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More on Hackberry Rod and Gun Club at Louisiana's Lake Calcasieu

How to Catch Hemmed-Up Redfish

Click to enlargeEditor’s Note: Hackberry Rod and Gun Club on Lake Calcasieu, in Hackberry, Louisiana, is one of the premier speckled trout and redfish destinations in the South. People from all over the nation make pilgrimages to Hackberry each year to pull speckled trout and redfish from the bounty of Lake Calcasieu. Kurt and Guy Stansel, near Lake Charles, Louisiana, plow the waters of Lake Calcasieu in their boats almost every day of the year, searching for speckled trout, redfish and flounder. The Stansel brothers guide fishermen to the fishing trips of their lifetimes. This week, the Stansel brothers will tell us how to catch specks and reds in bad weather, and Michael and Dan Sheldon of Sheldon’s, Inc., the makers of Mister Twister and Mepps lures, will talk about testing the new Mister Mino and Mister Shad lures at this top fishing spot.

OnClick to enlarge the second day of our trip, I fished with Kurt’s brother, Guy, and we had one of the most-unusual redfish fishing trip ever. Like Kurt, Guy has been guiding on the lake since 1981. Since Hurricane Rita, there’s been a lot of corrosion on the ship channel that goes through Lake Calcasieu. To stop the erosion and keep the channel open, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a large riprap wall and brought all the riprapto about a 2-mile area to protect the bank. As the channel gets dredged each year, the sediment is dredged-up from the bottom will be put in the spoilage area behind the riprap. But Guy had noticed that apparently when the riprap wall was built, there were some fish trapped on the back side of the riprap, between that rock wall and the old bank.

Question: Guy, what made you feel that there were fish trapped behind the riprap?
Guy Stansel:  We had seen birds working over there recently. This area is about 14-miles wide by 2-miles long and it’s from ankle-deep up to about waist-deep. It’s completely enclosed by riprap on the front and by land on the back. My friend, Will Drost, saw redfish behind the riprap and called me and told us to come fish there. Click to enlarge

Question: What did we find after we got behind the riprap?
Guy Stansel: We saw three different schools of redfish working under birds. So we went to the first school, and I threw a top-water bait, and you threw a Mepps Little Wolf Spoon. As long as we stayed away from the school of fish, we caught our limit in about 45 minutes. We could see the redfish pushing a wake as they chased schools of baitfish. Some of the redfish we caught were only in about 18 inches of water but there seemed to be plenty of fish in that little cut-off pond.

Question: What will happen to those redfish?
Guy Stansel: We’re going to fish for them as much as we can and as hard as we can, because when the corps starts dumping that sediment it dredges up from the bottom of the ship channel over into that pond to reclaim it, that will kill all the fish. So the best thing we cClick to enlargean do is catch as many of those redfish and speckled trout as we can, before the dredging starts.

Question: How effective is wade-fishing for the redfish?
Guy Stansel: As you saw today, it can be deadly effective. You can move in quietly, make long casts and stay well away from the redfish. We have a lot of people who come to Lake Calcasieu and prefer to wade-fish. When you see the redfish pushing a wake, take Mr. Twister RT Slug or a Mepps Little Wolf and cast them. You can have a great day of catching redfish and speckled trout. Out on the main lake and even out on the beach, we do quite a bit of wade-fishing for both speckled trout and redfish.

To learn more about Hackberry Rod and Gun, call  (888) 762-3391, email  captainbuddy@hackberryrodandgun.com or visit www.hackberryrodandgun.com.
For more information about Mister Twister’s and Mepps’ top-quality lures, go to www.mistertwister.com and www.mepps.com.

Tomorrow: What Equipment to Use When Fishing for Redfish and Speckled Trout on Lake Calcasieu


Check back each day this week for more about "More on Hackberry Rod and Gun Club at Louisiana's Lake Calcasieu"

Day 1: How to Catch Specks and Reds in Bad Weather
Day 2: How to Find Redfish in the Marsh in a Blowing Wind
Day 3: How to Catch Redfish in the Marshes of Lake Calcasieu
Day 4: How to Catch Hemmed-Up Redfish
Day 5: What Equipment to Use when Fishing for Redfish and Speckled Trout on Lake Calcasieu

 

Entry 461, Day 4