You’re probably using the wrong cork to catch speckled trout

Capt. Dudley Vandenborre said the type of cork most popular with South Louisiana speckled-trout anglers is OK, but he’s discovered a design that’s far more effective.

“In Louisiana, we’re lazy fishermen — there’s no doubt about that — and we all use oval corks,” Vandenborre told the crowd at a seminar Tuesday night in Covington. “I’ve experimented with floats over the years, and a cigar cork is a better cork. It makes a different pop in the water that sounds like a shiner.”

Vandenborre said he’s seen cigar-shaped corks outproduce oval ones too many times to count.

“When Ed (Sexton) and I go down to Venice, we may catch our 50 fish in an hour and half, but we’ll keep fishing from the time the sun gets up to when it goes down in the evening,” Vandenborre said. “The whole rest of the day, we’re just experimenting with stuff.

“A few times, he would use a cigar float, and I would use an oval one. I could throw the oval cork farther, but he’d catch more fish than me with that cigar float. We’d switch up, and I would beat him.”

Capt. Dudley Vandenborre said the type of cork most popular with South Louisiana speckled-trout anglers is OK, but he’s discovered a design that’s far more effective.

“In Louisiana, we’re lazy fishermen — there’s no doubt about that — and we all use oval corks,” Vandenborre told the crowd at a seminar Tuesday night in Covington. “I’ve experimented with floats over the years, and a cigar cork is a better cork. It makes a different pop in the water that sounds like a shiner.”

Vandenborre said he’s seen cigar-shaped corks outproduce oval ones too many times to count.

“When Ed (Sexton) and I go down to Venice, we may catch our 50 fish in an hour and half, but we’ll keep fishing from the time the sun gets up to when it goes down in the evening,” Vandenborre said. “The whole rest of the day, we’re just experimenting with stuff.

“A few times, he would use a cigar float, and I would use an oval one. I could throw the oval cork farther, but he’d catch more fish than me with that cigar float. We’d switch up, and I would beat him.”

Source: NOLA.com