October Specks in the Marsh
It’s been a long, hot summer on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. High temperatures of over 100 degrees for numerous days in a row slammed the door on speckled trout fishing in the marsh. But that was then, and this is now! This month, water temperatures are dropping into the 70’s, and the speckled trout bite in the marsh is in full swing.
I made a trip with Forrest Green of Lacombe to a deep canal that led to a duckpond near Goosepoint where we were able to welcome October properly with a boxfull of speckled trout. Our day started early as we launched at 6:15.
After a quick bait ride out of Bayou Lacombe and down the shoreline, we found a deep bayou full of bait. The tide was rising hard, and shrimp were popping out of the water. Green said this is typical of October. “This is it! This is what I love about this month,” he said. Green threw down his trolling motor and we worked our way into the canal and towards the duck pond. I knew it was going to be a great day when on Green’s first cast, he hooked up with a head-thrashing speckled trout. He was using a pink-colored triple-tail plastic shad made by Speck-Drum Baits. The trout threw the hook, but Green was able to get the first fish of the day into the boat on his third cast.
The technique was easy: cast into the deep bends of the bayou where there was action and barely drag the lure on the bottom unit you feel a bump. “You don’t want to jig your lure too hard back here. Just barely lift it off the bottom and wait for the fish to pick it up,” he said. “I like to use a 1/4 oz. or 3/8 oz. jighead depending on how much the water is moving.”
As Green and I worked our way slowly north, we came upon a bend in the canal that had water swirling from the current mixing with the wind that was blowing the opposite way.
There were shrimp and baitfish everywhere in that bend and it wasn’t uncommon to feel mullet bumping into our lines as we jigged the bottom. “When there is so much baitfish sometimes you just have to pull that lure and wait for the trout to jump on,” he said. “Don’t waste your time setting your hook on all these mullet that bump into your line and lure.”
Speckled trout are known for their ferocious bite and the speed at which Green and I were able to put fish in the boat was unprecedented. Numerous times we hooked up at the same time and were able to land fish within seconds of each other.
At the end of the day, we ended up with a 2-man limit of marsh trout that averaged 13”-15”. “You’ll have to weed through some fish, but there are some solid fish in the marsh this month. Take advantage of the bite in October because after the hard cold fronts get here, these fish will head back out to Lake Borgne,” Green said.
Tournament Results
The Liars and Lunker’s held their second 2023 Fall/Winter Series tournament on the East Pearl River on September 24th. In all, sixteen teams entered the tournament.
The fishing seemed to be a little tougher than usual as the overall weights were all lower than expected. Eric Ciko took the win with 9.57 pounds of bass.
Second place went to Larry McCarra and David King with 7.15 pounds. Coming in third were James Harris and Chad Hartzog with 6.35 pounds. The day’s big bass was a 4.14 pounder, weighed in by Bill and Jimmy Dorris.
Upcoming Tournaments
Pearl River Team Trails is holding its next tournament at Crawford’s Landing on October 14. For more information, please contact Charles Dauzat at 985-960-3260.
Liars and Lunker’s will be holding their next tournament at the East Pearl River on October 29. For more information, please contact Chad Hartzog at 985-502-3217.
The Double Nickel Bass Club is holding its next tournament at the East Pearl River on October 10. For more information, please contact Dwain Crumby at 985-502-6006.
(Keith Lusher Jr. writes a weekly column. For more info, visit NorthshoreFishingReport.com. Contact Keith at keith@northshorefishingreport.com.)