Working the bayous

In October Capt. Eddie Hernandez says he’s primarily running birds for trout and redfish on Sabine Lake. “If we are not doing that we are up in the bayous on the Louisiana side of the lake. Sometimes the birds will be working in the middle of the bayou. But for the most part we are just beating the banks, bouncing plastics off the bottom, catching redfish mainly.

Blacks Bayou (29.9978, -93.7530), Madame Johnson Bayou (29.8477, -93.7896)

The water depth in the bayous where he catches his fish is usually about one foot.

Running the birds used to be a spring thing, but now mainly a fall thing. Once December gets here, pretty much the bird activity quits until about March. The shrimp are coming out of the marshes and schools of fish are pushing them to the top; the birds are getting them from the top and the fish are getting them from underneath.

Lures or baits… “Normally I keep to a single hook, using soft plastics, although they will hit anything you throw. I’m catching them pretty much every cast. If you are using a treble hook, you have to spend time getting them off the hook. The faster you can get a fish unhooked, you can cast again…stick with a single hook jig head.”

Hernandez uses a 1/4 oz. jig head.
Painted or unpainted? “I use the unpainted, because I buy jig heads in bulk. Most of the time color isn’t going to make a difference.”
Favorite colors…glow or glow with a chartreuse tail, maybe a solid color chartreuse bait.
“The uglier looking water I like to use more natural colored baits; ‘pretty water, pretty bait.’ ”

Concentrate on the edges of the schooling action. When the fish go down, the bigger trout will be down near the bottom. “You can catch more redfish if you let the bait settle deeper.”