Kayak Fishing Lake Pontchartrain Trestle

Flounder caught at Lake Pontchartrain train trestle.

Tuesday March 18 I decided to take an afternoon trip to Lake Pontchartrain I had bee hearing some reports of speckled trout and flounder being caught on the trestles so I decided to go see for myself. I launched at the base of highway eleven where it hits the south shore at 1:30. The wind was blowing pretty hard from the east so I decided to drift the shoreline hoping the wind would die down. I started to throw my favorite Mr-52 working it slowly but I didn't get any takers so I gave up on that. Also I was tired of fishing so slow so I switched up to a 3/8th ounce jighead with deadly dudley terror tail In blue moon color. I alternated from a straight retrieve bouncing on the bottom.  When I made it to the cut to get to Irish bayou lagoon I could see a large alligator sunning on the bank about 100 yards away. This is the second time I have seen it in there he must be guarding all the fish in the lagoon. But I wasn't worried about him because there were mullets jumping everywhere and glass minnows getting blown up on both banks. I casted my deadly dudley parallel to the bank, let it sink to the bottom and retrieved it with a steady reel. I had a solid bump but no hookup two casts later I hooked up with what I thought was bass. The fish quickly came to the surface and I realized it was a speckled trout . Just as I went to flip it in the Outback the fish spit the hook. I think dipped my rod towards the water and that gave it just enough slack to get off the hook. I fished that area a little longer spooking either a garfish or a red fish. I then decided fight the wind to go over to the trestle. By this time the wind had switched to a more south east direction which meant I wouldn't be fighting the wind to stay near the bridge.When I made it over to the trestle there were four boats already fishing. I did not see them catch anything and they left maybe ten minutes after I got there. I stayed and fished the area hard casting to the  pilings. I let the lure sink to the bottom and jigged it back to the boat hopping it off the bottom and letting it sink back down. Very quickly I received a familiar thump on my line I set the hook and began reeling what felt like dead weight. I fought it up to the surface and it got off my heart was broken I had lost a large flounder. I fished moving up the bridge for thirty minutes with nothing. I returned to the set of pilings where I had earlier lost the fish. I cast out and let my lure sink and bounced it three times I got another bump. This time I was not loosing this one I set the hook and reeled the fish from the depths. I scooped it up with my net I had caught a 14 inch flounder.Soon after the wind switched back to the east which made it tough to stay on the bridge and  I decided to head back to the launch. I was only able to get one fish in the Outback but I still felt it was a successful trip.

 I didn't have enough fishing so I went to check the progress of my super secret bank spot on the way home.

On the second cast nice I hit a nice 16 inch speckled trout. Then two cast later another keeper speck was in the bucket. The fish bit pretty steady until 10:30 pm and I ended up with 16 specks none of them were over 18 inches. I caught at least a dozen throwbacks and added a 28 inch red for color. I went today March 19 from 4:30 til 7:30 caught 12 keeper specks and a big 38 inch Bull redfish I let go after taking the picture picture. The fishing on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain for speckled trout and redfish and on the sea wall will only get better until it starts getting really hot  in late June. All fish were caught on the Mr-52 and a 3/8 jig head with frogs breath deadly dudley.

.