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October Specks in the Marsh
 Keith Lusher
It’s been a long, hot summer on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. High temperatures of over 100 degrees for numerous days in a row slammed the door on speckled trout fishing in the marsh for nearly 3 months. But that was then, and this is now! In October, water temperatures are dropping into the 70’s, and the speckled trout bite in the marsh is alive!
The warm morning sun shines on a stretch of marsh grass in a bayou leading back to a duck pond
I made a trip with Forrest Green of Lacombe to a deep canal that led to a duckpond near Goose Point where we were able to welcome October properly with a box full of speckled trout.
Our day started early as we launched at 6:15 a.m. After a quick boat ride out of Bayou Lacombe and down the shoreline, we found a deep bayou full of bait. The tide was rising hard and shrimp were popping out of the water. Green said this is typical of October. “This is it! This is what I love about this month,” he said. Green threw down his trolling motor and we worked our way into the canal and towards the duck pond. I knew it was going to be a great day when on Green’s first cast, he hooked up with a head-thrashing speckled trout. He was using a pink-colored triple-tail plastic shad made by Speck-Drum Baits.  Green hooks his first fish of the day
The trout threw the hook but Green was able to get the first fish of the day into the boat on his third cast. The technique was easy: cast into the deep bends of the bayou where there was action and barely drag the lure on the bottom unit you feel a bump. “You don’t want to jig your lure too hard back here. Just barely lift it off the bottom and wait for the fish to pick it up,” he said. “I like to use a 1/4 oz. or 3/8 oz. jighead depending on how much the water is moving.” As Green and I worked our way slowly north, we came upon a bend in the canal that had water swirling from the current mixing with the wind that was blowing in the opposite direction.
A deep bend in the bayou provided over 20 trout on this morning
There were shrimp and baitfish everywhere in that bend and it wasn’t uncommon to feel mullet bumping into our lines as we jigged the bottom. “When there is so much baitfish sometimes you just have to pull that lure and wait for the trout to jump on,” he said. “Don’t waste your time setting your hook on all these mullet that bump into your line.”
Speckled trout are known for their ferocious bite and the speed at which Green and I were able to put fish in the boat was unprecedented. Numerous times we hooked up at the same time and were able to land fish within seconds of each other. At the end of the day, we ended up with a 2-man limit of marsh trout that averaged 13”-15". “You’ll have to weed through some fish, but there are some solid specks in the marsh this month. Take advantage of the bite in October because after the hard cold fronts get here, these fish will head back out to Lake Borgne,” Green said. 
Keith Lusher and Forrest Green show off their morning catch
Pogey Boat Update The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission approved a notice of intent (NOI) creating a 1-mile coast-wide menhaden buffer zone that includes a special 3-mile buffer in areas of Cameron Parish. The NOI will go through a public comment period and be available for legislative oversight before officially becoming regulation. David Cresson with the Coastal Conservation Association of LA is optimistic about the momentum that he is seeing as far as being able to force the pogey boats further off the coast. “This was a very big step for our coast. We still have some work left to do, but this is very good news,” Cresson said. 
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 Keith Lusher
I created NFR.com in the spring of 2012. Since then it has helped link Northshore fishermen to valuable information and has filled the void of absent information on the web about fishing on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Northshore Fishing Report has morphed into a brand name and can be found not only on the web, but on radio and newspaper. As NFR grows I will continue to work hard at keeping NFR local focusing on local anglers, reports, seminars, and fishing tournaments in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parish. I hope you enjoy the website and If you have any questions please email me at: Keith@NorthshoreFishingReport.com
Look for the Northshore Fishing Report publication every Thursday in The Slidell Independent Weekly Newspaper!
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Ron Hindman of Slidell joins the NFR Studio to talk about his 11-pound trophy bass he caught in the West Pearl River
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