Best plays this weekend on Big Lake
 

Well after way too long an absence from salt water, we're finally breaking out of Baton Rouge this weekend headed to SW Louisiana. As y'all may recall, my favorite play is usually to fish the Jetties in our 16 ft V hull aluminum boat. That may or may not work with a 15-25 mph NNE wind. We may drive down anyway and have a look at the ship channel, launch the boat if it looks ok but backtrack and fish the beach from shore if conditions do not permit launching the boat. Casting distance in the surf should be pretty good with a 15-25 mph N wind!

My children are still hip to catching bull reds as their favored choice, and my younger son is especially keen to make a video of him catching one. Any better ideas for what looks to be a sloppy weekend? Should we not even bother to bring the boat and just head for the beach, or should we pull the boat down there and then decide when we see the conditions? Are there any other good plays with such a stiff N wind?

Yeah it is to be quite windy for a bit here.

I think your going to be okay for hitting the jetties, with the north wind you can run out the cuts and get into the protected water.

Should be manageable..

I am going to try and see if I can get down there on monday. Like you i know it's not the best weather window... but you got to go when you can go right?


just be smart & careful about it... anchor at the ready so if anything mechanical breaks you can quickly anchor up safely.

Yeah, good point on the anchor. I also run with dual outboards. Getting back is important!

dual o/b on your 16 ft... do you have a kicker motor on the side or set as an actual dual motor (ie... two 30's or something)

in either case... wear em out!

Shouldn't be too bad at the jetties with 15-25 mph wind NNE (consistent 3'). Do yourself and family a favor, please leave the kids at home and remember that they have to find a body for life insurance to pay or wait 7 years. Plenty of places to fish that are much safer than the beach and jetties.

You will not want any part of big lake this weekend

You might not even be able to launch once tide falls


20-35mph though Sunday

BTW... i would NOT attempt to bring any kids to the jetties


Serious you will have 4ft rollers plus tide falling over 4knots and water on falling tide will be mud plus rips are going to have channel muddy also


Stay home in the warm

Weirs all day long w gulp big nastys every cast

They had some guys yesterday at the stalls with two days of puppy drum, filled up two big black gut buckets with heads

Must of had over 100

With those winds you'll be sand blasted on the beach.....keep it on the trailer....may wanna try marsh or bayou's........

Thanks for the feedback guys. I've never seen that area with a stiff NNE wind and I'm glad for the feedback on what the swells would be. We've fished a lot with 15-18 mph and everything was kosher.

W, thanks for the heads up about the effect of the tides. I hadn't thought about that part of it. It will be muddy and wild on the tide front.

I run a 20 hp and a 9.8 hp Nissan side by side. The 9.8 hp only adds 5 mph at full throttle, but the added control in fine positioning in winds and tides is tremendous. Getting through the cuts and other similar moves is much more positive. The unusual set-up happened as a result of fishing some lakes in the midwest with a 10 hp limit. Idling (or near idling) the two motors also gives awesome fine control for trolling; success comes much more easily than when we used troll midwestern lakes with just the 9.8 alone.

The Nissans are very reliable and I've never had to limp home on one, but there are so many things that can go wrong to rely on a single motor to get back home. I've been stuck a few times with a single motor Merc. Eventually someone came along and towed us in, but I'm just not interested in getting into those binds, especially in my preferred fishing spots.

Mathgeek, give me a picture of this motor combo you have on your boat. I am trying to imagine it but I am coming up blank.

Do you have the steering link system??

Not complicated. Two tillers, bench seat. Independently controlled. Just like thousands of aluminum boats with tiller outboards, just a second motor.

Ok I pictured it now, how does one person steer two tillers at the same time.

Gotta have linkage controller set up....

The friction adjustments are pretty tight, so they stay where you put them. My hand rides on the 20 hp, so on the rare occasions where quick adjustments are needed, it is possible and the whole boat will respond to adjustments to the more powerful motor. There are times when I put the 9.8 hp motor up to save gas or to have a bit quicker response like in the marsh. But in wind or currents, I don't give up the control of two tillers.

I'm confused.......
We need a video

I got my limit headed in