Keith Lusher 03.22.24
There’s one thing to be mentioned for heading all the way down to the lake and catching bream on a easy bobber and worm. Prior to now a long time, fishing has change into so technological and exact that I discover it to be a pleasant change of tempo to get again to fundamentals. Get again to how the vast majority of us discovered fish.
I made a visit to a really distinctive part of Southeast Louisiana, to a spot named White Kitchen positioned 7 miles south of Slidell, LA. The historical past behind the identify of this space stems again to the Forties when a extremely popular restaurant named White Kitchen was working. The restaurant was so widespread that after it was gone the, space inherited the identify “White Kitchen” which was then adopted by the state as a Nature Protect. It’s mentioned that this restaurant was the final place Jane Mansfield stopped earlier than dying in a automotive accident on her approach from Mississippi to New Orleans.
Since I do know you didn’t come right here for a historical past lesson I’ll digress.
We began our day at 8:00 a.m. I used to be fishing with a gentleman named Ray Miller. Miller is a grasp sac-a-lait fisherman and is aware of his approach round a couple of bream beds as properly. He launched his 18-foot flatboat within the lake and off we went at a whopping 4 MPH. A little bit aspect word about White Kitchen, it was fashioned after Hurricane Katrina flooded the complete low-lying swampy protect. What water stayed fashioned a big lake which to the bare eye seems to be like it could be deep, nonetheless, its common depth is just 5 toes.
As we arrived at our first spot. We each put a bit of Nightcrawler on our #6 cricket hooks and whipped out our strains. Usually the bream spawn kicks off proper round this time of yr however a chilly entrance had simply handed by two days earlier dropping the air temperatures all the way down to 40 levels in a single day. Miller regarded down at his Livescope and referred to as out the water temperature, “58 levels. C’mon solar,” he mentioned. It was clear that after a half hour of fishing with no bites, the bream had lockjaw as a result of water temperatures dropping. So we determined to attend them out.
Miller used his trolling motor to around the lake and it wasn’t till 11:00 a.m. when the motion picked up. Miller has a concept when fishing White Kitchen, “When it will get heat sufficient and people gators begin bellowing – that’s when the fishing is sweet,” he mentioned.
After we put our fourth bream within the boat. Miller mentioned, “Pay attention…you hear that?” It was two gators calling out to one another again in forth in a sing-song sample. Because the water temperature warmed as much as 62 levels the fishing bought even higher and we continued to construct a good field of bream. One factor a couple of field of bream that comes from White Kitchen is it’s primarily Shellcrakers (Chinquapin) that occupy it. Shellcrackers are the thickest of all of the bream species making them extremely sought out among the many locals. These fish are likely to refill an ice chest shortly due to their broad shoulders and stomachs so we determined to provide the journey 5 extra minutes earlier than calling it a day.
Our final spot was alongside the shoreline. A mat of Hyacinth stretched out about 5 toes and I made a solid to the sting of it. My bobber turned sideways and started to maneuver throughout the water so I set the hook. My drag began to make noise whcih had by no means occurred all day so I knew this wasn’t a standard bream. I performed the fish for about 15 seconds and began reeling it pondering that it was a bass by how laborious it was pulling. Because the fish neared the boat it surfaced and I noticed that’s wasn’t a bass, however an enormous shellcraker! I shortly slung the fish into the boat and held up the 11-inch fish. It was a private finest for me as I by no means caught a bream so giant. The “private finest” was the icing on the cake to my first journey to White Kitchen. Hopefully, I’ll be capable of add to the historical past of this Hurricane-made Lake subsequent yr!
