Fishing in Salvador ‘Red’ hot

Lake Salvador is red hot in the last week of May. On a recent fishing trip with my brothers, Randy and C.P. "Bruh" McDonald, we started out fishing in Lake Cataouatche for catfish. But after catching 24 within an hour, we headed to Lake Salvador and set our sights on redfish.

Our first stop was Bayou Couba, where we stopped at the old oak tree and began catching small redfish on market shrimp on a quarter ounce jig head.

We were throwing back to the open water in a current line. When the jig head would reach the bottom redfish or stingrays would take the bait. Without catching a keeper redfish, we headed to the rigs in the middle of the lake.

Reaching the first rig we began throwing the quarter ounce jig heads with shrimp along the corners of the rig. Immediately, Randy was hooked up with a nice redfish. Then C.P. had a redfish on his line.

We started catching one after another. But when we measured the redfish, each one was a little too small and we threw them back.

"I have never seen this many redfish exactly the same size," Randy said. "We have to catch 10 or 15 reds before someone catches a legal fish, but I’m enjoying it!"

When the fish would play out at one rig we would move to another. The water in the middle of the lake is very clear this time of year and we used a method of killing the outboard motor 50 yards before a rig and using the trolling motor to approach a fishing location.

Redfish were being caught around each rig we went to.

"I love this lake when the wind lays down," C.P. said. "We are fishing the middle of Lake Salvador using a trolling motor. When you hook one of these redfish they want to pull you in the water."

We managed to catch five legal red fish out of approximately 50 fish and decided to call it a day.

Other great red fishing locations are Grosse Point, the old oak tree in Bayou Couba, the mouth of the Gulf Canal, the mouth of Bayou Des Allemands along the rocks, Little Catahoula Bay, the Temple, Bayou Perot and the Christmas tree line.

The best baits so far have been a jig head and market shrimp on the bottom, half ounce blue/chrome rattletrap and a half ounce gold spoon.