Lake P evening journey experiment it be

TEAM JO-JO:

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024Lake Pontchartrain – “You Got to Go to Know” Trip

After Monday’s trip to Lake P, the day wrapped up with the usual camaraderie — card game night with the crew. As we shuffled and played, I caught up with Big Rudy, who made it clear he wasn’t too eager for a Tuesday outing. The wind forecast was looking less than friendly, and neither of us felt like fighting whitecaps at dawn. So, just like that, no trip was scheduled for Tuesday morning.

But as we all know, in the fishing world, things can change fast — especially when Big Rudy starts tinkering around with his computer and the Nautide app.

Sure enough, around 10:00 AM, I got a message:"Call me when you’re up."I did. And just like that, the game was back on.

“Been on the computer messing around,” Rudy says, casual as ever. But then his tone shifts a bit — that familiar tone that means something’s stirring. “Winds are supposed to lay down this afternoon,” he says. “And Nautide shows a bite window this evening, right around 5:30 to 6:45.”

That perked me up.

Then he hits me with the kicker: “Barometric pressure’s supposed to drop during that window — I want to experiment, see if the fish get more active.”

Now, you can’t dangle an experiment like that in front of Oneofthepack and expect me to sit still. I said, “Let’s go. You got to go to know!”

With that, plans came together in record time. We locked in a 3:45 PM meet-up at The Pointe, got our gear ready, and plotted a course for the Lake Pontchartrain trestles — our evening laboratory, where wind, water, and pressure would all get put to the test.

We weren’t just going fishing…We were testing a theory. We were matching man against nature. We were doing what Team Jo-Jo does best: combining experience, intuition, and a little bit of that “mad scientist curiosity” Big Rudy’s famous for.

And of course, we were hoping to run into a few Silverwonders along the way.

SIGNS:                            

·          Late to bed, card game lasted till 11: 20 PM. But me no fish at table, me up .90 of a “C” note.

·         Up at 4:00 AM , but no trip planned, went back to bed slept till 10 AM

·         Worked on pre-rigging Lake P Troll rigs

·         Fishman flashed his sign, “LET’S GO” game plan meets up at The Pointe for 3:45 PM, evening trip it be

·         Big Rudy showed up right behind me, quick load up of his gear,

·         Wind blowing hard out of the S.W., but we on a mission of the impact of barometric pressure on bites, off we went into the wind at a very slow pace.

·         Reaching the trestles, turn on bilge pump, had to use 2 more times before evening trip over.

·         We had the whole trestles to ourselves, east,, west, north , & south, not a boat in sight.

CONDITIONS:

·          Perfect

·         Wind, S.S.W. 13-16, S.W. 5-6, S.S.W. 10-11 mph

·         Water status / conditions: Heavy chops, little ripples, slight chop w/rollers

·         Sky, sunny & clear

·         Temp, hot, warm, mild as the sun went down

·         Water level, down 6-8”

·         Water Temp , 88.7 F

·         Salinity,  2.1

·         Specific Conductance  4170

·         Pressure,  29.95 F

·         Water clarity on a scale of 1-7, 4 plus

·         Mississippi gauge: 12.03’

·         Caernarvon Outfall:        499     ft3/s

·         Tide, Falling all evening

·         Peak tide, 03:44 L 0.03’

·         Peak tide, 13:52 H 0.26’

·         Major Feed Time: NONE!!!!!!!

·         Minor feed time:   NONE!!!!!!!!

·         Tidal Coefficient:   54 very low

·         Fish Activity

·               High Activity 

·         Boats out and about, 1 they did not stay out long

·      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.

·         Follow up on experiment, re: barometric pressure of correlation to bites

·         Meet up with Big Charlie show him out Lake P Troll technique / presentation

·         Start the month of July off with a nice catch of Silverwonders

·         Bring home fish for my son’s guest Wednesday

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

1 WIND AT YOUR BACK: (This criterion was a real challenge, had to keep the Bay Flat Jr on a 45* angle off trestles to move forward and keep her off the trestles, slow move forward was it, also had to add a little more throttle to get her to move forward to off set wind & tide impact on her.)

2 MOVING WATER: ( Falling all evening, wind had it falling, never did se it starts to come in)

3 WATER CALRITY: (A 4 plus, very sandy looking at you lost lure down 6-8”, wind / current had it dirty for sure)

4 HOLDING FISH:  (Very spotty, we made 3-4 1 mile trolls up & down trestles from north draw bridge out to mile marker 174, catching 1 -2 then none, a run would take 45-55 minute to make.)

5 PATIENCES: (Dropped rigs over the side at 4:31 PM, 4:33 me had a 16” NMR in the box, Big Rudy & Oneofthepack thought we had them figured out and the barometric theory was on, on, on, but instead it was off, off, off. We needed plenty of patients, but we were learning so it went by fast)

6 SKILL: (Lake P Troll technique/presentation, boat handling & speed)

7 LUCKS: (Survived the waves, me though we should be surfing instead of fishing)

·      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

·         Oak River Troll (ORT)……………….Did not try. 

·         Reverse Oak River Troll (RORT) ………..DID NOT TRY

·         Oak River Skim (ORS) ……………DID NOT TRY

·         Cork ……..DID NOT TRY

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

·         Drop shot: Did not try.

·         Dead bait……None

·         Live bait………………None

·      Oneofthepack ‘S repertOIRE of LURE DU JOUR:

·         3” H&H Purple Beetle, matched up with H&H ¼ oz. round white head with gold hook……………Did not try

·         3” Chartreuse Glow Beetle, matched up with H&H ¼ oz. round white head w/gold hook………….Did not try

·         Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with H&H ¼ oz. round white head w/gold hook……………Did not try.

·         Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with H&H 3/8 oz. round white head w/gold hook……………DID NOT TRY

·         Matrix Shad Lemon Drop, matched up with H&H 1/2 oz. round white head w/gold hook……………DID NOT TRY

·         Salt Strong Power Prawn (added 10-25-24) matched up with: Did not use:

§  1/16 oz:.

§  1/8 ox:

§  ¼ oz. jig head :  

§  3/8 oz. jig head :    

§  Tandem Rig:           

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

·         Tandem rig, ¼ oz. round H&H jig head with gold hook, matched up with Matrix Shad Lemon Drop …..Did not try.

AREAS / SPOTS / NUMBERS ON THE MAP FISHED:

Lake P west side of trestles, north draw bridge out to mile marker 174 trolled south each time.

OUR REWARDS:

·         Lived too fish another day.

·         (4) NMR Silverwonders

·         Big Rudy had a double hook up with NMR Silverwonder & Gaff Top.

·         (2) Missed reeling in

·         (3) Flounders

·         (2) Gaff Tops

·         (1) Rock

·         (1) Old fishing line with 30 yards of line on it

·         (9) Hang ups no rigs lost

·         (2) Rigs lost trolling, they where just gone, Big Rudy likes feeling that bottom he must have dragged along bottom over shells, cause he did nit feel ay hangs ups.

·         Got me snickers bars.

·         Saw sun go down and a beautiful sun set to end our day.

·         Got to meet Big Charlie & his first mate, they be crew from Team Jo-Jo’s fishing sessions, Big Charlie texted and wanted to follow us out this evening, we met up at boat launch on way in, seems they could not locate us on  the water. We try and hook up for a trip, nothing like hands on training abord the Bay Flat Jr,

·         Lessons learned:

§  Not sure there is a correlation to barometric pressure & fish bites, could not prove that today,

§  The wind lay down for about 45 minutes then it went right back to blowing.

§  Water clarity a little off, a 4 minus, very sand looking.

§  We are not the only nuts out to  fight winds, had one other boat come out but they did not last long before heading back in

§  Liking evening trips is not as hot especially when the sun is going down.

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

FISHERPERSON OF THE DAY:

Oneofthepack bought in first NMR Silverwonder, caught a flounder, and a Gaff Top, but that was it for me. Not enough effort to capture honors today.

As usual Big Rudy got on a roll, caught the balance of fish today, we could not figure out why his line got cut twice, he  lost both rigs, and his snickers bar taste extra special today, Big Rudy fisherperson of eh day.

SUGGESTIONS:

Our theory of barometric pressure correlation with bites did not prove out today, but we suggest you pay more attention to Tidal Coefficient value / level, me believe and have noticed this indicator, indicate more fish on a trip when it is at higher levels.

PONDER OF THE DAY:

Fish smarter not harder !!!!!!!

Q&A:

What are your indicators , (re: tide, (start / end of tide) current, wind, pressure, tidal coffee, what??) of a possible catching trip, please share with us and tell us why.?????

TEAM JO-JO’S future stratagem:

Oneofthepack off the water for a spell...

Just a little heads-up to the faithful Team Jo-Jo crew: I’ll be dry-docked for a short while. Granddaughterofthepack — our very own petite Burgan — is heading into the hospital tonight, and by this time tomorrow, she’ll be presenting us with a brand-new addition to the family and Team Jo-Jo: a bouncing baby boy! That’s right — another future fisherperson is about to join the ranks, and we couldn't be more excited.

This proud great-grandpaw is standing by, ready to welcome the next generation of rod-holders, net-haulers, and boat-deck wanderers. If he’s anything like the rest of the pack, he’ll be chasing Silverwonders before he can walk and calling out “Redwarrior on the line!” before he can even talk.

As for Friday, I’ll be available, but keeping things low and slow — soaking it all in, counting blessings, and maybe just tipping a hat to the horizon, thinking of future trips where Baby Boyofthepack joins us on the Bay Flat Jr.

Stay tuned for the birth bulletin. Pictures and fishing predictions to follow. 🎣👣🍼

Good Fishing

Team Jo-Jo & Oneofthepack

釣り先生

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