Lake P dirty water challenge

TEAM JO-JO:

Monday Mission: The Hunt for the BIG NMR Silverwonders

Oneofthepack hit Lake P on Sunday, while first mate Big Rudy stuck to his usual stomping grounds down in Delacroix. After the day’s adventures, we compared notes, analyzed the intel, and made a game-time decision—Monday’s mission would be a full-fledged assault on Lake P, in search of the BIG NMR Silverwonders.

Now, we weren’t heading in blind. We both knew the conditions were less than ideal—Lake P’s water clarity was sitting at a solid 1-minus on the scale of 1 to 7 (translation: it looked like a batch of fresh-brewed community coffee). Not exactly the pristine, clear waters you dream of when chasing Silverwonders. But we also knew that where there’s dirty water, there’s still fish—if you know where to look.

This wasn’t about easy catching; this was about the thrill of the hunt. We knew finding the elusive Silverwonders in these conditions would be a challenge, but sometimes, the biggest rewards come from the toughest battles. And let’s be honest—the visions of BIG girls cruising the trestles sealed the deal at our Monday night card game.

Would the gamble pay off? Would the BIG NMR Silverwonders still be holding in their favorite haunts, waiting for the right bait to tempt them into the box? There was only one way to find out…

The stage was set. The mission was on. 🎣

SIGNS:

· Me no fish at table, at Monday night card game, plus .25 of a “C” note to me gaming kitty.

· Nice breakfast at Waffle House after card game, gut home around 12:25

· Good night sleep.

· Bay Flat Jr already loaded up from Sunday trip to do Lake P Toll technique / presentation.

· Up at 5 AM for 6:30 AM meet up at The Pointe

· Made a run to the gas station for some go juice for FORD transporter & Bay Flat Jr, me think me need a loan for go juice.

· Big Rudy called he going to be a little late no problem says me.

· Quick load up of his gear

· Big Rudy backed down the Bay Flat Jr into water, smooth as can be.

· Yamaha Nightmare Machine took 6 pulls to start, still better then 3-40 pulls.

· Off to Lake P trestles to start our fun day fishing.

CONDITIONS:

· Perfect

· Wind, W.S.W. 81-0, W. 6-8, N.N.W. 6-8 mph.

· Water status / conditions: slight chop

· Sky, partly cloudy

· Temp, kept jumpsuit & rain jacket on all day.

· Water level, down 4-6”

· Water Temp , 61.88 F

· Salinity, 1.5

· Specific Conductance 2940

· Pressure,

· Water clarity on a scale of 1-7, 1 minus

· Mississippi gauge: 11.77’

· Caernarvon Outfall: 749 ft3/s

· Tide, slack, started to fall, fell all morning.

· Peak tide, 01:57 H .89’

· Peak tide, 23:46 L .2’

· Major Feed Time: 15:54 / none

· Minor feed time: 05:26 / 16:24

· Tidal Coefficient: 74

· Loons all over the place

· Fish Activity

· High Activity

· Boats out and about, 18

· ONEOFTHEPACK’S REPERTOIRE OF TECHNIQUES / STRATEGIES

· Be safe.

· Have fun.

· This is me daily therapy for ALL me aliments.

· Put some run time on the Bay Flat Jr and the Yamaha Nightmare Machine

· Gather Intel for future trips, and to share with fisherperson, (on Facebook) to help assist them in their choice of areas to fish, lures to use and presentation of same to the elusive Silverwonders.

· Catch what catch can.

· Learn what learn can.

· Re-introduce Big Ruy to Lake P troll technique / presentation.

· See if the BIG girl could see in the dirty water and what they wanted to eat.

· Socut out & try:

§ FB 2 to FB 5

§ Twin span

§ Lakeshore estates canal system

· Find a spot # with the seven fundamentals / criteria of catching:

1 WIND AT YOUR BACK: (Not a factor, at first it was clam, then kept switching direction every now and then, but had no impact on our ability to fish & catch.)

2 MOVING WATER: (Slack at first started to fall slowly, this be when bites where on, when it got a strong current thing slowed down some.)

3 WATER CALRITY: (Minus 1, bad it be, but fish did not seem to mind)

4 HOLDING FISH: (FB-2 to FB-5, Hay. 11 bridge)

5 PATIENCES: (Took all of 15 minutes for Big Rudy to hook, fight, bring to Bay Flat Sr biggest Silverwonder of the day, all to lose it at boat, snap swivel failed.)

6 SKILL: (Lake P Troll technique / presentation.)

7 LUCKS: (We caught a few with all that dirty water.)

· Oneofthepack’s repertoire of Techniques / presentations:

· Anchor up cast & retrieve slowly along the bottom, with a twitch every now and then, tight lining…………………………………DID NOT TRY

· Drift with the wind cast & retrieve (DWWC&R)……………DID NOT TRY

· Lake P Troll (LPT)…………….All fish caught with this technique!!

· Oneofthepack ‘S repertOIRE of LURE DU JOUR:

· Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with 3/4 oz. round lead head w/ 2 trailers, ……All fish caught with this lures/rig.

AREAS / SPOTS / NUMBERS ON THE MAP FISHED:

Hwy 11 bridge (4) NMRs, twin span, Lakeshore Estates canal system, Hwy 11 bridge, FB-2 to Fb-5 (5) t, 1f, called it a day around 12:10.

OUR REWARDS:

· Lived to fish another day.

· (9) Silverwonders, 2 Miniwonders

· (1) Flounder

· (1) Missed BIG NMR at boat, Big Rudy snap swivel came off trying to flip big girl in Bay Flat Jr.

· (1) Got the strike set the hook fought big girl, but she made it to the pilings and got me snagged on it, lost fish but got lure back

· (1) NMR big girl did the same thing taking me to pilings, but this time me kept line tight, got rig off piling and still caught NMR.

· Missed 5 strikes.

· Hung up 12 times, lost 6 lake P rigs.

§ The trip to Big Gus to restock up with Lake P Troll rig components needed soon.

· Lessons learned:

§ Fish still bite in dirty water, and it was dirty today.

§ Bay Flat Jr very popular boat today. We had up to (5) boats around us, one cut off our lane for trolling, another cut off our ability to get away from pilings cause of current.

§ let out 35 to 45 plus yards of line to get to bottom, that alone takes up a lot of space along trestles, we had a 2 ½ block zone to troll, fisherperson comes in and cuts it in half, now we have ½ to ¾ block to troll. But we did it back and forth pulling in some real nice big girls, but that ended soon when other boats showed up.

§ Comment on using a snap swivel, the ones that have a straight pin to snap into swivel lends itself to you losing a BIG NMR, what you need is the type of swivel that has a hook on end of pin that locks pin into swivel; body, (see picture).

§ Snap swivel confirmed today, to work well to stop trailer lines from spinning and twisting all up and causing Lake P roll rig to be not effective / productive.

· Best fishing trip of my life, until the next one.

FISHERPERSON OF THE DAY:

Big Rudy hook / lost BIG girl of day, then it was a shutdown for him, me think he was on tilt at this time. But he had a comeback dominating the Founder division and managed to put some Silverwonders in the Bay Flat Jr, but it was too little too late, honors not in his future today.

Oneofthepack got hot when it was time to be hot, got on some big girls, and even had a few Miniwonders to me credit. Me think me fisherperson of the day, and this be a rarity when fishing with Big Rudy, but me take his one for sure.

SUGGESTIONS:

Don’t be concerned about the dirty, fish are still there, and they be hungry, just do it.

PONDER OF THE DAY:

Q&A:

What is the best rain suite on the market, one that keeps you dry & breathe?????

Also had a fellow fisherperson submit a question to Team Jo-Jo for our meeting any info / intel you can give us will be shred at meeting.

Question as follows:

At your monthly meeting I would be interested if anyone fishing catching at the reefs that CCA spent a ton on. My experience has been two things bring in fish for Louisiana grass and deep water. We started out fishing the Golden Meadow s canals when they were 8 ft deep and the sunken sulphur mine was 40 ft deep. No problem catching all the trout you wanted. My son paid his college fishing red in these areas. Now they all filled in and no fish being caught. CCA even put a reef in the sulphur mine now in about 2 ft water. They dug a canal down around Houma for a flood protection and it was 10ft deep fishermen use to line up catching trout now filling in no more trout. MRGO and Lake P always have good deep water.

Years ago, people used to talk about the Maddison grass beds trout monsters. In Lafitte when we have grass in our lakes trout show up. They build reefs no one ever fishes.