Lake Pontchartrain Coming to Life
As the weather warms Lake Pontchartrain, the fishing is getting better. The water is cleaning up since the latest cold front and things look to be setting down. Below is the latest Lake Pontchartrain Favorability Gauge for April. It is based on hundreds of fishing reports out of Lake Pontchartrain that have been archived on NorthshoreFishingReport.com. Below is a list of all of the fish that anglers pursue in Lake Pontchartrain. All the reports have been researched on NFR and assigned a monthly favorability score.
Speckled Trout 7.8/10
April is the month when the speckled trout start showing up on the bridges and the reefs in Lake Pontchartrain. The cold fronts are few and far between as we move through April and the temperatures will climb into the 80’s making for good speckled trout fishing along the Trestles and Causeway. The trolling bite is slowing down and anglers will have more success by jigging plastics on the bottom. If you decide to make a drag (troll) the Trestles are the best option. Use Rat-L-Traps with a B2 Squid as a trailer and cover a lot of water. Be sure to use different color baits to pick up on a pattern to the bite. If you choose to jig for trout, brightly colored baits such as Matrix Lemonhead work best. April is a good month to target the artificial reefs in Lake Pontchartrain as the baitfish are starting to accumulate and look for refuge in the structure.
Redfish 7/10
The redfish are slowly moving into the Lake. The redfish explosion that we’ve seen across South Louisiana is reflective of what anglers are catching in the lake. The bridges will have redfish on them but not like the trout. The redfish will be more scattered. Pay attention to the birds as diving seagulls usually signal a ferocious redfish bite. Lures such as Top-Dog’s and Mir-o-lure’s are best for the flats. Gold spoons are a proven method as well. Just be careful of hanging up in eelgrass along the shoreline.
Check the reports on NFR and you’ll find that the best redfish bite comes by fishing the reefs and shell pads such as Lemo’s Reef and the shell pad off Goose Point.
Black Drum 6.7/10
Black Drum can be plentiful in Lake Pontchartrain during the summer months, but in April they will be scattered at best. All reports on NFR show drum being caught along structure whether it’s the camp pylons along Rat’s Nest Road in Slidell or along the bridge pylons. The Causeway and Trestles are options but don’t ignore the Twin Spans in April. As always live shrimp or dead shrimp on the bottom work best for black drum. As well as the shell pads and artificial reefs in the Lake.
Sheepshead 4.5/10
The sheepshead should be returning from their offshore spawn but don’t expect to catch many in the lake. The important thing to remember with these fish is that they are structure feeders. Some anglers can watch them circling a pylon on the Lake Pontchartrain bridges. They primarily feed on crabs, shrimp, small fish, and barnacles but unfortunately the latter is the only thing left to eat in March. This being the case, the bridges are the best place to catch a sheepshead in April. The Trestles and Causeway are options but another spot that produces great reports is the Twin Spans bridge. NFR doesn’t get too many fishing reports from the Twin Spans but when we do its usually sheepshead that are being reported. The best bait is live shrimp. The smaller ones you can find, the better. Also cracked crab and surprisingly – live crawfish! Using a Carolina Rig works well but keep in mind that the entire piling, from the water’s surface to the bottom, offers a good chance to catch a sheepshead. Using a lighter weight helps maximize the area you are fishing because it causes the bait to fall slower.
Tournament Results
Bass Assassins fished the West Pearl River on a day that saw post-frontal conditions with cold air temperatures. Only 12 anglers braved the conditions to fish the event and of the 12 only five brought in fish to the scale. The ones that did bring back fish brought back big ones! There was a tie for first with Chris Basey and John Cahill both bringing in a limit weighing 9.69 pounds. Ties in the Bass Assassins are broken by the big fish of each angler. Basey’s biggest fish was 3.40, and Cahill’s was 3.06, so Basey ended up with first place and Cahill in second. Third place went to John Andrews who brought in 3 fish for a total of 8.23 pounds. Andrews also won the big fish pot with a 3.41-pound kicker.
The Double Nickel fished the East Pearl River. The temperatures were cold in the morning at blast-off as 23 boats raced in all directions. The weather warmed up nicely after the morning progressed. The water was high if you went north and anglers who went south experienced low water. After all was said and done, finishing infers place was Mickey Breland with 3-fish weighing 4.76 pounds. Second place went to James Harris with 4.751 pounds. Jerry Bullock came out in third place with a total weight of 4.40. Ralph Williams took first place in the big bass division with a bass that weighed 2.73 pounds. Second place big bass went to CJ Pichon with a 2.42-pound fish.
Upcoming Tournaments
Pearl River Team Trails is holding its next tournament at Crawford’s Landing on April 8. For more information, please contact Charles Dauzat at 985-960-3260.
FPBA will be holding its next tournament at Bayou Liberty on April 8.
The Double Nickel Bass Club is holding its next tournament at the East Pearl River on Tuesday, April 4. For more information, please contact Dwain Crumby at 985-502-6006.
The Lock One Thursday evening tournaments are back! It’s only $21 per boat with an optional $2 trash fish pot. Blast-off will be at 5 PM. There is a 3-bass limit. There is a free kids division for those who are 12 and under. For more information, please contact Chad Hartzog at 985-502-3217
(Keith Lusher Jr. writes a weekly column. For more info, visit NorthshoreFishingReport.com.Contact Keith at keith@northshorefishingreport.com.)