Louisiana’s Calcasieu a sportsman’s paradise for saltwater fishing

Published 12:38 am Sunday, June 21, 2015

HACKBERRY, LA. – You could see the anguish in Capt. Jared Adams face. He knew something was wrong, and worse he knew there was nothing he could do to fix it.

Adams has been guiding on Calcasieu Lake for 11 years, but having grown up nearby he knows the massive lake like the back of his hand. He knows the impact that too much or too little freshwater has on the saltwater trout, redfish and flounder, the top three targets for fishermen.

He also knows about tides and their impact on the fish and how they feed. On this day the tide was his worst enemy.

“They feed when the tide is coming in or going out. I don’t know what it does, whether they can feel motion or what. Today we have a flat tide and they won’t feed. Two days before and two days after (a flat tide) they will feed,” Adams said.

A bait bucket tied to his wading belt showed just how little water movement there was.

“Normally it will float away from me in one direction or the other. It is just sitting here,” the guide said.

Despite a higher than normal influx of freshwater, fishing has been good at Calcasieu. Adams’ clients have consistently been boating limits of speckled trout in a matter of hours each morning, leaving plenty of time for a run at redfish.

Located about five hours from Tyler, Calcasieu is a weekend home to Texas fishermen attracted by the quality of fishing and Louisiana’s more liberal 15-fish speckled trout and five-fish redfish limits.

Stretching about 30 miles from Lake Charles at the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south and nine miles east to west at its widest, Calcasieu is a mix of brackish marshes and lakes.

“We have one of the best saltwater fisheries on the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas. It is the geographic location. We have the river up north to flush the estuary out and we have all the marshes on the east side and west side where all the shrimp go,” Adams explained.

An exclusion dam at Lake Charles keeps the saltwater from entering the Calcasieu River, but freshwater flows into the lake. Because the water mix is maintained the lake has everything from largemouth bass to porpoises that can be seen traveling up and down a 30-foot deep ship channel running from Lake Charles to the Gulf.

Calcasieu Lake is constantly evolving. The latest came in 2005 after Hurricane Rita blew over the lake. Many of the grass filled marshes became open water lakes. Islands became underwater humps. At the same time it took away and added fishing opportunities.

Like any other system this large each season brings about different conditions and different techniques than the previous one.

“In the spring there are a lot of trophy trout in this lake. It is well known for its trout. In the summer is when we catch numbers. Summer is hard to beat down here,” Adams said.

Lengthwise, trophy trout in Texas and Louisiana are about the same length, although Texas may produce more 30-inch-plus fish. Pound for pound, however, Adams said the Louisiana fish are typically heavier.

“A trophy is anything over 7 pounds, but we catch a lot of 9s and 10s,” he explained.

It just so happens that the trophy trout season corresponds with the best time on the lake for artificial lures.

“From February until about the middle of June it is about all artificial bait fishing. Later, in the months of July and August, we go to live shrimp because there is so much live shrimp in the lake and it is hard to compete with it,” Adams said.

Fishing Calcasieu recently with Palestine fishermen Brian Tubbs and Shawn Severn, we targeted the bigger trout. The shrimp had already moved in and the catch rate on topwaters had plummeted.

With the uncooperative tide, even shrimp were no guarantee. Adams had found success late the day before on croakers, a small bait fish that the trout go after because they attack trout fry so we went that route.

Adams rigged the bait on 8-foot rods. On my second cast of the morning a big trout grabbed the bait. The technique was to hold the rod as upright as possible to keep the bait out of the oyster reefs. Adams warned a strike was going to come in the form of a vicious hit or a light tap, tap.

Mine was the hit. Speckled trout are known more for their speed, where redfish are known for their power, so it did not take long to boat the 25-inch-plus trout.

It was one of about 15 fish, all about the same size, we boated in a morning’s fishing cut short by storms that chased everyone from the lake.

For more information about fishing Calcasieu, contact Adams at 337-513-2760 or go online to adamstrophycharters.com.

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