Head to Heavy Cover for Goggle-eye
Keith Lusher 08.22.23
As the August heat bears its full weight on Southeast Louisiana, anglers will take just about anything they can get. With water temperatures in the 90’s, it can be challenging to find fish. much less get them to bite. On my latest adventure on the bayou, I was able to get some tips from someone who targets Goggle-eye AKA Warmouth in August. Spencer Ballard of Mandeville La uses a small flatboat with a trolling motor attached to scoot down Bayou Cane, a shallow tributary that flows into Lake Pontchartrain, a systematically pick off goggle-eye, one-after-another. At first glance, the small bayou may look like a nightmare to fish. Hyacinth floating in duckweed, fallen trees everywhere, and snotgrass growing in just about every part of the canal. But it’s the structure that makes this small waterway one of the best spots to catch goggle-eye.
Ballard uses a 9-foot jigging pole with an ultralight spinning reel to reach over the floating vegetation that stretches about 10 feet out from the shoreline. For line he uses just about anything. “The type of line doesn’t really matter since these fish jump on just about anything that is lowered down in front of them,” he said. For bait, he ties on a 1-inch tube jig on a 1/32 oz. jig head. He uses a thin-wire hook so he can rip it out of the structure when it gets snagged. “The thin hook straightens out when enough pressure is put on the line,” he said. As for the color of the tube jig? Ballard said, “Anything chartreuse! They can’t resist chartreuse. I won’t even try it unless the jig has chartreuse in it!”
When he is targeting goggle-eye Ballard positions his flatboat on the outer edge of the floating grass and carefully lowers his jig down into openings in the duckweed and hydrilla that are floating near the shoreline. “The best spots are the ones with grass floating and branches coming out of the water. They’re almost always in there,” he said. Another thing that the 21-year-old has noticed is that these fish stick to areas of the bayou where there is no current. “I catch 95% of my fish in dead-end canals with the majority coming from the area where the canal ends or is clogged up with grass,” Ballard said. Much like crappie fishing, it takes skill to lower the jig down through the structure. Ballard said goggle-eye are no different except they hold tighter to cover than crappie. “They’re jammed in there and they won’t come out unless you put that jig right in from of them,” he said.
Ballard rarely uses a cork, but when he does, he uses a tiny sliding cork to fit through the openings in the vegetation. It is simpler to lower the sliding cork into small spaces because the cork glides all the way down to the jig head. He advises setting the hook quickly when using a cork. “Right when that cork hits the water, if there’s a goggle-eye there, he’s going to jump on it,” he said.
Ballard is catching between 20-23 goggle-eye per trip using this method. He said August seems to be the best time for catching goggle-eye because the vegetation is thickest right now from growing all summer.
To some fishermen, goggle-eye meat has a bit of a fishy taste. Ballard agrees and recommends brining the fillets after cleaning the fish. He places the fillets in a ziplock bag with a few tablespoons of salt. Then he lets it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours before rinsing them off and freezing them in straight freshwater. The salt extracts any fishy taste that the meat may contain and produces a clean, white, flaky fillet when cooked.
When preparing them, he simply pats the meat dry and sprinkles on some blackening seasoning for flavor. Then he adds them to the hot cast iron pan with a couple of tablespoons of butter. After the fillets are seared he places the fillets into a warm flour tortilla along with cheese, shredded cabbage, and smashed avocado For added seasoning he adds crushed black pepper, salt, and a squeeze of lemon.
Of course, there is always the option to straight up fry the fillets. In that case, he recommends using mustard as a substitute for egg wash. Simply cover the meat with mustard and then toss the fillets in fish fry before tossing them into the fryer.
The goggle-eye bite should continue through August and last until the cold fronts start moving through. And while Bayou Cane offers anglers plenty of structure to find these fish, there are numerous rivers and bayous across Southeast Louisiana for anglers to find goggle-eye hiding in structure.
