Catching Trout Until We're Tired of It

[Capt. Adam Jaynes]

If it stays this easy the fish are going to run me out of a job in a hurry as nobody will need my services or any other guide for that matter! The last few days I have been merely a taxi as the fish have gone just absolutely insane. The redundant phrase of “it just can’t get any better” has been thrown around like crazy but it just keeps getting better and better. Limits of trout have been automatic and we have released at least one six pound fish or better each day except for the past two days including a few over the 7lb mark.

I have a list of clients that always ask for me to call when the fishing goes crazy however I almost always refrain from doing so. It never fails, just like calling a friend on the water while you are on the fish, that as soon as they show up the bite totally shuts off. I made just that phone call early last week but today was as early as Ronald and Garrett could get here. Fortunately for me the fish did not turn me into a liar. Ronald and his son, Garrett drove in from Baton Rouge early this morning and it was go from Ronald’s second cast when he hooked up with a nice speck on a She Dog until we left them biting at 1:00. Topwaters landed all of our better fish until around 11:00 when they started hitting plastics much better. Actually, they probably would have hit anything we threw at them we just happened to have plastics on at that time. Ronald and Garrett were fishing glo/chartreuse Red Killers while I was throwing an opening night Killer Flats Minnow. We caught and released 20in trout until we grew tired of it and called it a day.

Travis and Todd fished with me Sunday morning and it was the easiest day I have had this week. We left the boat club at 6:00, power-poled down at our first spot and were limited out on 17-23” trout by 8:00. Every fish we boxed except for two were landed on either a Geaux Daley She Dog or a Woodpecker Flush. We stayed on anchor with the power-pole for another hour playing catch and release before moving around a little to look for a redfish. Travis called it a day early at 11:00 as we had already caught all the fish they cared to catch.

Trey and Hal drove in from Houston early Saturday morning and the day was a success in several ways. Trey caught a new personal best on a speckled trout pattern Dummy that went 25” and a little over 6lbs and Hal was able to catch his first trout ever on a topwater. We were ran off the lake twice by storms but we were still able to limit by 10:30 and play catch and release for a couple of hours before calling it a day.

Thursday the wind was blowing decent out of the south in the morning for the first time in over a week but good thing for us it didn’t hurt our fishing one bit. It put the perfect amount of chop in the water and we couldn’t keep the trout off of our She Dog’s and Dummy’s. We were limited again by 10:00 in the morning. Our biggest trout was 7lbs and absolutely annihilated a speckled trout pattern Dummy, after taking a quick picture Brittany let it go to spawn. She was curious to why we let that fish go but after I explained the benefits of that fish staying in the system versus turning into nothing but a fried fillet she understood pretty easily. The wind made it tough on everybody I talked to as some even resorted to castnetting shad to catch some fish. I never leave the ramp counting on birds so always try and make sure you have a backup plan as the school fish don’t go off every day. We caught nearly all of our fish on topwaters from 2’ of water all the way to 14’! It was a bizarre bite but it was one hell of a bite!

Besides today I haven’t spent much time at all chasing the school fish but they have been working pretty consistently from East Pass all the way to Stewt’s. Most of the birds are working over lady fish but the trout are right there with them too. Being patient versus running all over the place is paying big dividends. The farther out into the lake you travel the fewer lady fish you will have to deal with but the average trout is smaller. The birds I am seeing out towards mid lake are over trout feeding on shrimp but they did not stay up long for us today.

Hopefully we can make it two for two tomorrow as Jim and Matt are coming in to fish as a result of me calling them. If not, my call list might get a little bit shorter!

Capt. Adam Jaynes