Sac-a-lait Staging
With the warmer than average temperatures we’ve been seeing, sac-a-lait anglers are chomping at the bit to get out on the water to take a shot at sac-a-lait in the shallows. Ray Miller of Madisonville made a trip with his friend Tom Boudreaux to the Tchefuncte River. Miller checked out a few shallow water spots to see if the sac-a-lait were up against the bank but couldn’t catch anything. “The water was still pretty muddy,” he said. Then they decided to make a rundown river to try the entrance to a canal just in case they were staging. They made a few casts into the mouth of the canal using Panfish Assassin’s in the Crystal Shad color. “It was every cast! Every cast! I don’t know how many we caught but we only kept 18 really nice fish,” Miller said. The fish were suspended in the opening of a canal that connected to the main river. With the warmer weather the Tchefuncte can get busy with jet skis and party barges. It was a combination of those two things which shut the bite down for Miller and Boudreaux. It was over when there was a boat passing about every minute or two. “The bite lasted a while but was over after the boats started passing every minute or two,” he said. Miller said the water temperature was 58 degrees which indicates we are right on the doorstep of the spawn.
Muddy Water March
Danny Hunter of Slidell has been taking classes to get his Captain’s License. With all the studying he’s been doing, the busy father felt a break was needed from staring at his computer screen. “I haven’t been out fishing in a while, so I decided to get out on the water,” he said. He took his son, Danny Jr, with him and made a trip to the southern shoreline of Lake Borgne. Unfortunately, the team encountered horrible water conditions. “The water was low, and with the hurricane-like winds the water looked like chocolate milk,” Hunter said. They fished hard using Night Shift Finger Mullets rigged underneath Undertaker Corks. At the end of the day the father-son team finished with six trout, two bass and two redfish.
Lake Catherine Clean Sweep
Laurie Lionnet of New Orleans owns a camp off Chef Hwy. on Lake Catherine. Recently she’s noticed more and more trash building up on the side of the road. “It’s so upsetting to see all the dumping of trash along the road throughout Lake Catherine and all along the east side of the Rigolets Bridge all the way down to Fremeaux,” Lionnet said. After a few phone calls, and some coordinating with friends, she has finalized the Lake St. Catherine Clean Sweep which will be held on Saturday, March 4. Lionnet is looking for volunteers to join the group. The event will start at 10 a.m. at the Fort Pike Fire Department and last until noon. For more information about joining the cleanup please contact Laurie Lionett at 504-462-9376.
Tournament Results
The Double Nickel Bass Club fished the East Pearl River and 22 boats showed up to compete. Winds started out light but later strengthened by noon. Dwain Crumby led the way claiming first place with a 3-fish tournament limit weighing 7.529 pounds. In second place was Jason Lee with 5.467 pounds. Third place went to Bob Perry with 5.0 pounds. David Purridy won the big fish pot with a bass that weighed 4.2 pounds.
Upcoming Tournaments
The Double Nickel Bass Club is holding their next tournament at the East Pearl River on Tuesday, Mar 7. For more information, please contact Dwain Crumby at 985-502-6006.
Pearl River Team Trails is holding their next tournament at Crawford’s Landing on March 11. For more information, please contact Charles Dauzat at 985-960-3260.
Bass Assassins is holding their next tournament at Lock One in Pearl River on March 5. For more information, please contact Chris Basey at 985-707-7857.
FPBA will be holding their next tournament at the Main St. Launch on Bayou Lacombe on March 12.
(Keith Lusher Jr. writes a weekly column. For more info, visit NorthshoreFishingReport.com.Contact Keith at keith@northshorefishingreport.com.)