fred | simonet

On May 1^st, Mark and I set our sights on fishing the train trestle on the east side on Lake Pontchartrain. We were looking to catch a couple limits of speckles trout. We had read numerous reports of the anglers slaughtering the trout. We hit the road a little earlier than normal because we expected a lot of boats on the trestle. 30 minutes from the boat launch, we received a call from Steve. He and his buddy Ricky decided to join us on the water. We gave them the locations we planned to fish so we could have a meeting place once they made it to the lake. As we pulled up to the boat launch, our suspicion was correct. There was a line of fisherman waiting to launch their boat. We got in line and started readying the boat so not to slow down the launching process. As I released the rear straps on the boat, I noticed the motor support bracket attached to the bottom of the trailer used to support the motor during transit had broken. The support rod was dragging the ground. I was relieved it didn’t cause any damage to my motor. One disaster adverted. So, we proceeded to launch the boat and start fishing. There were more fishing boats in one location than I ever seen. Then, I noticed the 5-10mph wind forecast was more like 15mph. The water was rough, but not rough enough to turn us around. Besides, there were more than 75 boats braving the waves. There was also a strong moving tide. We had to weave our way though the cluster of boats. We settled on a spot and eased the boat between two others. We deployed the trolling motor and tried fighting the wave and tide.
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On Saturday, Anthony, Jason and I set out for a long awaited fishing trip to my favorite fishing spot in Delacroix and the excellent Sweetwater Boat Launch. The weather report predicted heavy fog. That was an understatement. It was a whiteout conditions. We could barely see the end of the launch. So, we sat at the boat launch and talk to the always hopefully workers. After about 30 minutes, a number of boats started to line up to launch. So, we set off into the heavy mist. With a lot of help from the GPS, we made it to a fishing spot on the twin pipeline. We fish the spot catching a speck here and there. But, we were mainly waiting for the fog to lift, which happened around 9:30. We pulled anchor and made our way to Four Horse Lake. We fished it hard for a couple hours with little to show for our efforts. Next, we headed to Pointe Fienne Bay. There were tons of boats in the bay, just like in Four Horse. We decided to troll the bay looking for trout. We picked up a couple trout each time we trolled across the bay. We did this about 4 times. Around 3:00, we moved into a Red fish hole and started catching them fast and furiously. We were catching them so fast; I forgot to get my camera out. 45 minutes later, we had our limit. For the next 15 minutes, we caught fish for the camera. Finally, we moved back to the pipeline to try for more Specks. We picked up a few and then the fog started to roll in. That ended our trip. We finished the day with 15 Reds and 30 Speckle Trout.
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I took the family on their first fishing trip the day before Thanksgiving. We headed down to Sweetwater boat launch in Delacroix. The deck hands and Capt. Jack were very helpful with launching the boat. Scherell didn’t have to lift a finger. It looked like it was going to be a nice day for to go fishing, until we got in the water. It was windy and the water was muddy. Since this was Scherell’s and Kiana’s first time in the marsh, I didn’t want to scare them with a long boat ride in the windy conditions. So I decided to stay close to the boat launch and fish Lake Ameda. We anchored off one of the points in the lake that usually holds trout. I set the girls up with market shrimp under a cock and helped them get their lines in the water. Small trout were biting their lines, but they had trouble setting the hook. Scherell managed to set the hook on her very first red fish. We were all so excited. I forgot I had my camcorder. I was too busy barking out instructions and laughing as she fought the fish. After about 8 minutes, she landed her first red fish. Check out the fish and the smile on her face.
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On Dec. 23, 2010, Mark, Jason and I set out on a fishing trip to Delacroix. Recently, this has become our routine fishing location. Therefore, this should have been a routine trip for us. But, it was anything, but routine. Jason showed up to my house at the normal 3:30am. This was the only thing normal on this trip. However, he was feeling under the weather suffering from a stomach virus. So, he moved into the back seat of his truck and did his usual, went to sleep. As I started to hookup my boat to his truck, I noticed I had a flat on one of my trailer tires. It appeared the tire was flat for some time. I was in disbelief. The day before I “check” over the boat and specifically checked the tires, or so I taught. I didn’t want to risk putting the spare on and make the 5-hour round trip without a spare.
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What a day! Saturday the 20th, David, Mark, Jason and I set out on my second fishing trip of the year. We were looking forward to it. It was the first weekend the weather permitted us to get on the water. We had high hopes of this trip. The weather was nice, but windy. We decided to go fishing in the bays of Delacroix do to the 20 mph winds in the forecast. After a long 3 hour drive to the Sweet Water landing, we launched the boat and were on our way. We quickly realized we were in for a rough day. The water appeared to be a foot to foot and half lower than normal. Also, it was muddy. We motored to Lake Robin thinking we would find some cleaner water. Nope, all we found was rough, muddy water. After fishing there for about an hour, we start heading deeper into the bays. One stop after another, we found more muddy, low water. We decided to head over to our honey hole where we caught tons of Speckle Trout on our last visit. As we approached the spot, we notice there weren’t any boats there. We knew that wasn’t a good sign. This spot usually keeps 4-5 boats. After fishing it hard for about an hour and not having one bite all day, we were not ready to call it a day. So, we decide to put the Mercury 200 to work and head over to Backers Bay, about a 20 minute boat ride. Backers Bay was rough, but the water was a little cleaner. Shortly after arrive there; we notice some bird diving in the swallows. We headed over and started casting. Mark quickly caught a 15″ Red Fish. Shortly after that, Jason caught 0ne. We just knew it was on. Nope, that was it. No more bites. So we started back stopping at cuts along the River aux Chenes and Twin Pipeline. I eventually caught a 15″ Red, then David got his. At that point, we decided to call it a day. Everyone caught a fish, albeit we had to throw them all back because they were too small to keep. This was a terrible trip for the fish count, but it was still fun to get out on the water after being sidelined in the house for 6 weeks.