Outdoor Report

Big fish still biting in Bayou Perrot

It was a Monday afternoon and the weather conditions were perfect. Light southwest wind less than 5 mph, overcast from area thunderstorms, a cool 85-degree temperature and the tide was falling.

So, I hooked-up the Kenner VX and headed to Pier 90. Monday is a day which forces all fishermen to go back to work.

I was going to make this fishing trip solo. Arriving to the mouth of Bayou Couba in Lake Salvador, I managed to catch two small rat redfish on a ¼-ounce chrome rattletrap with the black top.

The twin power line towers were visible from my location and convinced myself to make the run across Lake Salvador to Bayou Perot.

A month earlier we had caught good numbers of redfish. The lake was smooth and very clear for this time of year.

The Kenner VX made a beeline for the twin towers. Soon I was dropping the anchor in 35 feet of water in Bayou Perot.

The depth finder was sho- wing plenty of fish under the boat. The falling tide made for a strong current. I baited the ¼-ounce jig head on a Carolina rig using a ¾ ounce weight ahead of the barrel swivel with a large market shrimp and dropped it to the bottom of Bayou Perot.

Quickly, my 30 pound braided line was snug. I thought to myself, "I'm already hung-up on the bottom." Then the line began stripping out of Okuma Epixor EP55A reel.

The fish put up a better fight and broke the 30-pound braided line. Re-rigged, my next Carolina rig found the same spot and this time reeled in a 15 pound black drum. Four more cast produced 4, 18-20 inch puppy drums. I had caught my limit. I stayed a while trying to catch a few redfish without any success. Playing "Catch & Release" with the black drum was all I could do. I picked-up the anchor and headed back to Lake Cataouatche.

Sac-a-laits in Lake Cataouatche

On the south shoreline, clear water started around the Tank Ponds. George Garcia, The Happy Fisherman, told me; "Find clear water and fish around the grass bed with a orange pumpkinseed tube jig to catch sac-a-laits". Doing so, I begn to pick-up two or three in and around the grass beds. A large thunderstorm to the west forced me to call it a day. Back at Pier 90, Melvin McLaurin of Laplace, had picked-up his boat ahead of me. We began talking about the sac-a-lait fishing. We were 100 yards apart on the lake. He caught his fish on the blue/white and black chartreuse tube jigs under a cork 18 inches deep.