Trout still main catch along coast

Welcome to summer, and the next days when afternoon temperatures will equal the unusually hot coastal action on speckled trout. It comes just in time to welcome the start of a big fishing rodeo season.

Our Memorial Day Weekend will be dominated by 10-15 knot easterly winds along the coast, a direction that means moderately rough coastal seas and choppy inshore conditions.

That’s what happened last weekend, and the more experienced anglers still caught lots of trout and caught them on a wide variety of live and artificial baits.

Carrying the lessons learned since last Friday to this weekend means GO! remains the byword, but add caution to the trip and don’t brave rough seas along the barrier islands when there are enough speckled and white trout, redfish, drum, sheepshead and flounder to provide a banquet-sized holiday weekend feast.

For the freshwater folks, the Atchafalaya River is falling (from 3.1 to 2.2 foot readings at Morgan City during the next five days) and is producing bass, sac-a-lait, giant goggle-eye and bream while the falling Mississippi River means Old River’s sac-a-lait and bass should be near this oxbow’s riverbed edge.

Weather

Expect 90-degree afternoons (bring water and sunscreen) with the 10-15 knot southeast winds in the interior and 10-15 know east winds along the coast out to deep water. Expect 2-3 foot seas nearshore and 2-4 foot offshore seas.

The coast

If you don’t trust the amazing reports of Central Coast trout catches on topwater, swimmed hard-plastic and soft-plastic (under a cork or on jigheads) lures, then baitshops and marinas said this week there are enough live shrimp, live croakers and coachoe minnows to provide trout action throughout the coming weekend.

Despite similar sea conditions as are predicted for the coming days, artificials produced lots of limits, but finding clear water will be a must for artificial lures to produce solid catches.

Live shrimp worked from the Pontchartrain Basin to Lake Borgne into the Grand Isle and Cocodrie areas and over to Calcasieu Lake. Croakers worked on Carolina rigs along the barrier islands and there were reports that cocahoe minnows took trout limits in the Terrebonne Bay-Lake Pelto area earlier this week.

A Tuesday morning trip to Lake Pontchartrain showed solid early morning action on small trout. The bigger trout bit during midmorning hours and took five-inch Gulp! Jerkshad and eel-like Deadly Dudleys (avocado/red glitter worked best).

Freshwater

The Atchafalaya is on fire: Crickets, Beetle Spins, shiners and tube jigs are taking sac-a-lait, goggle-eye, bluegill and catfish in the Pigeon area on into Grand Lake. West Fork and Middle Fork are hot, too. Use buzzbaits, spinnerbaits and crawfish imitations for bass.

At Old River, look for sac-a-lait and bass in the still-flooded cypress trees.