POINTS AND DROPOFFS
Likewise, pay special attention to points. If a major point is coming off an island or extends from the shoreline into the channel, chances are good that it’ll hold mullet and, therefore, will have the potential to harbor trout as well. If the water looks nervous over a deep area, fish with something you can rip noisily through the water. My first choice is Rat-L-Trap, particularly in chrome with a black back for clearer water or a chartreuse version when it’s murky, as it often is until midsummer.

Make pattern casts parallel to the shoreline, as these schools of bait typically stretch out along them. The Rat-L-Trap is a good choice because you can cast it in the wind -- which is usually strong this time of year -- and get some distance out of it. Covering lots of water is essential.

You’ll want to pay attention not necessarily to the point itself but to the “secondary” point, which only your electronics can reveal. The main point might extend out to 3 feet of water, whereas the point below it might be sitting out in 10 feet of water on a shelf. Baitfish will gather around these points, as will specks using them as transition zones from shallow to deep water. This is a prime spot at which to try trolling for trout.

Trolling is a popular method on Lake Pontchartrain outside of New Orleans; I’ve been doing it for the last few years. Tie on a deep diving crankbait like a Bomber 9A or a Fat Free Shad and slowly troll over these secondary points. It’s important when the fish aren’t actively feeding to cover lots of water -- and that’s exactly what trolling allows you to do. I caught a massive trout while I was trolling a chartreuse-colored Fat Free Shad over the secondary point of an island. No signs of any feeding activity were visible, but the graph showed plenty of baitfish about 10 feet down, and some larger fish suspended just below them. The Fat Free Shad will dive up to 18 feet but seems to cruise right at around 14 feet. In this case, that’s where the action was.

If the water is nervous over a dropoff or a shallow flat, fish a topwater plug. Many good ones are out there, but my favorite is the Skitter Walk. Last spring, my father and I stopped at one such spot, and I had a Skitter Walk blown 2 feet out of the water on the first cast. I never did catch that fish, but fortunately for us, it was among friends. When using topwater lures, start fishing parallel to the shore and move back, so you can fish the plug from the shallows out past the dropoff, which very often will be where the trout are located.

Where the water flow enters a channel -- as it does on a number of points along Calcasieu’s western edge -- speckled trout often will hold right along the edge of the dropoff, where they can hammer baitfish and feed along the “color lines” formed when clear water meets murky. These are great spots for fishing topwaters, or slow-sinking plugs like a Catch 2000. If you do use a slow-sinker, make sure you let it work the shallows first and then fall over the edge of the dropoff. It’s not necessary for the drops to be extreme, since most of Calcasieu is shallow. Some of the most productive dropoffs are found simply where 3 feet of water drops into 6.