John K. Flores: Late summer fishing for bass in coastal marshes can be entertaining

If you like to catch bass, the hot month of August wouldn’t necessarily seem to be the most ideal time of year to fish, but in the coastal marshes, that’s often not the case.
Coastal largemouth bass aren’t like their Toledo Bend, Caddo Lake and Lake D’Arbonne cousins. Coastal largemouth are short, chunky and live in a “dog eat dog” environment. These bass typically weigh 1-1/2 to 2 pounds. They’re also subject to tropical storms, where fish kills are common.
The coastal marshes are also brackish in that there is a certain level of salinity that varies at certain times of the year. In the spring through early summer, fresh water coming down from the northern states tends to lower the salinity. However, by late summer, salinity increases as southerly winds tend to push gulf waters up into our local bays. And with increased salinity comes redfish and other predator fish.
You’d think a bass, perch or sac-a-lait wouldn’t have a chance. The truth is, these coastal bass live hard and die young. To catch a 5-, 6- or 7-pound bass in the marsh is truly a “big” fish around these parts. Again, these marsh bass live shorter lives.
There’s one trait that these bass have that can make fishing them fun during the late summer. They tend to school up into what I like to refer to as little wolf packs. I’ll make a few trips down to the marsh during August and September and quite often sit in one spot and catch my 10-fish limit.
The bite is usually fast, furious and easy. My late father-in-law once told me when they bite like that all you need to do is cut a piece of your T-shirt and stick it on a hook. “They’ll bite it,” he said.
It can literally be a frenzy. One September my oldest son Jason and I went down to the marsh to work on our deer stands in preparation for the upcoming season. I had a couple fishing poles and my tackle bag in the boat from a previous trip.
We no sooner got into a location canal, when I saw bait popping and shiny streaks flashing near a drain where water was coming out of the marsh. I stopped the boat and grabbed one of the rods that had a 6-inch plastic worm on it and “BAM!,” just like that I had a fish. My son did the same thing on his cast.
That’s when he said, “Uh Dad. Anddd … why do we have to work on stands today?”
We fished that little drain for an hour and took home two limits of bass. What’s more, it didn’t matter what we used for baits. I threw plastic worms, a crank bait and spinner bait. Jason fastened a plastic top water frog, where we watched the water explode when those little marsh bass hit it.
The best time to fish these small bass is on a falling tide. Look for a little trenasse, small bayou, break in a levee, that is draining into a canal or larger bayou with clear water. There may not be the super bite I just described, but you’re going to catch fish. And, you will eventually get on a frenzy at some point.
Carolina- or Texas-rigged plastics work well in the marsh. I happen to like using a Carolina rig. It’s old school, but when fishing drains and marsh edges, where the water depth is anywhere from 2 to 5 feet, it presents the bait in a fashion bass just can’t resist.
Berkley Power Baits are a good choice when it comes to plastic worms. Their 4-inch and 7-inch curl tail Power Worm in a black fire tail is one color that catches marsh bass along with watermelon red. V&M makes a scented J-Bug in their JPros series of plastic baits that will catch bass, particularly in watermelon color. In fact, watermelon red is a go to color in any brand plastic and is a choice you can’t go wrong with when fishing along the coast.
Bomber shallow diving crank baits are an excellent crank bait and good choice when fishing the marsh. Bomber’s Green Shiner and Fire Tiger crank baits are two proven baits worth trying out.
Don’t be afraid to fish the little bass in the late afternoon. I’ve fished the marsh right up until dark when the mosquitos ran me off in past years.
Some of the best fishing is about to start and it doesn’t take a lot of fancy tackle to catch bass in the marsh during the late summer when the bite is on. Like my ole pop-in-law said, it only takes a piece of T-shirt when a wolf pack of bass get into a feeding frenzy.
John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net.