THREE DAY DELACROIX TRIP
Bo Crawford
May 20, 2005
I took a three day fishing trip down to Delacroix, Monday – Wednesday, May 16-18. I still had credit at the Delacroix Inn from the deposit I put down for the February trip that was cancelled. Bottom line results:
Monday: 2 specks, 1 red
Tuesday: 12 specks, 2 reds, 1 flounder
Wednesday: 24 specks
One of the reasons I am relieved to move to Birmingham is that I will be close enough to continuing fishing in Louisiana. I hope to go for three long weekends a year: February, May, and in the fall. While it is fresh in my mind I wanted to type some detail about fishing down there in May, partly so that I can refresh my memory when I read it next year, and partly to convince you guys to go with me.
The trout fishing is generally good in late May through June, but I prefer to go early in May. Every year the DNR takes a sampling of shrimp to determine when they will be large enough for recreational shrimp season to open. This year shrimp season begins on May 23rd in the Delacroix zone. On that day everyone with a boat will be pulling nets around loading up on shrimp and muddying up the water. Here is a picture of a shrimper’s catch. Notice the trough with all the mud mixed in with the shrimp. Just prior to shrimp season opening, which is right now, shrimp are everywhere and clean water is easy to find. Usually when you find clean water seagulls can be found eating shrimp. The deal is the specks chase the shrimp to the surface where they are greeted by seagulls. Seagulls are trying to get the shrimp from above and specks are coming at them from below. You throw you lure under the birds and it is an automatic hook-up. Here is a picture of Bill with a box full of trout we caught one May fishing under the birds.
The problem with fishing under the birds is that there are generally small fish under the birds. The size limit is 12’’. On Wednesday we probably caught 5 or more small fish for every fish we caught over 12’’. In addition, there are usually gaff-top catfish under the birds. I caught at least a dozen on Wednesday. Rumor is those things are good to eat but I don’t mess with them. They are so slimy that Bill would have a heart attack if one was flopping around in the bottom of his boat. The birds don’t hang around forever. You need to take full advantage of every cast when you fish under them. The fire drill in my boat is to approach the birds with the big motor, then use the trolling motor to ease your way into casting distance. We usually start off with a double rig and fish that until you hook a gaff-top. If you land a gaff-top you don't want to waste time unhooking it right then. We usually just let him flop around in the bottom of the boat and pick up another rod and continue fishing. Note to self for next year: I am going to tie on a double rig, a ¼ oz plastic, a 3/8 oz plastic, and a jerkbait. Those will be my main rods that I will have on deck. The problem with using anything with treble hooks is that it takes too long to unhook the fish. So the most efficient way to fish is to use single hook plastics.
I have been experimenting with different lures to try to find one that will generally catch larger fish. On this trip I fished the Swim n’ Image that works so well in the spring and fall to no avail. I tried the Rattletrap to no avail. I tried various walk the dog lures without good results (note to self: need to try a Chug Bug or Skitter Pop under the birds). The large Huskyjerk I used to use did not work great, nor did the Flashminnow. The lure they hit was a small Yo-Zuri jerkbait. It seemed to catch bigger fish on average. It was also useful when we continued to fish after the birds left. (After the birds fly away you know the fish are still there and you can hang around and continue to catch them. The action isn’t as fast and furious but it is worth doing if you are around larger fish). I suspect that this particular jerkbait worked good because it emulated a large fleeing shrimp pretty well.
Well, I was fishing it and hooked into this bull redfish. I recorded some video commentary while fighting the fish, so I won’t retype the details here. But the fish weighed over 20 lbs when I finally landed it (by the way, 10 lb P-Line came through again). While I was fighting it we were watching a flock of birds working pretty good so I was horsing it in so that we could get back into the trout action. I was in such a hurry that I let the fish go without taking my lure out of his mouth! What a dumb move. The fish was hooked so deep that you couldn’t see the lure hanging out of his mouth. I guess it was an out of site out of mind deal and I just forgot. I didn’t even realize what I had done until I was ready to start fishing the new flock of birds.
I thought the lure was a Tobimaru Jr., but I now think it was a small Mag Minnow. I have contacted Yo-Zuri, and they apparently do not make that lure anymore! But I talked to a pro there and he tells me that I may be able to find it at www.hottackle.com. He said to search for f301 and f302. I believe the color I was using was pearl rainbow. He also gave me another tip. He said the trout love the 3D Fingerling, F686 and F384. I am going to restock before my next trip.
As I was saying, we caught hundreds of trout but were trying to find ways to catch big fish. In the search for big fish I rode about 80 miles a day. The best areas I found for keepers were Lake Machias, Black Bay, and Bay Crabe. If you have Mapceate, you can view my GPS data file. Lowrance might also have a free program you can use on their site. The cleanest water was Lake Athanasio.
Many of the best speck guides will ignore the birds and fish points, islands, reefs, and rigs for bigger specks. I have not had the patience to do this in the past because the action is so fast and furious under the birds. But after this trip I think I am ready to start giving it a try.
There are so many different factors with fishing down there; tides, wind, moon phase, diversion setting, river level, thousands and thousands of miles of water to fish, etc., etc., etc…It makes it hard to pattern the fish. I feel like had I fished a fourth day I would have caught 50 keepers without a problem. I also feel that if we had several boats down there we could pattern the fish much much faster, and really wack them on days two and three. As I type this I see that Skip is thinking about buying a bay boat. I am pumped about that! We should be able to put together some super-cool trips starting this fall. One more thing, I met the owner of the Delacroix Inn. He gave me the phone number of guide who works with him. The deal is when we go back down there the guide will tell us where to go and what to do, and if necessary will let us follow him out to where the fish are. I’d say we are in good shape for future trips.
Redfish Proctology (camera was accidentally left in video mode and captured this unfortunate incident)
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