’re not comfortable with artificial lures, then get live shrimp and head to the reefs behind the barrier islands. Live shrimp are in good supply across the coast. If you don’t know where to find the reefs, then find laughing gulls working over schools of shrimp. This weekend’s stronger tides will move lots of shrimp from the marshes into the bays and out to the fronts of the barrier islands.

Lake Pontchartrain’s bridges are showing signs of holding trout again. Carolina-rigged live shrimp are working, but so are a variety of soft-plastic artificials.