SaltyCajun.com - Big Lake 9/24

Monday morning, after running a couple of errands, I headed down to Calcasieu Pt. landing. There were about 15 trailers in the parking area and a few more than that “bank” fisherpersons at 10 AM, so I figured the fishing must be good.

When I entered Turner’s bay, I only saw 2 boats. The water was a little brown but 6” to 10” visibility. The winds were very light and the tide was going out at a fair rate. As I got closer to the first boat I saw that he was on some birds but they “broke up”. I started throwing soft plastic with no takers in 15 min. Then a school of Reds started feeding between me and the other boat 300 yards away. I got the first hook-up after a couple of cast….but it came off. I then tied on a topwater bait but the Reds had already stopped the surface feeding. It did not take long for the school to reappear 50 yards farther away. First cast and I had a good blow-up but no hook-up. Second cast and after a good fight, the first 25” red was in the boat.

The school was “inactive” for a while but I got another “explosion” on the topwater in the glass calm water and put a second red in the ice chest. A school of reds surfaced a few hundred yards away but were gone by the time I trolled over to that area.

After several cast I got an explosion on the surface but he missed the bait. This was quickly followed by a second attack and a hook-up. Again my reel was screaming [well not really….he was taking out some line] and another fight was on. After several minutes I was gaining on the fish. When it got closer to the boat, something did not look right. Wrong color……I had a big trout on the line. And…….it was hooked near the tail.

By noon the tide had stopped moving and I headed south with 3 Reds and the trout. The lake was calm and the air temperature was getting hot so the ride felt good. As I passed Commissary Pt. I turned on the GPS to locate this “Pipe” that was posted a couple of days ago. About 4.7 miles later and out in the very middle of the lake, I spotted it from ¼ mile away. It is some kind of rubber pipe ~4” in diameter. I don’t think it would cause any damage, if you hit it. I added an orange marker next to it. The water in this area looked a little greener [still had a little brown color] and 12+” visibility.

I then headed to Grand Bayou to hopefully catch some shrimp after seeing some good reports of limits on Friday and Saturday. I talked to a couple of cast netters and they were not catching very well. I threw for a while but only got a pound or so. Two guys next to me were baiting and had a ½ bucket but had been there for a while. The water was slowly coming out of the marsh.

From there I head west. The calm winds quickly started blowing 10 mph and the lake “chop” was building. I stopped at a spot on the south bank and got 3 quick blow-ups but no takers. I then threw plastic and got a bite. I had a ~15 trout that got off at the boat. I was headed to the ship channel but got side tracked when I spotted some gulls feeding off east of the steam engine. I guess this was the “Washout” area school of Reds that many people have reported being in this area in the last couple of months. Like Reds often do…..they were on the move. I tried to use the wind to get near the fish, but even trolling at nearly 3 mph, I was not getting closer. I cranked up the engine to get closer but lost the school and no blow-ups when I tried casting. I tried circling the school to get in front of them only to have them change direction. I finally got in the “zone” and caught one 26” Red. I had many many Reds passing near the boat while fighting this fish.

It was about time to start heading back so I took off northwards. The winds were 12+ mph and the lake had a foot or better “chop”. I passed 2 boats that were both fishing on flocks of birds. When I spotted another flock, I could not pass it up. I caught my 5 th Red. As I road northward, I stopped at a couple more flocks of birds and caught several trout. From the Washout to north of Long Pt. I probably saw 8 flocks of birds. By 5 PM the tide was starting to fall again.

I ended the day with 5 big Reds and 5 Trout all caught on the same topwater bait. It was fun second trip out on Big Lake in my new boat bought at LAM from Keith.