No luck Thursday but fishing should be great Christmas week
Frank Davis / Fishing Expert

So here it was the Thursday before Christmas. Time for me to do my “ Christmas Weekend” Fishin’ Prediction Show. And I wake up to rain that’s falling in torrents! That’s when the telephone rings. It’s just a few minutes before 6 a.m.

Frank and Kenny are on shore, instead of on the water due to the bad weather, but they assure anglers that Christmas week should be a good one.

"What’s the plan, brother?” Capt. Kenny Kreeger asks from the other end of the line.

"Well, I’m thinking we could get into our foul weather suits, launch at Tite’s, and maybe pick up a few trout, reds, and sheepshead right there at the railroad trestle,” I answered with a hint of reservation in my voice.

“You ain’t been outside yet, huh?” Kreeger continued undaunted. “It’s freakin’ storming at my house!”

“Yeah, but it’s gonna slack off in a little bit...and besides we got good rainsuits!

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VIDEO: Watch the report “It’s blowing, too!” Kreeger added, completely ignoring me.

“So?” I asked.

“So. . .” he mocked, “the water is muddy and the tide’s ripping out of the marsh sucking mud streaks with it and the lake looks like Ovaltine and this morning, Frankie baby, we couldn’t catch pneumonia out there!”

That’s when I knew for sure we weren’t going to do a fishing show today, at least not one from the middle of Lake Pontchartrain.

Actually, it wasn’t difficult for me to accept that decision, because Kenny Kreeger is such a professional fishing guide that he wouldn’t ever blow off a trip, regardless of adversity, if he though for a second that there were fish to be caught and that his charter patrons would be comfortable. But that wasn’t the case this day.

“Lemme tell you what I’m thinking, Frank,” he began his explanation. “We write off today, completely—for all the reasons I cited previously. And then we write off tomorrow too—it’s gonna be almost as bad as today. But mark your calendar and set your clock for Saturday. Saturday’s gonna be a great fishin’ day—the water will have settled out, the fish will be hungry after their two-day diet, the sun will be out, the winds will be gentle, the overall weather will be more than pleasant, and everybody catches.

“Of course, we then get one more crappy weather day Sunday. . .but beginning Christmas morning all the way through the rest of the week, we’ll have some of the best and most productive fishing we’ve had in a long time. You can make book on it!”

Here are the targeted spots Capt. Kreeger (and most of his fellow colleagues) have been focusing on for the past week or so: (A) the east side of the trestle on the north side; (B) the west side of the Highway 11 Bridge on the south side; (C) both the east and west sides of the Twin Spans almost as they come ashore on the south side; and (D) the Intracoastal Waterway, all up and down its length from, say, the Chef all the way to Michoud Slip and the Hot Water Canal.

“Action in these areas is pretty quick,” Kreeger continued. “Bait hits the water. . fish hits the bait. That’s exactly how it works. And while some folks are determined to use live Cocahoes and finger mullets on the bottom, or maybe even tightlining and a straight retrieve, I’m throwing plastics under a chugging cork! Oh—and the Speculizer is tearing up the populations! They can’t seem to resist that rigging!”

And then my favorite Lake Pontchartrain charter guide confided. . .(1) there’s no need to get out early—10 o’clock will do most days; and (2) this kind of fishing is probably going to go on until early Spring. (The words, “Now dat’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout!” just kinda slipped out of my mouth!).

With all this information in mind, then, let’s go back and answer the question that Kreeger asked when I began writing this script.

“The plan is “first you let Christmas come and go; and after that you go fishin’!”

Sounds about right to me!

Until next year, Merry Christmas, y’all!

Frank Davis