When fishing these areas, a Gulp! Shrimp rigged under a Paradise Popper cork rig is hard to beat. Try using a windsock or driftsock to slow boat movement. A slower drift will make for fewer hangups and improve bite detection.

“Drifting helps you cover a lot of ground, which is why it’s such an effective method,” said professional angler Ted Takasaki, who produces his own line of driftsocks. “However, if you are moving too fast, you will miss many of the fish. Your bait has to stay in the bite window long enough for the fish to respond. If you have a big south wind and an incoming tide, for example, you might need two socks to slow you down enough.”

At Calcasieu, big winds are common well into summer, and the anglers who seem to catch the most fish are the ones who can find a way to work around it by using a driftsock, by anchoring or by finding a hotspot protected from the gusts.

If you’re determined to catch the bigger specks haunting Calcasieu’s reefs, let your lure reach the bottom. The smaller fish are much more likely to be up top, while the big ones will lie on the bottom -- and tend to be a little lazier. Let whatever shrimp imitation you’re fishing hit the bottom and slowly drag it across.

When using the trusted tactic that is dead-sticking, you throw the lure out, let it hit the bottom -- and do nothing. Simply let it drift along the bottom, letting currents and bottom structure enhance the lure’s appeal. This technique requires patience, but it can catch those trout that few other anglers get.

Though many anglers use jigheads to set up and sink their bait, an alternative possibility is a Carolina rig. This consists of an egg weight rigged above a swivel and attached to an 18-inch leader. The weight will disturb the bottom and get the trout’s attention, while the shrimp will appear to be swimming freely. Too little employed in salt water, this kind of rig can be a valuable addition to your repertoire.

SUPER-SIZED SPECKS
If it’s super-sized specks you want, cruise the shorelines of West Cove or target the waters on the edge of the ship channel and look for mullet. As studies have shown, the largest specks prefer fish like mullet -- hence trophy-trout purists’ looking for any concentration of them in order to find their quarry. Too many anglers (myself included) look at what is on the surface and pay insufficient attention to what lies beneath.

Learning about the happenings below and searching for baitfish and game fish are crucial to finding specks in the channels, and a number of visible hints can point you in the right direction. First, if you spot “nervous” water or mullet near the surface, you’ve likely found a good place to start. In addition, any area near a cut, or that has some kind of water flow into a marsh or lake, is definitely worth trying.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the exchange of water from shallow to deep makes for a prime spot for predators to catch their prey. Deer hunters often refer to “edges,” -- where a thicket meets an open field -- as prime spots for ambushing deer. These edges are also present in water, and although they may appear different, the effect is the same.