Chester Moore Jr.

LING
Beginning in late March, big ling -- lemonfish and cobia -- begin moving into Louisiana waters to thrill anglers with their unusual habit of approaching boats with mouth agape.

One of the best ways to get a ling’s attention is to pull up to a rig and smack the water with a paddle. If the fish appear, throw out a live crab rigged on a circle or a soft plastic.

Ling often open their large mouths to take bait in, only to spit it back out just before you set the hook. This has caused more than few anglers to lose their cool, but is also one of the charming things about the species. The best places to find them are around oil rigs, pipe stands and marker buoys out to 40 miles and as close as at the end of the jetties.

Tagging studies conducted in Florida show ling might actually be coming back to the same rigs year after year. Out of several hundred tagged in the northern Gulf, 55 were recaptured the next year and 12 of them were caught in the exact same spot where they were caught initially. Thus, the big ling that you never got to cooperate last summer might be hanging around that very same buoy or rig you saw it at last year. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, you might want to see if it’s hungrier than it was last time.

CATFISH
It’s hard to mention Louisiana fishing and not discuss catfish, which are as much a part of the state as crawfish pie and fried alligator tail.

Spring brings fantastic fishing to the Pearl River near Slidell, where rains spark serious channel cat activity in the backwaters and connecting sloughs and bayous. Channel cats are the species most affected by rain. And usually, more flow signals a better catfish bite.

One thing that I’ve noticed about channel cats: I always catch the most fish in the eddies that form with the flow from storms. Eddies are areas of slack water that form alongside strong currents. A lot of small baitfish move into in the eddies because they can’t negotiate the currents well, and the catfish end up in there after them.

Try fishing a chunk of cut shad or dead shrimp on a cork in these eddies. Since the currents are weaker in the eddies, you can fish a cork without much problem and draw the attention of the fish by popping it a lot.

Another good spot to target is a “riffle,” which is an area where a stump or some other object doesn’t stop but slows down the tidal flow just a bit. These spots, which are usually found just downstream from brush piles and in the bends of creeks, are great spots for channel cats.

Rainy day catfish feeding is not just limited to small canals and creeks. It can be just as good on big reservoirs, particularly around large feeder creeks and mud flats adjacent to deep water along shorelines. In hilly areas, immediate run-off from forests can congregate catfish in certain spots, especially in the spring when lots of bugs and other favorite catfish foods get washed downstream.

One of the most popular ways to catch big flatheads in Toledo Bend is by fishing with bullheads. Catfish will eat other catfish, and in this case, they will eat a hooked bullhead before anything else.

Anglers wanting to fish with bullheads on rod and reels have a couple of viable options. Fishing them on a Carolina rig with a circle hook rigged through the lips is popular in many waters. Some of the best spots to find them are around the mouths of creeks where they meet reservoirs, especially around brush and logjams. When using small bullheads, floating rigs can also be productive. A big saltwater popping cork is your best bet, as even small specimens can take the average bobber under.

* * * As you can see, from the bayous to the back bays -- where everything pulls hard and usually tastes pretty good dipped in batter and fried golden brown -- lots of choices await Louisiana anglers. l

Find more about Louisiana fishing and hunting at:LAgameandfish.com