Keith Lusher 10.15.24
Having been born and raised in South Louisiana, I’m accustomed to concentrating on days which might be forecasted to have a big tidal vary. A quick-moving tide strikes the bait, which in flip, causes the fish to feed. If I had my alternative as to which tide I used to be going to fish, 9 instances out of ten it might be a falling tide as a result of it causes the bait to be flushed out of the marsh.
Nonetheless, on my newest journey, I realized that there are specific instances when a rising tide beats a falling tide.
My day started at 6:00 a.m. in Lacombe, Louisiana. I used to be fishing with a lifelong resident who is aware of the Lake Pontchartrain marsh just like the again of his hand. Forrest Inexperienced and I had made quite a few fishing journeys collectively by means of the years and it appears I realized one thing new on every journey.
On this journey, we headed again right into a marsh canal that stretched about 30 toes throughout and fluctuated from 8 toes to twenty toes deep. The canal stretched nearly a mile and led to a duck pond.
As we entered the canal, Inexperienced threw down the trolling motor and began to work his manner again to the duck pond. The tide was falling which naturally had me excited. The water was falling out of the marsh onerous. Each small ditch we noticed had water pouring out of it. There was just one factor – we weren’t catching something.
“It was like this yesterday, don’t fear,” he mentioned. Inexperienced began to elucidate to me how a rising tide is the higher tide in late September and October within the marsh. “Proper now, the lake is stuffed with baitfish and shrimp. So when that tide begins to rise, it pushes all of the bait again into these canals, and the fish observe,” he mentioned. The speculation made sense as we caught 3 speckled trout fishing within the lake proper earlier than we entered the canal. Amongst these trout had been mullet, pogey, and shrimp. Inexperienced instructed me that he deliberate to let the canal funnel all the bait into an enclosed space so the trout could be simpler to catch.
Because the tide began to go slack, we nonetheless had but to catch a single trout again within the canal. However after about an hour handed, we observed that the water was now shifting in the other way. It was now rising ever so barely.
A half hour handed and we began to see motion on the floor of the water as if somebody flipped a change, Inexperienced felt a thump and set the hook on a 14-inch speckled trout and slung him into the boat. “That’s what I’m speaking about,” he whispered. The baitfish and shrimp had been throughout us, and the fish began biting. Because the tide rose more durable, the baitfish grew to become extra plentiful and so did the specks!
We had been utilizing a triple-tail shad made by Speck-Drum Baits. The water was clear, so Inexperienced insisted we use the Black Pearl colour, which was a extra pure tone. “There’s no must go along with brilliant, daring colours when the water is that this clear,” he mentioned.
Because the water poured into the marsh, the bait elevated and we began catching trout at a tempo that put us at a 2-man restrict (30) by midday.
Inexperienced’s principle actually checked out, and I witnessed a rising tide play to my benefit. Inexperienced mentioned the complete script will flip as November rolls round and the marsh begins to empty its baitfish into the lake.
