By Todd Masson.
In south Louisiana, December fishing is great and horrible.
One of the most iconic opening lines from all of world literature comes from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The British author was comparing and contrasting life in London and Paris, but he might as well have been discussing inshore fishing during the month of December in south Louisiana. This is either the best month of the year, or the absolute worst, and sometimes it’s both. It all depends on the weather.
December is the most bipolar of the months. It can’t decide if it wants to be the most docile of falls or harshest of winters. Many years, local residents wear shorts to Christmas gatherings. Other Decembers are legendarily bitter. Take 1989, for instance. An Arctic blast steamrolled the area that year on Dec. 22, bringing snow and freezing local lakes and bays. Baton Rouge didn’t get above freezing for three days, and recorded a low temperature of 8 degrees F on Dec. 23.
Not exactly prime conditions for throwing soft-plastic baits over grass flats. Fortunately, events like that are the exception, but still, December is an enigmatic month, and local anglers can use its ebbs and flows to follow the fish.
Although the extremes can occur, the more general pattern is for cold fronts to push through once every five days or so, with nighttime lows kissing freezing on the second night after the front. For a day or two, winds will be out of the north, barometric pressure will rise and cold-blooded speckled trout will have the mental capacity of a can of spray cheese. Their brains just don’t work properly in cold conditions, and their bodies barely obey their brains, anyway. They’re like the iguanas in South Florida that fall from trees during cold snaps.
read more at sportfishingmag.com.
