Fishing trip 10-9-09

[Gerald]

I met my friend at 7 AM and we headed to Big Lake with the hopes of catching some fish and also some shrimp at the Weirs.

I told him that I had seen reports of very high tides at Big Lake. On down Big Lake road we passed one of the drainage ditches and the water was out of the banks........????????

When we got to Calcasieu Pt landing.....the winds were 12 to 15 mph and the water was high. I parked the truck after launching and when I got back to the dock I saw that the water was up above the lower step. Going through the Grand Bayou weir would not be possible. After a little discussion we decided to go fish Prien Lake area so we would not get beat up on Big Lake.

When we got to the North launch, we had to wade through almost a foot of water to get to the dock along side of the launch. That is ~ 1.5 feet above normal high tide levels. The winds were now 15 to 20 mph and the water was stained but you could see 1.5 feet down. Now if we could just find some fish.

The first several spots along the channel did not produce. Finally he caught a nice trout and then another a little while later…..using a purple and white H & H curly tail grub on a ¼ oz jig. After trying several different soft plastic, I tried a LSU Sand eel but this did not even produce a “tap”. I finally put on one of his purple and white baits…..but only got a few strikes using it.

I finally caught my first trout…..using a live shad. The count was now an embarrassing 7 to 1 and did not get much better as the day passed.

By late morning the winds were a steady 20+ mph and the rain clouds started passing. By 1 PM we had been lucky that most of the rain had passed on either side of us but the front was approaching fast and the sky was getting darker. In the 5 minutes that it took us to get back to the launch……the winds shifted from the south around to the north and must have been blowing 30+ mph for a little while.

Getting the bay boat on the trailer was almost funny to watch. I looked like a very drunk person trying to walk a straight line while bouncing up and down in the 1+ foot waves ……but he made it on the first try.

Final count on a very tough day was 14 trout and one beautiful golden color Red fish. Sorry, too wet to bring the camera today.

[SKnox]

Thanks for the report. I wasn't brave enough to try. The wind was blowin' so hard when I went through Gillis, I turned around and went back to Ragley. I'm glad yall caught some fish.

[Mediumheavyaction6'6]

Man, you sir are addicted to fishing. I must be too because I am going to go tailgate all day today at the LSU football game and then drive down to Hopedale tomorrow with a 50% chance of rain. I just gotta get my fix for the weekend. The tide is supposed to be falling all day tomorrow and it just sounds too good to pass up. Hopefully, the wind will not be as strong as you were experiencing yesterday.