Might try Big Lake on Friday.
 

A friend wants to go fish Big Lake on Friday in his boat. I've done well on flounder a couple years ago in April on an outgoing tide fishing the mouths of cuts coming out of the marsh, but looks like not much of an outgoing tide except late Friday evening.

What should we do? Hit the shallow reefs with top water in the morning for trout and the cuts for flounder mid day? Thanks in advance.

yep, tides are going to suck this weekend, Im planning on drifting over some reefs with "clear" water this high tide

Thanks. Satellite pics from the whole past week are obscured by clouds. Is the only decent water on the South end of the lake right now?

Where are you getting your satellite pics from ?

MODIS.http://ge.ssec.wisc.edu/modis-today/index.php

Click on the Louisiana section, then click on 250m. You can change the dates also. I had to go back to March 28th to find a clear view of Big Lake, but it's not a great image. It's more useful for Vermillion Bay and Venice.

not to mention you can open the image in google earth and get measurements to clear water.

Didn't know that. I usually use it on my phone for VB and Grand Isle. BTW, Vermillion Bay looks like coffee milk right now. Amazing how much fresh water comes out of the Basin.

Well, decided to fish topwater on the flats off of the ship channel on the South side early morning. We figured that with the incoming tide all morning that there might be some decent water. Wrong. No bait, no bites. Ran Oyster Bayou to West Cove to try for flounder and found better water there. (WTH?) Caught one decent trout and 5 flounder before the storms chased us out.

Looks like we made the wrong choice as usual. Should have fished West Cove early instead. FML. :cry:

One trout and five flounder was a good day

I guess you haven't seen the post by Jadams yet. I'm sorry, but I don't consider mine a good trip.

What about the 5lb guarantee ?

Yeah, that's a pretty amazing offer. He must really have them patterned.

The reason I mentioned Jadams post was because it was the same day I was there.

If you are using some of the best fisherman on the lake as a measuring stick you will be disapointed more often than not.

I'm not about to compare myself to him, but being in the right spot (which we weren't) definitely ups your chances of catching fish.

How do you open it in Google Earth? I click on the "Open in Google Earth" link above the photo and all my phone does is download a file that it is "unable to open."

Sorry to change the subject of thread.

Finding the fish on a consistent basis is part of being a great fisherman. It also doesn't come by instinct or general patterns that we all study. A major part of it is time on the water.

Now you have this experience in your memory bank (or logbook if you keep one) to recall the next time you have similar conditions.

Nothing beats experience!

I was a career musician for years and could put little to no effort into a performance and no one noticed because I'd done it a thousand times. I wouldn't expect someone with a few music lessons to do the same thing. On the other hand, there are times I go fishing and catch little to nothing, and also times where I do really well (I'm still learning lessons).

I understand your frustration with figuring out the fish right before it's time to go, but if all one considers worth his time and money is catching limits (which I'm certainly not saying you do, so please take no offense), they'll be disappointed and won't enjoy their time on the water. That's the reason I do this in the first place, but I've never been accused of being normal.

Now go take out a 2nd mortgage on your house and take as many trips as you can with your flexible schedule!

I hear you. It's just frustrating to drive an hour and a half to catch one trout. I'm also disappointed because I wanted my friend that I was with to catch a few nice fish. He's consistently gotten skunked at Big Lake and is really frustrated with it.

I'm sure you can understand my frustration (with myself) for choosing the wrong place to go then seeing pics of nice fish caught not far from where we were.

If I hear south end of the lake is clear I consider the south side of west cove being in that generalization.

I went to west cove on Friday and got skunked in that water you are wishing you were in.

It's also about time of day, I've heard of people sitting on a spot with Jarred and not catching for a very long time. He would say just wait until the water starts moving right, and sure enough they turned on like a switch after a while.

As barely being a weekend fisherman lately I preface my trips with anyone I bring by saying "we are going learn some new spots today, this is an exploration mission". I know that without being on the water a 5-10 days out of the last month there is little chance of stumbling into a mess of fish (unless you are a potlicker).

If I get to a spot I think is holding clear water, and it isn't, I ain't stopping unless something else tells me to be there. Strong south wind will find me running southern banks until I find it.

All that said, my boats about to go up for sale, I'm gonna get a pleasure boat and just pay W and Adams when I want to bend a rod and fill the freezer. I can ski and wake board in dirty water and no tide...

It's not always about i made the wrong move , you could of started in the same spot as JA and not caught a fish .

Or you could of caught some but worrying about where fish were caught and the place they caught em will drive you crazy . Forget that and fish.. I have went behind many people and caught fish were they said no fish were . Sometime it's all about working your bait up and down instead if side to side. it could be the difference in 1 fish vs 20 by switching from 1/4oz to 1/8oz jig head .

I caught fish on every stop i have made over last 4 days ... Today I caught real good in a spot that sucked on Thur . But had better incoming tide this am vs Thur and if the rain would of not picked up .. Could if limited out easy

Thanks for the advice and info guys.

I think I stick with a certain bait that I've heard they're biting on or what I think they should be biting on for too long sometimes.

As a guide W, you've got a huge advantage (besides knowledge) of being on the lake consistently and being able to try 3-5 different baits at a time with the clients until you find what they want.

Thanks again.