The Trout Master
Bill Hines of Slidell has been fishing the Lake Pontchartrain Trestles since he was 10 years old. “My dad used to rent a boat at Tites and we would fish all day with shrimp on a Carolina rig,” Hines said. As Hines got older, he purchased his own boat and continued to fish the Trestles, albeit with minimal success. “I can remember making a trip with a friend where we caught a 2-man limit: He caught 48 of them to my 2,” he joked. Hines kept at it and slowly learned the nuances of fishing the bridge. “Sometime the trout like a fast retrieve and other times slow. Sometimes they’re on the pilings and other times they’re way off the bridge, he said. “It took me a long time and a lot of patience to learn how to fish this bridge.”
Now Hines has kids of his own and he has started teaching them how to fish the bridge.
With the kids out of school for the Thanksgiving holidays Hines thought it would be nice to make an afternoon trip to the train bridge. He began going down the list of everything he’s learned throughout the years starting with the winds. “The Wind Finder App showed it blowing 10-15 knots in Shell Beach but only 5 knots on Lake Pontchartrain,” he said. Hines even made a call to a local marina to check on the winds. “The marina confirmed that the winds were at 5 knots on the meter,” he said. Next, he checked tide and saw that they would be fishing a falling tide. He then made a few calls to find out which marina had live shrimp. After picking up the shrimp he launched the boat and took a glance at the water conditions. “The water was 64 degrees with a nice falling tide,” he said.
They started fishing the draw bridge on the north side and picked up an undersized black drum and a few catfish when Hines made the decision to try and find cleaner water. “The water there was a six out of ten, so we moved to the southern end of the bridge,” the dad said. It was on the southern end of the bridge that they started catching trout. At one point Hines heard his son scream “I got one!” He looked over to see his sons pole bent over and Billie reeling franticly. “I saw the fish break the surface and knew it was a nice trout, so I grabbed the net and landed it when Billie brought it to the side of the boat,” Hines said. The fish measured 16 inches and was the biggest trout the six-year-old had ever caught. After a few high-fives and some pictures were taken, the family got back to fishing. Billie casted out and after a few seconds of silence he turned to his father and said, “Dad – I am the Trout Master!”
Fishing Licenses Go Digital
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has partnered with LA Wallet to bring digital hunting and fishing licenses to Louisiana anglers. Now citizens with a Louisiana Driver’s License or State ID can use LA Wallet to display their purchased LDWF licenses on their smartphone. Licenses can be purchased on the LDWF website through an approved retail vendor or at the LDWF headquarters in Baton Rouge. The LA Wallet app is free for the public.
Tournament Results
The Double Nickel Bass Tournament held their event at the East Pearl River in which 17 anglers competed. It was cold and windy with a falling tide. Some really nice bags were caught today but the heaviest of all of them was the one brought in by Ralph Dunn. Dunn weighed in a 3-fish limit of 11.02 pounds. He also caught the big fish of the day: a 5.57-pound bass. Dwain Crumby followed in a distant second place with a limit of 7.60 pounds. In third was Ronnie Flowers who brought in a limit weighing 7.15 pounds.
Upcoming Tournaments
The Double Nickel Bass Club is holding their next tournament at the East Pearl River on Tuesday, December 7. For more information, please contact Joe Picone at 985-630-4170.
PRTT is holding their next tournament at the East Pearl River on December 11. For more information, please contact Charles Duazat at 985-960-6936.
(Keith Lusher Jr. writes a weekly column. For more info, visit NorthshoreFishingReport.com.Contact Keith at keith@northshorefishingreport.com.)