Fall Bank Fishing Lake Pontchartrain

needle fish are indicators of bait fish in the area

 Its September and the speckled trout have begun to move inside and right into the city of New Orleans. This means you no longer have to take the long trek down to the coast to put some specks in the boat you really don't need a boat.  I have been fishing the lake Pontchartrain seawall from the Seabrook to West end and have been catching some good eating fish. You can easily get a nice mess of fish with live shrimp or market bait on drop shot rig with a 1 ounce sinker an eagle claw #1 bait holder hook. Some hot spots have been the Frank Davis pier at night on a falling tide, and early mornings and late evenings all along the steps have been productive. The mouths of the canals where they meet the lake have been the most consistent for speckled trout action. Some other good bank fishing spots are Irish bayou and Bonnable boat launch. This is a great time to take a kid or a fishing newbie the weather is cooler the fish are hungry and easily accessible. Good luck  As always Email me for Launch Locations,Hints,Tips, and to Book a trip FishxScale@gmail.com 

rat red

bank fish fry

Catch More Fish: Tools for Planning a Kayak Fishing Trip

Step 1: Know where you are going
For me choosing a area to fish is the hardest decisions to make. The options in south Louisiana are endless between the different saltwater and freshwater fishing areas that we have.

If you live in Louisiana become a member at BCKFC.org and use their member maps to select from the hundreds of tried and true launch locations.

If not use your local club or Google earth to find likely launch spots.

step 2: Check the weather
You should probably do this before and after choosing your launch location but once is enough for me. To be Honest most of the time this is a step I skip and I end up launching in Twenty mph winds or caught racing a thunderstorm back to the launch.

 Watch the news for the upcoming forecast or use your favorite online weather forecasting site. I like http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/graph/USLA0194 and their hourly feature just dont trust their wind forecast.

http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/geographic.html This site gives you real time data including water levels, water temperature, wind speed, as well as predicted tide charts.

http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/?m=real&r=la some more tide info has some different stations

When on the water the weatherbug app is great for keeping track of the weather.

Step 2: Do some virtual scouting 
Read some recent reports from the area you have chosen make note of any GPS coordinates, names of waterways ,and any other geographical info that was referenced.

Some sites with good south Louisiana fishing reports
http://www.louisianasportsman.com/
http://www.bckfc.org/
http://www.rodnreel.com/

http://www.northshorefishingreport.com/
http://www.nola.com/outdoors/

 Use Google Earth and explore the area you intend on fishing. Make note of areas of interest
this is a good summary of how its done. http://tailtailsigns.com/tips-and-articles/how-to-locate-a-marsh/
also look for current lines


Step 3: Make a float plan
The coastguard breaks it down for you here
http://www.uscgboating.org/safety/float_planning.aspx

Pro Tips From a Pro.

FishxScale pro tip #1: When jigging use a sensitive rod and keep the slack out of your line. You will be able to detect the slightest taps and it will allow you to catch small fish like this hardhead.






FishxScale pro tip #2: Make sure you check the weather before you go fishing at night you wont be able to see the storms blowing in.

what 

Pro stands for procrastinator

Golden Meadow Smack Down The Prefish

This was the result of the close encounter.

This past weekend I fished the golden meadow smack down tournament  it was the fourth out of five in the angler of the year series . I had never fished in golden meadow so after reading every report I could find and scouring Google earth for some promising areas. I decided launch at the golden meadow public launch. I figured it would give me the best chance of filling the three speckled trout requirement for the tournament. I headed down early the friday before to get a feel for the area and do a little prefishing. My goal for prefishing was simply to move a lot and not really wear the fish out in one particular area but see what I could catch and where they were staged. I launched around 6:30 and began navigating the unfamiliar marsh making note of the land marks like the water tower so that I would be able to navigate my way home if something happened to my phone. My first cast was into some broken marsh a pretty nondescript piece of marsh I had walked my skitterwalk within 2 feet of the boat when I was startled by a 30 inch red blowing up. I crossed the bayou and sent out a long search cast that when I worked it back intersected with a small island and the mouth of a nice 23 inch redfish. If I could keep catching reds this size  and at this rate victory was almost  guaranteed.But they slowed a little and turned my sights to the speckled trout.

mid range slot red.

The keys to finding trout are find one or more of these three things bait,clean water,and or moving water. I was able too find two of these things a little bait and the wind was blowing the water around a point. I stated about 100 yards off the point casting towards the shoreline immediately I began

receiving hits from little trout . I even hit this trout that was able to escape but left its eye behind. I finally found the sweet spot and was able to land a couple of decent keeper specks. That bite soon faded and I was left to find a more reliable bite. I then began drifting to see if I could find some productive oyster beds. There are some nicely marked  reefs that produced lots of small trout and gaff-topsail catfish. The popping cork caught the small trout and catfish but I was able to catch my keepers on a mirrodine and tight lining plastics on the edges of the reefs. After catching a bunch of trout and getting pretty comfortable with finding them i went back to red fishing where I was able to catch a couple more upper slot reds and another 31 inch bull.

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Back on the Bank

This is my favorite time of year the fall. My birthday is coming up and the fish are easy to catch no more long drives to the coast if you live in New Orleans the specks, reds and flounder are right in your backyard. Here are few pictures

teeth

Like a private pond

Its always good to see these little guys.

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Jack Crevalle Full Fight

Video of a lake Pontchartrain jack crevalle. 

How to catch them here

http://fishxscale.blogspot.com/2014/08/pontchartrain-jacks.html

I went today with live bait this was the result

Sharks!

Last Night

I had originally planned to do some prefishing for the upcoming golden meadow smackdown tournament but Labor day weekend was forecast to be really rainy so I postponed that until next weekend. That didn't stop me from making a fishing trip this weekend though. When studying the weather I noticed the rain percentage was nearly zero at night so I knew I would be  Fishing the lights this holiday weekend. Thursday night I launched at 3am and headed out into the darkness a quick peddle and I was to the first set of lights . My first or second cast I set the hook and drag immediately starts ripping off  line. I'm thinking its a nice redfish until a four foot garfish jumps completely out the water. I quickly subdued the gar and tried to snap a few pictures before it snapped my line. This is the best I could do with my phone in the darkness.

I stayed at this light for an hour catching throw back after throwback I managed only one keeper before I moved on to the next one. At the next light the fish were slightly larger. Instead of mostly 10 inchers they were slightly bigger and we were able to keep maybe one out of the five that we caught. I ended up with six keeper specks but I must have caught 30 or 40.  The sun came up at 6:30 and I moved to a nearby shore line where I could see bait being blasted I cast my topwater for a while before I was able to hook up with a nice slot red fish. we called it a day around 8:30 before it even got hot. Saturday night we watched the weather and got out around 10 pm being a holiday weekend everyone was at their camps and had the lights on. We headed to the closest lights and began fishing the rain and winds had clouded  up the  a little but it was still fishable .We fished a bunch of lights even underwater lights but had very little success. After  not catching anything for an hour or two and moving from spot to spot we made it to the light that we had fished Thursday night. On my first cast I caught a trout and from then on we sat there until 4 am catching fish after fish. I tried throwing my favorite sparkle beetles but they wouldn't touch it. My most productive lures ended up being the mirrodine mini, mirrominnow and a mr-52 the ability to pause the lures in the strike zone is what triggered the strikes. I ended up with nine keepers an improvement on my six from the previous night. The bite should only get better from here as more trout move to the inside and the shrimp increase in numbers.

Thursday nights catch.

Saturday nights catch

As always Email me for Launch Locations,Hints,Tips, and to Book a trip FishxScale@gmail.com