Outdoor Report with Bruce McDonald

Fishing trip nearly goes belly up, rabbit hunt finale proves to be productive

Last week, Pete Cassange called and we arranged a fishing trip on Wednesday afternoon. We met at Pier 90, on a warm 75-degree, cloudy day.

We made our way through Sellers Canal and reached Lake Cataouatche.

Pete's outboard motor started to shut down, so we soon found ourselves moving at idle speed.

After switching gas tanks, the motor resumed to a high speed. But for a minute there I thought the trip was going to be a shut out.

At the mouth of the Louisiana Canal Pete dropped his anchor and we spent an hour fishing the current for bass, bream, sac-a-lait and catfish.

The catfish did not bite on earthworms, but we caught a few bass on plastic worms and white spinner baits.

We moved up the canal to find a few sac-a-laits.

At the corner of the West Canal in an old fallen treetop, we located a few sac-a-laits on the red, white and chartreuse mini-jig under a cork.

The action was short lived and we running out of daylight. So we decided to call it a day.

On our way back, we had trouble with Pete's motor. He later found out he had old gas in them.

The fishing action continues to be hot in the Lake Cataouatche and Lake Salvador area. Good numbers of big bass are being caught on black, blue and watermelon, and dark-purple plastic worms.

White spinner baits and crawfish-colored crank baits produced good numbers of bass.

Sac-a-laits are still being caught in the dead-end canal along the grass lines in the Lake Salvador Management Area and Lake Cataouatche.

Best mini jigs have been the red, white, and chartreuse, black and chartreuse, and the blue and white.

Bream are starting to show up when the water warms up.

The catfish have slowed a little. Anyone wanting to check the flow of the Davis Pond Diversion can go online to: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/la/nwis/uv/?site_no=295501090190400.

Recently, the Corp has been running the Diversion around 10,000 cubic feet per second.

Saturday morning, we made the last rabbit hunt for the season.

Rabbit season closed on Feb. 28 and won’t open again until October.

John Heine, Andrew Callais, John Blickely, Glenn Perque, and Pete Cassange with the A, B, C beagles killed seven rabbits on Churchill Hunting Club.

We had plenty of rabbits all morning long, but most of the shotguns could not find their mark.

The conditions were perfect for hunting rabbits.

Cool, overcast and a slight west wind allowed the dogs to stay behind rabbits.

This was a great way to end the hunting season. We had plans to try and catch crabs in Lake Pontchartrain Saturday afternoon.

We changed our minds after a strong cold front pushed through.

Up-coming Bass Tournament

Pier 90 will be hosting a bass tournament on March 14. This tournament is open to the public.

Anyone wishing to participate will have a $25 per person entry fee with a 2-man team limit per boat with a $5 launch fee.

One hundred percent of the money collected will be paid to the fishermen. Ninety percent of the entry fees will go the heaviest five bass stringer per boat.

Ten percent will be paid to largest bass. For every 10 boats, a place will be awarded.

Starting time will be at 6:30 a.m. and weigh-in at 3 p.m. The tournament will provide a pastalaya and live band to all entrants.

Anyone interested in pre-registering call 985-665-7839.