Utilizing Locks to Find Moving Water
Keith Lusher 11.25.24
It’s no secret that moving water is the key to finding fish in the marshes along the Gulf Coast. Fishing on days with a wide tidal range outproduce days with a meager tide. But what if you have to fish with the hand you’re dealt with?
Dustin Touchet was fishing in an area in Southeast Louisiana known as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) which is known for producing a wide variety of fish including redfish, trout, and flounder. But it wasn’t the saltwater species that he was interested in, Touchet wanted to catch bass.
Recently, the largemouth bass population has exploded in the brackish marsh areas, and Touchet wanted to see if he could put a few bass in the boat. With the tide range forecasted to be 0.5 feet, he was a little worried that he wouldn’t be able to find any moving water.
His day started slow and after an hour passed with hardly a bite, the bass fisherman knew he was going to have to try and find moving water. Then he thought of a choke point that he knew of that was nearby. It was a set of locks that was installed along the MRGO after Hurricane Katrina swamped the area.
When he arrived he made his way into the narrow lock and found what he was looking for. “The water was pouring through that lock,” he said. Touchet let the water take him through the lock and then he lowered the trolling motor and cruised to the side where there was an eddy.
It was where the rock levee met the wall of the lock. Touchet started throwing a XPS Z-Pop, and on his third cast, a largemouth bass exploded on the lure. Touchet battled the fish and slung it into the boat. It was a 14-inch bass. On his second cast, he latched on to another bass but it made a run along the rocks and popped his line. Touchet frantically searched for another lure and found one.
After tying on the lure he started throwing it along the rocks. Touchet picked up four more bass within a half hour.
Then he decided to fish the other side of the lock. He motored over to find a corner of water tucked between the wall of the dam and a cement-lined shoreline barrier
that slanted into the water. The current coming through the lock formed an eddy in the corner just like he found on the opposite side of the canal. I had a really good feeling when I saw something chasing the baitfish across the surface,” he said.
Touchet was getting bit on almost every cast and finished off his limit within 15 minutes but stayed to catch more. “They were smashing that bait along those rocks,” he said “I caught 15 nice bass, keeping my limit and throwing back the fish over 2 pounds, and it was all because I was able to find that moving water.”
While the bass angler ended up catching a lot of fish, he learned of a spot where he could find moving water, even on days with hardly any tide.
