http://www.LouisianaSportsman.com April 2015 | Louisiana Sportsman 247
River has been unseasonably low all winter at or around 5 feet at Butte La
Rose. “The river is still low, although it might come up soon.”
Semar, who owns Bulls-Eye Charter (337-519-4400), said that, barring a big
jump in the river levels, fishing should be kicking off.
“Redfish fishing should be pretty good — maybe some speckled trout, if we
get lucky enough, if we don’t get a lot of rainfall in the Mississippi Valley (to
push the river stage over 12 feet).
“It should be a better year than last year.”
At the time of his report, redfish were being caught in some of the big lakes
inside Marsh Island, including Lake Tom and Lake Michael, he said. That
success should continue, and redfish also should be caught on the bayside
shoreline of Marsh Island.
Redfish, drum and flounder perennially show there, with fishing often best
on high tide.
“The water should be the best it can be at that time of year on the north
side of Marsh Island, when we start getting all the spring winds,” he said,
adding that those fish can be caught on market shrimp fished 1 to 1 ½ feet
under popping corks cast to the banks and worked around grass, cuts, points,
drains — anything along the shoreline.
Inside Marsh Island, a telltale sign that redfish comes in the form of large
schools of pogies.
“Look for pogies in March,” Semar said. “They usually have large schools of
pogies at Marsh Island. If you find (pogies) pretty thick in the wheel wash,
you’ll probably have redfish not far away.”
Speckled trout anglers shouldn’t lose hope for some action this month.
“If we’re lucky, we might get some specks showing up in The Cove in April,”
Semar said, noting he fishes with the same soft plastics as during the fall —
black, chartreuse or glow.
“If there’s good, salty clear water in The Cove, that far north in
the Bay (Vermilion Bay), there should be a few fish with it,” he
said. “Toward the end of April, (speckled trout) should show up
at the near-offshore platforms, whatever ones they got left.”
Tiger Shoals has been productive the past few springs and
should be good again this year, he said.
Those particular structures have to be fished “a little differ-
ently” than other oil rigs because of the swift current. The depth
ranges from 12 to 20 feet.
Some of the best platforms have “some kind of hill there —
shell pads or a natural hill,” he said. The best bet is to fish soft
plastics with heavier leadheads, or tandem-rigged soft plastics,
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