St. Mary Parish fishing heats up in August

No doubt August is a hot month weather-wise. It’s also a month when fresh and saltwater fishing can be hot with action in the parish.
Point of fact, there’s nothing, and I mean nothing better — OK, I’m embellishing a little — than making a trip below the Intracoastal Waterway to fish marsh bass.
What I find at this time of year is the tides typically are falling hard in the late afternoons till dark. Moreover, the Atchafalaya River also is well below flood stage (currently 3.33 feet in Morgan City). I find this a deadly combination of natural occurring events annually.
With the higher water, bass tend to spread out, where it’s hard to isolate them. But, when the river level is low and the tide is falling, all I have to look for are those little drainages locals refer to as a trenause and toss in a bait.
What’s amazing is the little marsh bass are schooled up like a wolf pack and aren’t finicky about what they eat. Pouring out of the drains are beau coup invertebrates and baitfish that literally create a feeding frenzy. The small bass will attack just about anything that shakes, rattles, wiggles or rolls, thinking it’s food.
My oldest son prefers top water baits, such as buzz baits, Stanley Ribbit Frogs or Heddon Super Spook hard baits. I have to admit, he does get some amazing strikes and action. The water explodes, and you get that classic tail dance that bass do.
By contrast, I prefer using an “old-school” Carolina or Texas-rigged, 7-inch plastic worm in two colors: watermelon green with red flakes or black with a hot pink tail.
I love to watch my line start moving and, though I’m no tournament angler, set my hook in a fashion that I think Kevin VanDam would be proud of.
Though there is the occasional lunker bass caught locally, you’re seldom going to catch a 4-pound marsh bass.
Instead, when they’re schooled up along the coast, the vast majority of your catch is going to be chunky 1½ to 2½ pounders. Why? Glad you asked.
Marsh bass live in a dog-eat-dog world. They live in an environment that includes a high population of other predator fish, many of them saltwater species like redfish. They’re also susceptible to tropical weather events that cause periodic fish kills. Therefore, these little bass live hard and die young.
Speaking of redfish, some great catches can be had during August. This past weekend, my better half, Christine, and I took a trip to Marsh Island to one of my favorite locations — Worm Bayou.
The Worm usually turns on at this time of year, but the “conditions” have to be right. In planning our trip, the first thing I checked was the tidal chart, particularly the South Point Marsh Island tidal range. You want to fish this bayou on a falling tide, and the harder the fall, the better.
The second thing you want to do once you get there is find the deepest channels along the bayou to fish. I typically watch my depth gauge, and when the water depth reaches the 25- to 30- foot range, I drop anchor.
Redfish are like people: they get hot, too. So, they go deep.
When the tide starts moving and carrying bait like blue crabs, shrimp, small croakers and other wiggly, crawly things with it, redfish eat. That’s where your basic drop rig comes in with a shrimp or piece of cracked crab fixed to a 1/0 to 4/0 hook.
To get my rig to the bottom and stabilized in the hard current, I use a 1 ounce diamond or bell-shaped lead weight.
Be aware, it’s not a given at the Worm. We sat for nearly five hours with the tide falling Saturday with nary a bite. But, we didn’t give up. We had plenty of cold watermelon, crispy apples and ice water. With the canopy top up, we sat in the shade and waited.
I have to admit, I started to get a little disgusted with my planning and preparations. I thought I’d made all the right decisions.
But, it appeared I was wrong, and we were going to go home skunked. That’s when Christine set the hook, and her rod bent over. She held on for dear life, and I told her, “Loosen your drag,” when her line popped.
She was disappointed but not deterred. I re-rigged and “set” her drag correctly. No sooner had she tossed in her line, she had another fish on.
Christine is only 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. For an instant there, I thought to myself, “That fish wants to pull her overboard.”
“Honey! I don’t want the line to break,” she said while under the strain.
“It won’t this time,” I reassured her while trying to coach her through the process. “Just let it have all the drag it wants.”
It took her about 15 minutes, give or take, to land her 27 inch, 8-pound redfish.
Minutes later, it was my turn. I caught a red that went 26 inches, weighing a bit less than her’s and another that went 22 inches afterwards.
It doesn’t take but a couple or three fish to keep two baby boom empty nesters well fed and happy, I might add.
It would have been dark by the time we got home from Cypremort Point, so we decided to leave them biting.
Other hot spots for catching August redfish are Blue Hammock Bayou, Oyster Bayou, Locust Bayou and Halters Island near and around Four League Bay. On Marsh Island, besides the Worm, try Bird Island Bayou and Bayou Michael.
Use your electronics and look for the deepest holes and channels that come off flats along bends in the bayous. Cracked crabs, cut bait like mullet and croakers and larger fresh shrimp are the best bait for deep-water fishing at this time of year.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Sherburne Wildlife Management Area will be holding its 2016 Wood Stork and Wading Bird Event Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon. The event will be held on the wildlife management area’s South Farm. This is an opportunity for attendees to get a rare look at wood storks in a wetland habitat. Take the Ramah Exit (Exit 135) off I-10 and head north, following the signs. For more information, contact the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries at 337-948-0255 or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Office at 337-585-0853.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Flores is The Daily Review’s Outdoors Writer. If you wish to make a comment or have an anecdote, recipe or story to share, you can contact Flores at 985-395-5586 or gowiththeflo@cox.net or visit his Facebook page, Gowiththeflo Outdoors.