By Frank Davis
Posted Saturday, November 5, 2005
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It was dynamite for all kinds of fish when I was a kid growing up--big croakers all along the trestle, huge trout in the pocket at Irish Bayou, tarpon at the notorious "holes" every September, hoardes of white trout you could catch all year long anywhere you found deeper water, redfish along the northern shoreline from Turtle Bayou to Bayou Crevet, and lots and lots of drum and sheepshead and flounder under the bridges, from mid-lake to the Rigolets. But then "progress" took its toll, and the lake practically died!
That's not the picture any longer! Because as Carlton Dufrechau, president of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation likes to say, "The lake is back!"
The biggest speckled trout caught in the state in the past 50 years--an 11.99 pound monster that took over second place in the state records--was pulled out of the lake water by Kenny Kreeger on Superbowl Sunday a couple of years back. A few weeks later another fisherman, who preferred to remain unidentified, boated an 11.44 pound trout fishing along the railroad trestle. And just a week or so after that, I interviewed a young man for one of my tabloid columns and took pictures of his catch--an 11-pound 4 ounce speckled trout he caught at the Rigolets Bridge! The latest claim to trophy trout fishing (and to show how much the lake has returned to its former glory) is the 10-pound speck that was caught off the Frank Davis Fishing Pier under the Seabrook Bridge on Lakeshore Drive! That's never happened before! Since then, there have been dozens of monster trout, many well over 5 and 6 pounds, hauled from the Pontchartrain estuary.
Ike Torregano, who has operated Tite's Place at North Shore for several decades is convinced (as am I) that there is yet to be caught, maybe this year, "the biggest trout ever to come out of the lake" (and maybe even the state!), provided prime conditions continue and nothing happens to drastically change the lake ecology.
So how do you fish this 622-square-mile body of water these days?
You can use your own boat and cast and retrieve from "structure spots" - the Causeway, the Five Mile Bridge, the L&N Trestle, the Twin Spans, and even the Gas Platforms off the Williams and Bonnabel launches. Clear sparkled beetles with the red and silver flaking work well. So does the queen-size chartreuse split-tail beetle with the red hotspot. And just about everybody you meet here lately will encourage your to use the Hybrid Flurrys, the Deadly Dudleys, the H&H Queen Cocahoe, or the old standby Saltwater Assassin. Of course, you can use these same artificials, or alternate with Bingos and Rat-L-Traps at the very same places, and troll them either on leadcore line or on half-ounce unpainted jigheads.
But here's a salient point you must remember: if you want to catch lots of trout Lake Pontchartrain isn't the place to do it. For that you go to Cocodrie or Shell Beach or Lafitte or Golden Meadow or Port Sulphur. Lake Pontchartrain, on the other hand, is a trophy trout lake. You might only catch six fish all day, but they will likely be gorillas!
Now, whether you go it alone or with a charter operator, one word of extreme caution is in order: be sure to watch the lake! It's not a place where you want to take chances. It can get unbelievably rough in no time at all and place your very safety at high risk! Exercise caution every trip you make and wear your life jacket!
If you need more information on fishing Lake Pontchartrain, feel free to call me at Channel 4 (504-529-6431) or e-mail me anytime at frankd@frankdavis.com. I'll talk with you about it one-on-one.
And for all you boatless sportsmen, you might want to check out "The Frank Davis Fishing Pier" under the Seabrook Bridge on Lakeshore Drive in New Orleans. Built at my behest five years ago by engineers from the Orleans Levee Board, the facility is handicapped accessible and useable 24 hours day. It is lighted for night fishing and produces some pretty nice catches of trout, redfish, flounder, drum, and sheepshead on both live bait and artificials.
Wanna know about live bait? Well, market bait will get you a few bites, but this time of the year live Cocahoes in the lake are the Number One killer for most of the predatory species! They are certainly the food of choice for reds, trout, and flounders holding up right now at the railroad trestle, under the Twin Spans, and all along the Causeway. Of course, by the end of the month when the shrimp begin to begin to start moving in, live Cocahoe minnows will take a back seat only as a "backup bait.".
This month you should be able to find live Cocahoes at Tite's Place at North Shore, at Rigolets Marina on Hwy. 90, at Bait Incorported on Paris Road, and at Campo's Marina at Shell Beach. If I'm missing anyplace, drop me a note and I'll include it.
I recommend you fish artificials with the same techniques that you'd used to fish largemouth bass--a little twitch and jerk and hold! Then repeat the retrieve all the way back to the boat. The fish should make the strike as the bait falls back to the bottom. I recommend you fish live bait either on the bottom using a Carolina rig, or tightline on a plain unpainted jighead, or on top under a rattling cork or with a Speculizer. Which method you use depends wholly on where the fish happen to be feeding on the particular day you'll be fishing. And you'll always need a moving tide to get both live and artificial bait to work.
This article courtesy of author Frank Davis
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