Thread: Louisiana update

After modest but satisfying catches on Sunday and Monday we decided to go back to Darbonne Lake on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's frustrating because we're marking fish stacked in the channel but they are reluctant to bite. Darbonne is an impoundment that covers about 15,000 acres and we are fishing the upper end, the channel is where Corney Bayou runs through the lake and is around 30 feet deep and in most places 100 feet wide or less. If you get off the channel most places are 12 feet or less deep and full of stumps.Most fishermen down here use some sort of tight line, whether spider rigging with multiple rod off the nose of the boat, or a couple of long jig poles and that they hold while slow trolling. We tried jig fishing and didn't have much luck, catching just a few that way. What we're having the most success with is cruising the channel until we mark a bunch of fish, tying off to a stump or old cypress tree and dropping shiners under slip bobbers to them. We've caught fish this way but not a lot. Tuesday we decided to try some shallower flats, thinking that the fish might be staging to spawn. We didn't catch a lot but the fish were bigger. Had a storm come in and chase us off the lake early. Wednesday we started on the same flat and boated two in 1 1/2 hours then decided to go exploring. We stopped in a group of flooded cypress in 13 fow and I hooked up on a nice channel cat that took me into a downed tree top. After a couple of minutes of playing tug of war I got him out of the lumber and into the live well. We finished Wednesday back in some of our old spots on the channel edges and were able to pick up a few towards evening. Totals were Tuesday 5 with big fish 1lb 6oz and Wednesday 9 with big fish again 1lb 6oz. Weather has been cool, maybe high 50's but I'm not complaining. Going to hook up with a buddy from downhere Thursday and try a new lake, Poverty Point, about 1 hour east.Jeff says I post his pics because he caught all the big fish. Maybe, maybe not.