SLICK FISHING FOR TROUT

Double Dip Fish

EDITOR'S NOTE: TThis week, we'll talk with Captain Jeff Poe who has fished Lake Calcasieu, near Lake Charles, Louisiana, for more than 20 years. His wife Mary, also a licensed captain and guide, has fished the lake all of her life. We'll look at the type fish that you can catch at Lake Calcasieu -- a huge saltwater lake off the Gulf of Mexico -- and Poe will tell us how to catch them.

Question: How do you find trout when you come out of the lake and fish on the beach or go out to the inshore oil and gas rigs?
Poe: When we are fishing the beach, we look for clean water. Oftentimes, you'll run along the beach for 200 to 300 yards, and you'll see only muddy water. Then you'll hit a 100-yard stretch of really clean water, and the trout will hold in that clean water. I look for bait, and I look for slicks. Many times, the trout will slick along the beach just like they will in the lake. Looking for slicks is the No. 1 way we find trout when we fish out on the beach.

Question: Are you finding trout in ditches and cuts on the beach side?
Poe: Yes. The one or two sandbars with cuts in them generally have trout holding in those cuts. Often, we'll find the trout right against the beach in the surf, but usually we locate the trout between where the waves break on the beach and the first sandbar in what we call a trough. The trough is the deep water on the inshore side of the sandbar. We fish these areas with the same lures we fish inside Lake Calcasieu.

Question: Tell me about rig fishing.
Poe: When we fish rigs, we'll fish 2 to 3 miles off the beach or as much as 6 to 8 miles off the beach. The rigs we fish for trout are usually in 35 feet of water or less, with most of the rigs in water between 25- to 35-feet deep.

Question: What bait do you use when you fish the rigs?
Poe: Mostly, we'll fish with live bait or soft plastics. If we fish with live bait, we'll fish with a Carolina rig using live pogies, mullet, shrimp or pinfish. If we use soft plastics, we try and use as light a jig head as possible.

Question: How do you approach a rig?
Poe: I try and approach the rig from the upwind side and use my trolling motor to get in close. The trout can be on the upwind side or the downwind side, or, you may find them only on one leg of the rig.

Question: When you are Carolina rigging, what does your rig look like?
Poe: I'll have either a 3/8- or a 1/2-ounce egg sinker up the line, a small barrel swivel under the egg sinker and 18 inches of 20-pound-test leader. I'll tie the end of the leader to a hook as small as a No. 1 if I'm fishing shrimp or a 2.0 hook if I'm using a large croaker or a porgy.

Question: What do you usually catch around the rigs?
Poe: We are fishing primarily for speckled trout, but often we'll catch ling (cobia), Spanish mackerel, redfish, tripletail and/or flounder.

Question: Do the bigger trout usually come from fishing the rigs?
Poe: No. We generally catch the bigger trout when we are fishing the lake.

Question: What can an angler expect to catch on an average day of fishing with you -- whether in Lake Calcasieu, in the surf or around the rigs?
Poe: We'll usually catch a 50-fish average for the day. The main species we'll catch are speckled trout, redfish and flounder. The good news about fishing on Lake Calcasieu is that we usually can catch fish every day of the year. If an angler doesn't put us in a box and only wants to catch one type of fish, we generally can take a good variety of speckled trout, redfish and flounder with maybe some bonus fish like cobia, Spanish mackerel or tripletail. I don't know anywhere in the country where the inshore fishing is any better than we have here at Lake Calcasieu.

For more information on fishing Lake Calcasieu, contact Captains Jeff or Mary Poe with Big Lake Guide Service at (337) 598-3268, or go to www.biglakeguideservice.com.