Fishing Report for April 17, 2008
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The current streak of windswept weekends has a parallel: Winds began blowing in November 2004 and didn’t stop blowing until Hurricane Katrina passed through here nearly 10 months later.
We’re in the middle stages of that kind of a streak today: Let’s hope it doesn’t take something like Katrina to stop the strong winds that are predicted to blow up to 20 knots this weekend.
Shallow lakes are starting to produce the first solid bluegill catches, but the winds will make it tough getting onto shallow lakes.
Weather
A weak cold front is forecast for the weekend: Depending on where you are, expect 5-to-25 knot northerly winds Saturday morning (winds will get stronger the closer to the coast you get) with a switch to the south by Sunday morning and blowing up to 20 knots.
Look for nearshore conditions at 1-to-4 feet with offshore waves running 2-to-5 feet into Monday.
Rain comes Friday with lows in the 50s and highs in the low 80s.
Wednesday’s update on the rivers calls for April 22 crests on the Mississippi River: 60 feet at Red River Landing, 42.5 feet at Baton Rouge and 17 feet at New Orleans. The Atchafalaya River will inch up to a 7.3-foot reading at Morgan City (flood stage is 4 feet) early next week.
Freshwater
Sac-a-lait and bluegill headline the action. Except for a few canals off Belle River and in the Bayou Black area, it seems like bass are in post-spawn doldrums. Sac-a-lait are taking shiners along with black/chartreuse or blue/white tube jigs in the canals off Belle River, Lake Verret and Grassy Lake. Work the outer edges of grassbeds, downed logs and brushtops. The brighter the sky, the deeper into cover you’ll find the sac-a-lait.
Bayous, rivers and the lake shorelines are where folks found bluegills this week, but anglers were able to get into the big lakes only a few hours early Monday and Tuesday mornings. Winds made conditions too rough to fish after noon.
Find area where sunlight warms water between trees. A common report is the action is slow, but constant and the general feeling is that the conditions aren’t perfect yet or that bluegill numbers are down in the Verret area.
Bass are taking some topwaters along with jigs and worms in the areas between tree-lined shallows and the off-the-bank grassbeds.
The coast
Last weekend’s cold front and strong winds roughed up the entire coast. Catches are solid in the shallows in Calcasieu Lake — topwaters on speckled trout is providing thrills there — while strawberry/white and light purple/chartreuse soft plastics produced trout bites in places like California Bay and in the lee areas west of the Mississippi River in the Yellow Cotton Bay area.
Finding islands of clear water south of Lafitte is the key to the best trout action there. MirrOlures and Catch 22s are working on trout.
