Cool Front Will Bring Wind Shift

By JOE MACALUSO

The crystal ball is whacky. Checked it Wednesday and there was a vision of a cold front moving into south Louisiana over the weekend.

This is July: Cold fronts and south Louisiana aren’t often mentioned in the same sentence this time of year.

The weather forecasters see the same thing: We can expect a shift to westerly winds for the weekend. The last time that happened (July 7) catches dropped off under a 20-knot southwest wind. Let’s pray that doesn’t happen this week.

Weather

Winds will shift from southeast to west tonight and then to northwest at 5-to-10 knots Saturday. Seas will run from calm to 1 foot nearshore and 1-to-2 feet offshore. The moon’s first-quarter phase comes Saturday. The weekend’s light tides will build during the week to July 29′s full moon. Look for temperatures in the 74-to- 90 range with a strong chance of afternoon storms.

Midwest rains brought a rise in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers. Look for a fall from an unusually high 7.0 Mississippi River reading (at New Orleans) and a 3.1 on the Atchafalaya (at Morgan City).

Freshwater

Stay away from the “red” water in the Atchafalaya and there are bluegill, goggle-eye, sac-a-lait and bass for the taking. The river’s rise and slow fall have helped keep the fish from the usual summertime pattern of burying deep in heavy cover. Falling water means moving water and the first order is finding moving water whether it’s from run-outs, on points or around cypress trees and other structure.

Bluegill and goggle-eye are taking crickets near stumps and off- the-bank logs. Use the cloud cover to find sac-a-lait in 2-to-4 foot depths around brushtops. Use tubes on a jig or worked 18-to-20 inches under a cork. Shiners work in brushtops, too.

Bass are taking a wide range of lures, frogs over grass, buzzbaits and floating worms early in the morning, then crankbaits (shad- and bream-colored), spinnerbaits and worms in June Bug and red shad colors. Grand Lake produces in the early morning. After that, find run-outs and points with green-clear or green-murky water. Reports are the murky water is holding more feeding fish.

On the wind shift, moving water across south Louisiana should be easy to find. Where water’s moving, you’ll find catfish. Catfish should be the easy catch in the Spillway and the Belle River, Des Allemands and Pass Manchac areas.

Saltwater

Lighter winds should give us clear water up to the beaches along the Central Coast and on the east side of the Mississippi. The Sandy Point area could be a problem on the westerly winds. Use live croaker or topwaters (She Dog and Zara Spooks) early in the surf.

Reports have live shrimp continuing to produce speckled trout and white trout in the interior bays and lakes. Live croakers work over oysterbeds, shellbeds and around platforms.

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