Krewe de Bonne Terre moves parade to Sunday
February 5, 2016
Mardi Gras morning hit and run proves fatal
February 10, 2016
It doesn’t take much equipment to catch nice-sized fish right now in southern Lafourche Parish.
All an angler needs is a pole, a little live bait and Bayou Lafourche’s brackish water. Having some pretty good weather wouldn’t hurt, either.
Fishing remains hit or miss locally depending on the day, as the timing of cold fronts heavily dominates when the fish will be biting.
The sweet spot inshore remains along the roadside – especially off La. Highway 1 toward Leeville and Fourchon.
Anything that requires a boat is practically impossible most days, as the constant cold fronts have made offshore waters too rough for consistent navigation.
“It’s going to change a little bit in the next few weeks once it warms up more consistently,” local fisherman Charlie ‘Speck’ Tauzin said. “But for now, really the only shot that you have is fishing on the land. There are a lot of good fish to be had along the road – some very pretty fish. If you go once the fronts pass and the weather calms down, you can almost always get what you’re fishing for.”
Boating weather is coming soon, though.
Tauzin said that it will only be a matter of weeks before the cold fronts become less frequent, which will allow for some early-season boat fishing.
He said that the best times to give it a twirl are about two days after a front has passed – just long enough for the seas to calm after the bad weather and just short enough to beat the next front that might be on the way.
“Right now, it’s a bit of no man’s land if you want to get in the boat,” Tauzin said. “It’s not worth it. It’s too rough. You’re going to get beat to death by the waves getting out there, and you might not even get anything for it.”
So for the time being, fishing inland seems to be the best bet, and that’s not so bad, if you know where the hotspots are.
Along La. Highway 1, the reds and specks good, especially with live baits or minnows. If you own a pirogue or shallow water vessel, the fish are even bigger in the small marshy passes just off the roadside.
In lower Terrebonne, high waters from the Atchafalaya are still making a mess for anglers who usually have decent luck during this time of the year.
But in the past few weeks, local angler Jeff Adams said that he’s seen more activity – especially with bass.
Adams said if the levels drop soon, it could be a very nice freshwater season in 2016.
“The fish are there,” he said. “Right now, it’s just tough to get to them, because of the water levels. Once it swings back down, I think it will be a pretty stretch. I think you’ll see it turn around pretty quick, because it’s actually gotten a good bit better already.”
In southern Terrebonne, the game plan is the same as it is for southern Lafourche. Anglers said that the fish are biting, but it has to be inland, because the seas are too rough to consistently be on the water.
Adams said that when it’s this time next month, things will be completely different.
“It’s sort of the tipping point right now,” he said. “It’s about to shift in weather, and when it does, the pattern will be different.” •
