During the summer months, weekly trips to Grand Isle would have been the norm and many nights would have been spent fishing under a light or waking up early to make an offshore trip.
The summer of 2010 will be empty of those thoughts.
The BP oil spill has tightened a noose around the coastal waters. In our area, Little Lake, the Rigolets, Bayou Pirot, Lake Salvador, Lake Cataouatche, Bayou Des Allemands, and Lake Des Allemands remain open.
For myself, Lake Cataouatche is the place of choice.
The Davis Pond Diversion has been running around 7,000 cubic-feet-per-second all summer long. This week, the Corps reduced the flow to 1,000 cubic-feet-per-second.
The water in Lake Cataouatche has had a beautiful,
clear dark color. For the middle of the summer, all the cuts along the north shoreline are producing great catches of catfish. Because of the reduction in water flow, bream, striped bass, catfish, gaspergou, and large mouth bass are ganging up at the cuts.
On a recent trip with Earl Simoneaux and Bob Blanding, we kept 28 big blue gills and 12 catfish.
We left Pier 90 around 8 a.m. Friday and headed to the first cut next to the La. Cypress Canal. After anchoring in the current, Bob began throwing a black/chartreuse spinner bait and immediately started catching fish. On his third cast, Bob reeled in a good 2 pound bass.
Earl was using black/chartreuse and blue/white mini jigs under a cork for bream and sac-a-laits. He had bream hitting his bait several times before hooking a fish.
I had rigged three catfish lines Carolina style using a ¾ ounce weight with a barrel swivel and a #4 hook baited with earthworms. I also had a fly rod rigged with only a #4 bream hook baited with earthworms.
Making a throw behind grass beds, the earthworm would sink very slowly. Bream cannot resist slow-falling bait this time of year and were hitting my line each cast.
While each person in the boat was using a different technique to fish, the catfish lines were bending behind the boat with catfish on the line. We let Earl reel in most of the catfish.
Around noon, we moved across the lake to the cemented Tank Battery on the south side of the lake. In a cleared section of water close to the Tank Battery, the fly rod caught the most bream.
Earl kept throwing the mini jigs and then would switch to earthworm under a cork. The water is very clear around the Tank Battery and the grass beds make it hard to fish.
We again moved to the small Island west of the Tank Battery.
Earl began throwing the 1/32 blue beetle spin with a gold blade. He started picking up good-sized bream. Bob stayed with his black/chartreuse spinner bait and occasionally caught a 10 to 12 inch bass.
The lake had become calm with light winds. The heat had taken its toll and we decided to fish the second cut on the north shoreline before calling it a day. When we arrived to the cut, we notice the water was a chocolate-stained color.
We decided to put out the catfish lines.
The water was moving faster than it was at the earlier cut. This is a good indication that plenty of catfish are around.
Soon, each line had a catfish.
While there were plenty of catfish, they were small. We caught two good catfish using earthworms on the bottom before calling it a day.
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