Mid-Winter Fishing
Mid-winter fishing can pose a challenge to anglers who fish the Northshore this month. Barometric pressure, low water and freezing temperatures all factor into the equation that needs to be figured out in order to know when and where to fish in January.
Trestles
James Reid of New Orleans made a trip with his friend Jacob Cureton to the Trestles. The team choose to launch at the Rigolets instead of driving to the train bridge. “To avoid driving too far we chose to launch at the Rigolets. It was just a short thirty-minute drive from New Orleans,” Reid said. After a 20-minute boat ride to the Trestles they arrived at the bridge and found plenty of moving water. “We fished the heavy current lines flowing under the bridge using live and dead shrimp to catch sheepshead, Speckled Trout, and Flounder,” he said. After the bite died out at the bridge the friends motored over to the marsh and fished with live shrimp under a cork. “We fished the grass lines and caught a bunch of bass,” he said.
Bayou Lacombe
Miriam Davey of Lacombe made a trip to Bayou Lacombe with her husband Rex. The team fished the canals off of the main bayou for sac-a-lait. “This is one of our favorite times of year to catch sac-a-lait,” she said. Miriam used a Bobby Garland jig in the Blue Thunder color on a 1/16 oz. jig head under a cork. Rex was using a Bobby Garland jig in the Monkey Milk color on a 1/32 oz. jig. “Rex likes the teeny-weeny size Bobby Garland but I can’t see well enough to thread it onto the jig – so I stick with regular size,” she said.
“The fish seemed to bite when the jig was sitting still in the water and pretty close to the bottom,” Miriam said. The team was fishing in 8-12 feet of water and ended up catching 12 crappie with 8 of them being nice sized keepers.
Tournament Results
PRTT held their first tournament of the year at the Pearl River. It was a cold day with bluebird skies as it showed in the weights. Ralph Dunn and Ronnie Flowers brought in the heaviest bag; a 5-fish limit that weighed 13.15 pounds. In second was Jay Breland and Timmy Dickens who caught 5 fish that weighed 12.2 pounds. Eric Ciko and Ryan Howard finished in third with a total weight of 11.13 pounds.
The Double Nickel Bass Club was set to fish the East Pearl River however traffic from the I10 accident had anglers streaming in late. Nonetheless 18 anglers were able to compete on a cold and windy day. The frigid temperatures and raw conditions didn’t seem to affect the fishing as most anglers weighed in solid bags. In the end it was Dwain Crumby who brought in a 3-fish tournament limit that weighed 8.50 pounds. His bag was anchored by a 3.90-pound bass which took the big fish division. James Harris finished in second place with a limit that weighed 7.15 pounds. In third was Terry Bullock with a 6.89-pound bag.
Upcoming
Tournaments
The Double Nickel Bass Club is holding their next tournament at the East Pearl River on Tuesday, January 25. For more information, please contact Joe Picone at 985-630-4170.
Liar’s and Lunkers is holding their classic tournament at Lock One on January 30. The tournament is open to those who have fished at least 3 tournaments in the 2021 series.
Anglers will be able to fish either side of the lock and the weigh-in will be at noon. Food and drinks will be available after the weigh-in. For more information, please contact Chad Hartzog at 985-502-3217.
PRTT is holding their classic tournament at the East Pearl River on February 12. The tournament is open to anyone. For more information, please contact Charles Dauzat at 985-960-3260
(Keith Lusher Jr. writes a weekly column. For more info, visit NorthshoreFishingReport.com.Contact Keith at keith@northshorefishingreport.com.)