John K. Flores: As fall turns to winter, try some transition fishin'

A few days after Thanksgiving I flipped my calendar to December. Like many of you, I thought, where did the year go?
With that said, as a person who spends most of my free time participating in outdoor activities, I tend to rush through the year. I’m always looking ahead to what seasons are opening, lottery announcements, what’s migrating, what’s biting, and what are the upcoming tide and weather conditions.
In thinking along these lines, December can be a little unpredictable when it comes to fishing. It’s a transition month where the fishing goes into a winter pattern and fish get less and less active the colder it gets.
You also don’t have as many of those hard-falling morning tides, but you do have some pretty good incoming tides.
With shorter days, cold fronts, and lower temperatures, the water temperature is also colder. Fish like redfish can still be caught, but along the coast you’ll often find them in deeper water until the sun warms up the shallow flats and ponds.
The bite also may not be as aggressive as during those hot summer days in July, August and September. Cold water tends to cause fish to be lethargic.
I recall one blustery winter day several years ago, when a crackin cold-front blew through the coastal regions from one side of the state to the other. The redfish came out of the shallow waters in the marsh and went deep.
On WWL 870, Don Dubuc announced on his outdoor radio show how the redfish were stacked up like cordwood in a canal along Yscloskey Highway southeast of Chalmette near Shell Beach. I just had to check out this cold weather phenomena, where I didn’t have to launch a boat and could simply fish from the bank.
So, I asked my wife, Christine, if she wanted to go fishing the next day.
She said, “Are you crazy?”
“No,” I replied, and began explaining the winter pattern and how it’s rare one gets to experience this kind of event.
“What time do we have to get up and drive to Chalmette,” she inquired with eyebrow raised.
“Uhhhh … 3 o’clock in the morning,” I sheepishly said.
“And just what am I supposed to wear in this frigid cold?” she asked.
I just happened to have some old Air Force bunny pants the pilots used during high altitude flights that would keep her bottom half warm and she had sweaters and a heavy winter coat she could use for her upper body.
When we arrived, the sun was just peeking above the eastern horizon and there were literally thousands of people fishing along the highway. The atmosphere was like Mardi Gras. What’s more, “everyone” was catching fish.
As soon as a bait hit the water and dropped down into the deep, a fish was on. The funny thing was the fish were hungry but too cold to put up any real fight. We reeled them in like dead carp. In fact, both Christine and I had our 5-fish limit in about 20 minutes.
On another December day, not too many years ago, several of our kids were over for Sunday dinner. I was sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee and noticed most of them were either asleep or falling asleep. I was bored, so I asked the boys, “Who wants to go fishing?”
Four of them said, “Let’s go,” and off we went.
We headed down to Burns Point and when we arrived the water was slick calm in East Cote Blanche Bay. We headed across the bay to Humble Canal, where the afternoon tide was slowly falling. It didn’t take long for us to put fish in the boat. Unfortunately, our afternoon outing was short lived. Winter sunsets come early, and we had to leave them biting.
On both occasions, due to the colder transition temperatures at this time of year, the fish were in deeper waters.
Another fish worth targeting during the winter transition is blue catfish. Many a duck hunter who goes down to the camp hunting is also known to toss a few jug lines at this time of year.
Blue catfish do well with the slightly higher salinity water that occurs in the marsh during the fall and winter. They also don’t have a problem with stained and muddy water that typically follows windy cold fronts that stir up the bays along the coast. Like Christine often says, “You can always count on a catfish.”
Lastly, even though December tides are kind of funky and the water can be murky, there are still major and minor active fish periods. A look at the solunar tables for the region you’re fishing might provide you with a window where there is very heightened fish activity and a subsequent better than average catch.
Live bait is often hard to come by during the winter months. Bait fish, like the targeted game fish, are also lethargic and laying low on colder days. The tried-and-true bait used by most anglers is dead shrimp.
The holidays tend to keep most people busier than normal. But, if you can squeeze in a fishing trip during the winter transition period, you just might find yourself adding a new tradition to the season.
John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net.