4-26-18 Dink Fest

[MEM1971]

Met a good friend of mine at Calcasieu Point just before daybreak. Take off straight for black lake and that front had just came thru and it is blowing 20 plus. Get to black lake and its muddy and very choppy. We started to run back to north west corner to get out of that hard NW west wind but got a tip that some nice trout were caught in kelso yesterday.We fished it hard from 730 to around 1030 and only caught a pup drum. threw everything at em too but north wind and hard out going tide has made the water a lot dirtier than yesterday. We make a move past spicers and go try for some flounder at the mouth of kelso and channel. only made a couple cast and here comes the live bait boat. My buddy rarely fishes live shrimp but I ask anyway and he says yea lets try it. now where do we take these shrimp lol. we end up at joes cove and make a long drift from northwest corner almost all the way to southeast corner dropping anchor many many times. we caught trout. had they been legal we would have got our limit right there but out of 25-30 trout we only had two in live well. around 1230 I'm hearing everywhere else is muddy which would explain why everyone is in here but I want to see wat big lake and west cove looks like and he wants to run his brand new boat which is only 3rd time in the water so we head south. I'm loving this boat and jealous as I can be. I did not think id like 18-6 boat and thought he should of got a 21 footer. But this Frontier is the best ride ive ever had in a 18 foot boat. Very nice rig! Anyway it does not take long to know why everyone was where we just came from. West cove and big lake horrible as well. The only fishable water we saw was the channel from kelso to long point bay and joes cove. We head back to fish channel but a ship came thru there and it had the water so muddy from the rocks on bank out 20-25 feet so we turn back around and stop at long point bay. Bait fish are everywhere!! Mostly big mullet but saw some shad and a few shrimp running for their lives. I really thought this was gonna be the spot. We drift from north end all the way to south end of that bay only to catch 3 more dinks like we just left. I have never seen so many small fish this time of year. This is wat I usually see july and august and even then u can keep 1 out of 5 most of the time. Was nice to see some trout, but we should of targeted reds and/or flounder. Finally around 3 I say well it looks like them two 12" trout get to live to fight another day and toss em back and we head in. Water was looking better north of kelso than it was earlier but as soon as u get to turners it was chocolate milk. It should get better by the day and I expect some good catches to start showing up on social media this weekend. I was curious how the other boats did and searched last night for info but didn't see any posts yet. Two long days on the water. Really cant remember ever seeing this much of the Calcasieu Estuary this dirty at the same time. But I ill be back out there very soon. Next trip will be back at the pool Saturday with dad but gonna try an evening trip this time.

[oldsettlement2]

Thanks for the report! Good to see you back on the water.

[Mlab12]

Nice report Mem. I am going to be out there Sunday and I'll report back. I don't think I have caught a trout in Big Lake in 2018 so it may be a short report!

[jabert]

Thanks for the report MEM! sounds like tough fishing. Can't wait for things to get right and some time to get out there too