John Flores: It's sac-a-lait time; they're hitting early

During the last week of duck season, I made a little hunt with Bill Lake, owner/operator of Bayou Guide Service on his lease just south of Gibson. Afterwards, Lake wanted to take a few minutes to make a few casts in a nearby canal for sac-a-lait.
He picked up a lightweight rod with a pink and chartreuse plastic tube bait fastened to a black-headed jig. Set above the jig about 14-16 inches was his cork.
Lake made several casts and probed around a bit, never getting a bite. That’s when he said, “The water’s not quite 60 degrees yet, they’ll be biting in a day or two.”
Lake is someone who keeps a journal of both his hunting and fishing trips. Since 1972 he has kept meticulous records of how many fish he caught, where he caught them, what baits he caught them on, and what the weather condition was.
For the next seven days after our hunt, the local temperatures hovered in the high 60s and low 70s that coincided with a full moon.
Lake said, “In January I can tell you that don’t happen very often. Normally, these fish don’t start biting really well until around the first or second week of February. This year it just took off. I mean we had seven days of 70s and a full moon right at the end of that warm week and those fish went nuts. It was very abnormal for January fishing.”
Lake and I hunted just below Gibson. That late January bite was not limited to the marsh. Sac-a-lait were biting in the Atchafalaya Basin, too.
One of the secretaries I work with mentioned that she, her husband and some friends went to their camp near the Orange Barrel Canal, which is located just off of Bayou Boutte near American and Duck lakes.
Her report was similar to Lakes, only they were catching them right off the camp in shallow water close to the bank.
Sac-a-lait comes from French words meaning “sack of milk.” The fish is actually a crappie, which are known for their delicious white meat. The name sac-a-lait is typically substituted in south Louisiana for crappie, where “white perch” is used in northern Louisiana.
Captain Tim Ortego is a charter captain, like Lake, also from the Houma area who took full advantage of the January bite.
Ortego said, “In the springtime as the water warms up and approaches 61 to 67 degrees, the sac-a-lait start moving up and the males start working the beds. As the full moons approach January through March, they move up more and more to lay their eggs. This is the time I get after them.
“I start by fishing in the drop offs in dead end canals where there’s no moving water,” Ortego continued. “The water is typically warmer in these areas and those fish will be your first fish to start the process. I stick to pink and white variant baits. They seem to be the best colors around this time of year during the spawn.”
Things that Ortego looks for in the marsh when the spawn is in full swing is higher banks with deep undercuts and areas with black rush (aka needle grass), Gulf cordgrass and roseau cane. These shallow water marsh grasses provide not only places for fish to spawn, but also escape predators.
“In areas like this,” Ortego said, “I slide my cork up 10 to 12 inches and use a 12-foot jigging pole and drop my bait within one to six inches from the bank. When that cork goes flat you ‘got-em.’ Set the hook.”
February is usually the best month of the spring to catch sac-a-lait. However, late cold fronts often can turn the bite off.
Between now and mid-February, the forecast looks to be up and down as temperature goes with incoming and outgoing cold fronts.
Lake said, “The one thing I found with those sac-a-lait is they are very finicky. Most of the time you either catch them or you don’t. There really is no in-between. Basically, when I see it get right, I go. It’s one of my passions. I’d rather fish for those than anything that swims. So, I’ll be anxious to see what happens now until the next full moon.”