by Capt. Ty Hibbs
Finally, after the low waters and sometimes unbearable days of February, March greets us with some warmth in the air. March is the month
when we finally start shaking off that February rhythm of fishing those
cold, post-frontal days and getting more into our typical spring pattern.
Marsh & Bayou Outfitters
T
he bait starts to become more
abundant, the water temps rise, and
those fish, especially big speckled
trout, start getting into our favorite
areas to catch them. There is hardly a
fish more loved than the speckled trout
in south Louisiana, and getting some
shots at some bigger fish is even better.
Lake Pontchartrain is definitely one of my favorite places to
fish for specks especially bigger ones. On
the warmer
days of March,
those big specks
start becoming
more active and get
thick on our bridges. The trollers are
usually the first ones to start catching
them on the bridges, but that definitely
doesn’t mean they can't be caught on a
jig. Rat-L-Traps being pulled behind
you are definitely one of the easiest
ways to target and catch them when
those fish aren't quite hugging the pylons yet; but if you know me, you know
all I'm going to throw is a Matrix Shad
on a 3/8oz Golden Eye Jighead.
Jigging those fish is all about paying attention to the tide, knowing what your
bait is doing on the bottom, and especially
watching your line
for the bite. My fa-
Don’t under estimate the power of
the “old school” Rat-L-Trap!
vorite setup is a Duce Rods trout version with 17lb Stren original or 15lb
Stren fluorocarbon. The Duce rod allows me to feel every single tick on the
line with its soft tip and allows me to
make that Matrix Shad move as erratically as possible with its action. The
Stren original is my favorite mainly because I feel the bait reacts the best on
it and it is easy to see when my line
jumps, but if I’m in an area of some
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